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I. Introduction
Restorative justice is an up and coming form of punishment. The United
States has recently begun to incorporate it into the justice system. According to the Department of Justice, there has been growing dissatisfaction in the justice system. “People feel disconnected, victims are dissatisfied, and those working in the
system are frustrated” ( Dept.of Justice 1). As a result, during the last
decade, there have been several new approaches to punishment. Restorative justice
happens to be one of them. Restorative justice focuses on the relationships between
the offenders, victims, and community. It seeks to mend the harm done and in
order to achieve this, often uses community service as reparations and it symbolizes compensation. Many feel that the current punishments ignore the victims and the community (Dept. of Justice 1). It is also felt that the offenders do not feel the full impact of the crime that they
have committed. As a result of this, restorative justice has been found to please
many people because it creates a common ground that accommodates the goals of many (Dept. Of Justice 1).
II. How
It All Began
In 1996, Attorney General Janet Reno gave a speech in which she stated that she felt people were feeling outcast by the justice
system and that she felt the community could come together in order to bring justice to victims and to the community itself. After this, she asked the Office of Justice Programs to explore “… innovative
community-based programs that will improve the justice system and better serve the victims” (Dept. of Justice 2). After this speech, form June 1997 and January 1998, workshops were set up with multidisciplinary
teams to share their experiences in Burlington, Vermont; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Portland, Oregon; and Austin, Texas. From this experience the Department learned that there was much interest in restorative justice throughout
the country (Dept. of Justice 2).
III. Does It Work?
Some of the facilities
that are working with restorative justice have defined it as follows:
“Restorative justice is a philosophical framework which has been proposed as an alternative to the current way of
thinking about crime and criminal justice. RJ emphasizes the ways in which crime harms relationships in the context of community.”
(Minnesota Dept. of Corrections)
“Restorative justice gives priority to repairing the harm done to victims and communities, and offender accountability
is defined in terms of assuming responsibility and taking action to repair harm”. (Pennsylvania Juvenile Court Judges Commission)
“Restorative justice emphasizes the importance of elevating the role of crime victims and community members through
more active involvement in the justice process, holding offenders directly accountable to the people and communities they
have violated, restoring the emotional and material losses of victims, and providing a range of opportunities for dialogue,
negotiation, and problem solving, whenever possible, which can lead to a greater sense of community safety, social harmony,
and peace for all involved”. (Mark Umbreit, U. of Minnesota.
As it is shown many of the facilities that employ restorative justice feel that it is beneficial to the community and
to the victims of the crime. Restorative justice is a way for the offender to understand what he has done and to be shown
the wrongs of it, which is treating him with respect and dignity, reverting back to the retributive theory of punishments. Restorative justice allows for the victims and the community to be healed, unlike
normal punishment which often tries to scare future and potential offenders from committing the same crime. Restorative justice reaches people on a deeper level and allows for a certain level of reconciliation as
well as better understanding of one another and the experiences that crime causes.
IV. The Restorative Justice Movement
As restorative justice
has become better known to people, it has become a central movement over the last few years.
Restorative justice has four values that it follows. They are to encounter,
to make amends, to become reintegrated, and to include people. By encountering
people, restorative justice seeks to create situations for all those who wish to discuss the crime and its aftermath including
the victims, offenders, and community members. Restorative justice also seeks
to make amends by expecting offenders to make steps forward in order to repair what they have done. By reintegrating people, restorative justice helps to restore the victims and offenders as contributing
members of society. The final step seeks to invite those involved in the crime
to help in its resolution (Restorative Justice Online 2).
The
way that restorative justice has expanded its programs and grown over the years are including victim-offender mediation, conferencing,
victim assistance, ex-offender assistance, restitution, and community service.
The fist victim-offender
mediation was an experiment in Kitchner, Ontario
in 1970. This mediation helps to move the offender and victims towards resolution. Victim assistance provides support to legal assistance for the victims and works closely
with victim’s rights groups. Ex-offender assistance is offered in order
to repair the offender. Crime is believed to weaken an individual and this assistance
helps build them back up to contribute to the community. Reparations and community
service are a way for the offender to rebuild his ties with the community and to rebuild himself, to understand what he has
done and to make amends for what he has done.
V. Conclusion
Since restorative justice has been growing over the last decade, many people have seen an improvement in community,
the victims and offenders seem to be recovering better, and overall it seems a better form of punishment. This is because as before, the wrongs that were made now have a way to be made up and people are learning
from this type of punishment because it forces people to realize the impact of crime and take responsibility for the actions
they choose. Victims no longer feel as if they are being ignored and that they
are being repaid for the hurt they were caused. It also strengthens communities
because it draws people together. Restorative justice is a growing field and
continues to draw more interest every day.
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