Restorative justice

• Aim of restorative justice

  Switch the emphasis from the needs of the state (to enforce law and punish) to the needs of the individual victim (to feel compensated in some way)
• 2 focuses of restorative justice

  1. The victim/ survivor
  2. The offender and their recovery / rehabilitation process
• Key Features of restorative justice

  • trained mediator supervises the meeting
  • non-courtroom setting
  • offenders voluntarily meets with survivors
  • face to face or remote
  • allows the survivor to confront the offender and explain how it affected them
  • active involvement of all parties
  • focus on positive outcomes for all
• when would custodial sentencing take place?

  • Pre-trial (offenders involvement many be considered during the sentence)
  • Could function alongside a prison sentence or as an incentive to reduce sentence
• what is restitution

  monetary payment by an offender to the survivor for the harm resulting from the offence

  • may reflect psychological damage caused or actual physical damage
  • may be the offender repairing physical damage themselves
• Strength of restorative justice- leads to a decrease in rates of recidivism

  Meta-analysis of 10 studies by Strang et al. (2013)

  • compared offenders who experienced restorative justice vs custodial sentencing
  • restorative justice group was sig. less likely to reoffend
  • reduction was larger in offenders of violent crimes

  this suggests that restorative justice has a positive impact on reoffending maybe more so for some types of offence than others and some approaches
• Counterpoint to Strength - not all research is overwhelmingly positive

  Wood & Suzuki (2016) argue that restorative justice is not as survivor focused as often reported in satisfaction surveys

  Researchers say that restorative justice can become distorted such as when survivors crimes are used as a way of helping to rehabilitate offenders, rather than being helped themselves

  This suggests that the needs of the survivor may be seen as secondary to the need to rehabilitate offenders
• Limitation of restorative justice- offenders may abuse the system

  The success of restorative justice programmes may hinge on an offenders intentions being honourable - they must be taking part because they genuinely regret the hurt they caused and they want to make amends

  Van Gijseghem (2003) suggest that offenders use restorative justice for all kinds of reasons: avoiding punishment, playing down their faults, taking pride in the relationship with the survivor using direct contact (face to face)