Restorative justice

• Restorative justice:

  • a system for dealing with offending behaviour which focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims.
  • This enables an offender to see the impact of their crime and serves to empower the victim by giving them a voice
• Changing the emphasis

  • Historically, a person convicted of a criminal offence would have been regarded as committing a crime against the state
  • In contrast restorative justice programmes switch it to the needs of the individual victim
  • This method seeks to be a healing process, Braithwaite 'crime hurts so justice should heal'
• • Restorative justice is more about 'reparation' (repairing the harm they have caused), rather than 'retribution' (punishment)
  • Restorative justice aims to focus on 2 things
  • victim of the crime and their recovery
  • The offender and their recovery/rehabilitation
• Key features of the programme

  • Trained mediator to supervise meetings
  • Non-courtroom setting where the offender voluntarily meets victim
  • can be face to face or online video
  • victim confronts offender and explains the effect the incident had on them. Enables offender to comprehend the emotional distress caused
  • Important that it is active involvement from both parties
  • Focus on positive outcomes for both
  • Others effected by the crime, family/friends may have a role in the process
• Sentencing and restitution

  • Restorative justice may occur pre trial
  • Can also function alongside a prison sentence or as an alternative to prison
  • Or as an incentive to reduce the length of a sentence
  • In a traditional sense restitution is often seen as a momentary payment by an offender to the survivor for the harm resulting from the offence e.g financial payment for damage caused, or the offender repairing the damage to the property themselves
  • The offender can then help support the healing process of the victim
• Restorative justice council

  • An independent body whose role is to establish clear standards for the use of restorative justice
  • Supports its victims in a specialist professionals field
  • RJC advocates for its use outside of crime, for example preventing and managing conflict in schools, work places etc
• A03: Evidence suggests as positive outcomes(+)

  • Restorative Justice Council reported the results of a major seven year research project
  • 85% of survivors reported satisfaction with the process of meeting the offender face to face
  • 78% would recommend it to other people in a similar situation
  • 60% of the survivors felt the process had made them feel better about the incident enabling them to feel closure
  • only 2% percent said it made them feel worse
  • This suggests restorative justice achieves its aims and helps survivors of crime cope with the incident
• CC: Not all research is positive

  • Researchers argue that restorative processes are not as survivor-focused as often reported in satisfaction surveys.
  • Researchers say that restorative justice processes can become distorted, such as when survivors of crime are used as a way of helping to rehabilitate offenders, rather than being helped themselves
  • This suggests that the needs of the survivor in restorative justice may be seen as secondary to the needed to rehabilitate offenders
• A03: Another strength is that restorative justice does seem to lead to a decrease in rates of recidivism

  • a meta analysis of 10 studies by Strang et al compared offenders who experienced face-to-face restorative justice schemes with those who had just experienced custodial sentencing
  • The restorative justice group was significantly less likely to reoffend, this reduction was larger in offenders convicted of violent crime than property
  • Similarly a review of 24 published studies found lowered recidivism rates with adult offenders especially when using one to one contact with the victim rather than general community involvement
  • This suggests restorative justice has a positive impact on reoffending maybe more so than other approaches
• A03: One limitation of restorative justice is that offenders may abuse the system (-)

  • the success of restorative justice programmes rely on an offender's intentions being honourable, they must be taking part because they genuinely regret the hurt they caused and want to make amends
  • However some researchers have suggested that offenders may use restorative justice for all kinds of reasons; such as avoiding punishment or even taking pride in the affect they had on the victim
  • This will explain why not all offenders benefit from restorative justice and go on to reoffend