LASO 204 Final Q2

• Essay introduction

  Retributive and restorative forms criminal justice, while both having the same purpose of addressing the wrongdoings in society, each pursues a different approach, having a different set of advantages and disadvantages. However, in this essay, I'll argue that in extremely harmful incidents of crimes, restorative justice should not be used
• Essay - Restorative Justice 1 Drawing on Mekel-Meadows

  • Focuses on repairing harm caused by criminal acts and promoting healing and reconciliation among parties involved
• Essay - Restorative Justice 2 Drawing on Mekel-Meadows

  • Offenders are given the opportunity to acknowledge responsibility, express remorse, and repair the harm they've caused
  • Involves taking practical steps to address the consequences of their actions and expressing genuine admission of faults
• Essay - Restorative Justice 3 Drawing on Mekel-Meadows

  • Victims/survivors are provided a platform to voice their experiences, receive compensation and directly participate in decision making process
  • Opportunity to speak directly to their offender, and have them acknowledge and hear their perspective
  • Community involvement plays a central role, fostering a sense of belonging and support for both offenders and victims
• Essay - Retributive Justice 4

  • Centres on punishing offenders and deterring crime, emphasizing the requirement of structured measures
  • Goal is to hold offenders accountable, with little emphasis on their perspective or underlying causes
  • Crime is seen as an offence against society, rather than the victim itself
  • Often leaving victims without compensation or a way of healing
  • Relies on standardized procedures and clear standards of justice
  • aims to ensure consistency and fairness
  • The predictability of punishment also deters potential criminals
• Essay - Advantage of Restorative 1.1 - Drawing from menkel meadows

  • Emphasis on healing and reconciliation, which can promote the emotional and psychological well-being of victims, along with community support
  • Done through healing circles or peace conferences, which aim to create a safe and supportive space for both offenders and victims
  • Community members are also invited into these spaces
• Essay - Advantage of Restorative 1.3

  • By including all these perspectives and experiences,
  • the conferences promote an understanding for all members of the harm caused and the future steps
  • Creates a collective responsibility of all members to play an active role in supporting the victims and offenders
  • guidance, resources, facilitate healing
• Essay - Advantage of Restorative 1.4

  • By including all these perspectives and experiences
  • Community members are able to hear the underlying causes of crime, address the systemic issue and seek feasible solutions
  • Helps reintegrate offender into the community as their perspective was heard and acknowledge as well
  • Having community present reaffirms their supporting position
  • Offender isn't isolated
• Essay - Advantage of Restorative 1.5

  • Having an emphasis on healing the victim, the offender, and the community, are able to ensure a common understanding and responsibility among members for each perspective and the underlying causes
• Essay - Restorative Justice Disadvantage/drawbacks 1.1 - Menkel Meadows Highlights

  • Restorative justice should not be extended to all offenders and all crimes
• Essay - Restorative Justice Disadvantage/drawbacks 1.2

  • He highlights the feminist perspective, and how restorative justice may be used to contribute to the decriminalization of violence against women, as offenders may seek lesser punishments or no incarceration
  • The leniency in restorative justice may undermine effort to hold perpetrators accountable and protect them from further harm
  • In this sense, crimes in which accountability is particularly important or significant, restorative justice should not be extended
• Essay - Restorative Justice Disadvantage/drawbacks 1.3

  • Following this idea, while restorative justice aims to address the needs and concerns of victims, some individuals may find the process insufficient in providing closure or healing
  • They may feel that the emphasis on communication and reconciliation may overlook a need an acknowledgement of harm through punishment or punitive measures
  • Moreover, the punishment proposed by restorative justice processes may not appropriately match the severity of the crime committed as the offender may avoid meaningful accountability
• Essay - Restorative Justice Disadvantage/drawbacks 1.4

  • As restorative justice processes are often not harshly punitive, offenders may void meaningful accountability for their acts, impeding the victims' healing process
  • In this sense, restorative justice shouldn't be extended onto severe crimes, where accountability is particularly significant
• Essay - Retributive Justice Advantage 1.1

  • Retributive justice processes are clear and predictable, ensuring legal accountability and victim satisfaction
• Essay - Retributive Justice Advantage 1.2

  • Processes rely on well established legal frameworks and standardized procedures to determine guilt and administer punishment
  • Clear guidelines for evaluating evidence, assessing culpability and determining appropriate punishment
• Essay - Retributive Justice Advantage 1.3

  • Having punishments curated based on the crime alone, rather than root causes or potential offender influences ensure legal accountability
  • This not only fortifies the legitimacy of these processes, as punishment will be applied fairly and consistently
  • But it assures victim satisfaction
• Essay - Retributive Justice Advantage 1.4

  • Victims may find validation and closure in witnessing their offenders being held accountable through punishment
  • Seeing offenders face consequences for their actions can provide victims with a sense of acknowledgement of the harm that has occurred and that they've endured
  • Validation can facilitate healing for victim and a sense of satisfaction
• Essay - Retributive Justice Advantage 1.5

  • In this sense, this assurance of legal accountability and satisfaction for victims, ensures retributive's justice ability to process more significant and severe crimes, unlike restorative justice
• Essay - Retributive Justice Disadvantage 1.1

  • Retributive processes often prioritize punishing offenders, rather than addressing underlying factors that have contributed to their criminal behaviour
  • Critics argue that punishment alone fails to address underlying issues, like poverty, mental illness, or trauma, which are often significant drivers of criminal activity
• Essay - Retributive Justice Disadvantage 1.2

  • Unlike Restorative justice, which gives offenders an opportunity to communicate underlying factors and influences, retributive justice focuses on swift punishment
  • Without this opportunity, offenders may be stigmatized or isolated, making it more difficult for them to reintegrate into society
• Essay - Retributive Justice Disadvantage 1.3

  • The quick dismissal of an offenders perspective, will result in a cycle of neglect towards underlying causes of crime
  • In this context, restorative justice is seemingly more beneficial, as it creates a collective responsibility for the community to acknowledge underlying criminal causes and tackle it moving forward
• Essay - Conclusion

  • Following these ideas, I believe that restorative justice should not be extended onto all crimes.
  • Crimes were accountability is of importance or significance, specifically in more severe crimes, should go through retributive processes only.
• Essay - Conclusion

  • Otherwise, victims will lack a sense of acknowledgement for the harm done to them and offenders may avoid meaningful accountability for their crimes.
  • However, by allowing lower-level crimes to be conducted through restorative justice, I believe we'll be able to take advantage of its ability to highlight underlying causes of crime, ridding of the cycle.