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Restoring Justice: An Introduction to Restorative Justice: Fifth Edition
Abstract
Restoring Justice: An Introduction to Restorative Justice, Fifth Edition, offers a clear and convincing explanation of restorative justice, a movement within criminal justice with growing worldwide influence. It explores the broad appeal of this new vision and offers a brief history of its development. The book presents a theoretical foundation for the principles and values of restorative justice and develops its four cornerpost ideas of encounter, amends, inclusion and reintegration. After exploring how restorative justice ideas and values may be integrated into policy and practice, it presents a series of key issues commonly raised about restorative justice, summarizing various perspectives on each.
... Rehabilitation identifies and treats problems that underlie offenders' criminal behaviour to try to prevent these risk factors from causing them to reoffend. Rehabilitation programmes are therefore helpful in identifying underlying problems that lead to criminal behaviour (van Ness & Strong, 2014). Incapacitation literally prevents offenders from reoffending in society, as they are incarcerated and thus taken out of society. ...
... Also, having a criminal track record can result in lower employment rates later in life (Apel & Sweeten, 2010). A fourth deficiency to put forward is that, although the conventional criminal justice system addresses underlying causes of criminal behaviour, it fails to address injuries that were suffered (van Ness & Strong, 2014). As van Ness and Strong (2014) put it: 'Crime is not simply lawbreaking; it also causes injury to others ' (p. ...
... Although many people have not heard of it, restorative justice is an established way of dealing with crimes and conflicts. It existed long before our conventional criminal justice system (Claessen, 2023;van Ness & Strong, 2014;Zehr, 2015). As explained earlier, it was only around 1200 that the state started intervening in criminal conflicts. ...
The working mechanisms of the victim-offender mediation process: how might participation explain psychological outcomes in offenders?
Previous research shows that participation in victim-offender mediation (VOM) predicts psychological outcomes in offenders – such as increased responsibility-taking and victim empathy. However, little is known about elements that might contribute to these outcomes. We hypothesised that adhering to three fundamental conditions of VOM (perceived voluntary participation, preparation, professional competencies of mediators) and three working mechanisms (learning opportunity, humanising impact, a positive and constructive atmosphere and interaction with victims) would relate positively to the occurrence of these outcomes. In addition, we expected the fundamental conditions to either moderate the association between the working mechanisms and the psychological outcomes or to directly predict the presence of the working mechanisms. To examine this, we used quantitative (n = 55) and qualitative data (n = 9) of offenders and mediators, respectively, who participated in VOM. Results offered partial support for the hypotheses. Three groups of working mechanisms of the VOM process were related to psychological outcome variables: the perceived degree of a positive and constructive atmosphere and interaction with victims, humanising impact, and offering a learning process. The prevalence of the fundamental conditions, preparation and mediators’ professional competencies correlated positively with multiple working mechanisms; the perceived voluntary participation showed expected and unexpected associations with working mechanisms.
... Mediation is an alternative procedure that offers the possibility to the offender and the victim to resolve their cases based on their own informed choices, without having a judge decide for them. It is grounded in the belief that conflict may offer both to offender and the victim an opportunity to be built as stronger individuals, develop more satisfying relationship, and overall create better communities ( Van Ness and Strong 2014;McCorkle and Reese 2019). Zwier and Guernsey (2016) consider that there are many theories in which strategies in the negotiations can be build, such as economic theory, gender differences, international politics, social phycology, or problem solving theory. ...
... Mediation is applied to both civil and criminal matters. Numerous studies highlight that mediation programs result in repairing the damage caused by a crime, reducing the fear of victimization and post-traumatic stress among victims, making the victims feel fulfilled and credible, holding the perpetrators accountable, reducing the number of filings, trials, and convictions in court, and preventing similar damage occurring in the future (Charkoudian et al. 2021;Gerkin et al. 2017;Johnstone 2012;Moran 2017;Poulson 2007; Van Ness and Strong 2014;Suzuki and Yuan 2021). Further, a study conducted to understand whether recidivism in mediated cases differs from cases prosecuted as usual in the subsequent year found that mediated cases were almost five times less likely to return to criminal court compared to those that were not mediated (Charkoudian et al. 2021). ...
As a new alternative, mediation is integrated in the legislation of both developed and developing countries in Europe. Various researchers in member states of the Council of Europe revealed obstacles, particularly related to the implementation of mediation in criminal matters. They are addressed through several recommendations and non-binding guidelines. However, there is limited empirical research on how mediation in criminal matters is being implemented in the contexts of developing countries in south-eastern Europe. Hence, the purpose of this qualitative study is to assess mediation in criminal matters in Kosovo by exploring how the main stakeholders describe the legal basis and implementation process and what it indicates for future practices. The data were gathered through 11 semi-structured interviews with judges, prosecutors, mediation clerks, and mediators. Results show that laws and other guidelines that have been introduced since 2008 constitute a solid legal ground that facilitates mediation in criminal matters. The stakeholders are well aware of the benefits mediation brings and express their willingness to advance its application to criminal matters. Results also indicate uncertainty among judges and prosecutors regarding the assessment and referral of certain criminal offences to mediation. To address it, specialized trainings, exchange programs, and continuous monitoring and evaluation of the process could be supportive.
... The western paradigm of RJ created a foundation closely tied to the criminal legal system (Van Ness and Strong, 2015). RJ in practice was attempting to create a new paradigm, while also conforming to the limitations of the existing criminal legal system Van Ness and Strong, 2015). ...
... The western paradigm of RJ created a foundation closely tied to the criminal legal system (Van Ness and Strong, 2015). RJ in practice was attempting to create a new paradigm, while also conforming to the limitations of the existing criminal legal system Van Ness and Strong, 2015). This relationship has been contentious and debated since its inception, with some advocating for a complimentary relationship (O'Mahony & Doak, 2017;Roche, 2003) and others arguing that the two are incompatible (Breton, 2012;Cohen, 2019). ...
... Sprawiedliwość naprawcza ma na celu zaspokajanie potrzeb (uzdrowienie) osób pokrzywdzonych, naprawianie szkód wyrządzonych przez sprawców, zaspokajanie potrzeb wspólnoty w zakresie bezpieczeństwa oraz reintegrację sprawców i ofiar ze społecznością, przy jej aktywnym wsparciu (Zehr 1990;Sullivan, Tifft 2008;Van Ness, Strong 2015;Derby 2021). W sprawiedliwości naprawczej dąży się więc do zaangażowania trzech czynnych stron, tj. ...
Sprawiedliwość naprawcza (RJ), pomimo prężnego rozwoju na świecie, w Polsce jest zagadnieniem niszowym. Wpływ RJ na poszczególne osoby w niej uczestniczące jest od lat szeroko badany. Jednocześnie stosunkowo niedawno zaczęto eksplorować zagadnienie, jak właściwie działają spotkania naprawcze, co ma umożliwić takie ich projektowanie, aby przynosiły jak najlepsze rezultaty. W artykule podejmuję te właśnie kwestie. Omawiam i konfrontuję z badaniami teorią reintegrującego zawstydzania, sprawiedliwości proceduralnej oraz koncepcją gotowości w kontekście sprawiedliwości naprawczej. Analizuję, w jaki sposób te teorie wzajemnie na siebie oddziałują, co ma na celu ukazanie czynników wpływających na wyniki spotkań naprawczych, w tym mediacji. Na podstawie dokonanej syntezy wskazuję kluczowe obszary dla rozwoju praktyki mediacji w Polsce.
Restorative justice (RJ), despite its thriving development worldwide, remains a niche issue in Poland. The impact of RJ on individuals participating in it has been widely studied for years. Simultaneously , exploration into how restorative meetings actually work has only recently begun, aiming to design them to produce the best possible results. In this article, I address these very issues. I discuss and confront research on the theory of reintegrative shaming, procedural justice and concepts of readiness in the context of restorative justice. I analyze how these theories interact with each other, aiming to highlight the factors that influencing the outcomes of restorative meetings, including mediations. Based on the synthesis, I identify key areas for the development of the practice in Poland.
... Restorative justice programs offer an alternative approach to traditional punitive measures within the criminal justice system. These programs prioritize repairing the harm caused by crime, promoting accountability, and facilitating healing for all parties involvedvictims, offenders, and communities (Van Ness & Strong, 2015). Unlike conventional punitive measures that focus solely on punishment and isolation, restorative justice emphasizes dialogue, empathy, and collaborative problem-solving. ...
Purpose: This study sought to assess the efficacy of restorative justice programs in reducing recidivism rates. Methodology: The study adopted a desktop research methodology. Desk research refers to secondary data or that which can be collected without fieldwork. Desk research is basically involved in collecting data from existing resources hence it is often considered a low cost technique as compared to field research, as the main cost is involved in executive’s time, telephone charges and directories. Thus, the study relied on already published studies, reports and statistics. This secondary data was easily accessed through the online journals and library. Findings: The findings reveal that there exists a contextual and methodological gap relating to restorative justice programs in reducing recidivism rates. Preliminary empirical review revealed that restorative justice interventions were effective in reducing reoffending and promoting positive outcomes for both offenders and victims. Through processes such as victim-offender mediation and family group conferencing, restorative justice provided opportunities for offenders to take responsibility, repair harm, and engage in rehabilitation. While acknowledging variations in effectiveness based on offender characteristics and program implementation, the study highlighted the importance of continued investment in restorative justice initiatives to create a more just and equitable criminal justice system. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Labeling theory, Social Learning theory and Routine Activities theory may be used to anchor future studies on restorative justice programs in reducing recidivism rates. The study offered recommendations that contributed to theoretical advancements, practical improvements, and policy developments in the field. It emphasized the importance of exploring underlying mechanisms, standardized training for practitioners, and integration of restorative principles into mainstream criminal justice policies. These recommendations were aimed at enhancing the effectiveness and sustainability of restorative justice interventions in promoting positive outcomes for victims, offenders, and communities.
... El vínculo entre meditación y perdón se fundamenta en la MMC, comprendiendo la relación entre mente, cuerpo y espíritu. El perdón, analizado en relación con la JR y la TJ, busca transformar paradigmas tradicionales, priorizando la reparación, la reconciliación y el bienestar emocional (Van Ness y Strong, 2015;Wexler, 2014). ...
Intersecciones entre la medicina mente cuerpo, la justicia restaurativa y terapéutica: desde la meditación hasta el perdón Sumarios Este trabajo aborda la medicina mente cuerpo, la meditación, el perdón y los modelos de justicia restaurativa y terapéutica. Se explica que la medicina mente-cuerpo se enfoca en la conexión entre la mente y el cuerpo, reconociendo la influencia de factores emocionales y mentales en la salud. Asimismo, la meditación, como parte de las técnicas mente-cuerpo, se destaca por su capacidad para reducir el estrés y cultivar cualidades como la compasión y el perdón. Por otro lado, el perdón se examina como un proceso terapéutico que puede promover la sanación emocional y la reconciliación; de igual forma, se resalta la importancia de abordar el perdón como un proceso gradual y personal, evitando imposiciones. Además, se exploran los modelos de justicia restaurativa y terapéutica, que buscan una justicia más humana y restaurativa, donde el perdón puede desempeñar un papel crucial en los procesos judiciales. Al analizar la interconexión entre estos conceptos, se busca mostrar la relevancia de una visión interdisciplinar, sugiriendo que la meditación puede facilitar el perdón al modificar patrones cognitivos y emocionales, y que, a su vez, puede tener efectos terapéuticos profundos al promover la curación de víctimas, victimarios y sociedad en general dentro del sistema judicial.
... While the criminology field has witnessed an explosion of theoretical development and testing during the last several decades, surprisingly, Braithwaite's RST has drawn relatively limited empirical attention. Although numerous studies address RST's policy implications and applications in restorative justice (Braithwaite, 2002;van Ness & Strong, 2014;von Hirsch et al., 2003;Zehr, 2015), only a moderate body of empirical research has attempted to assess the major theoretical underpinnings of RST. A few of them test RST at the macro-level (Baumer et al., 2002;Schaible & Hughes, 2011), while the others examine its micro-social process. ...
Compared with other mainstream criminological theories, Reintegrative Shaming Theory (RST) draws insufficient empirical evaluations. Given RST’s unique attention to non-Western societies and the significance of shaming in Chinese society, China provides a strategic setting for RST’s empirical assessment. Utilizing a Chinese youth sample, this study explores the association between interdependency and the probability of wrongdoing, and the mediating role of perceived shame. We find that strong school attachment is directly associated with the reduced likelihood of wrongdoing, and indirectly via perceived shame. The effects of family and neighborhood attachments on perceived shame and the probability of wrongdoing are insignificant. The results lend partial support to RST and highlight the essential role of school in children’s development in the Chinese context.
... Expiation is based on restitution with input from victims and offender(s) (Daniel and Strong, 2010). Zehr is the first to explain the theory in 2005, and he provides an alternative framework for thinking about crime and justice (Done, 2008). ...
The prevalence of cybercrime perpetration in Nigeria and to the world at large is said to be worrisome as victims of cybercrime have lost their personal belongings to this menace. However, the criminal justice system which is to provide justice for victims of cybercrime and also to serve as a deterrence to supposed criminals, have not been able to discourage its practices. Several person(s) has fallen prey to cybercrime activities as about 73% of cyber space users have fallen victim of cybercrime. Thus, victims of cybercrime will always be faced with cyber fraudsters and therefore, arise the need to redress this menace. This study focus on; the conceptualization of the concepts, crime theory, theory of punishment, principles for theory of punishment, distinguishing punitive and expiatory system, theories of crimes and punishment, expiation theory of punishment, assumption of expiation theory, application of expiation theory on cybercrime, and conclusion and recommendation. Secondary source of data collection was adopted for this study. The study concluded that the act of expiation enables offenders, victims and the criminal justice system to participate in a process which could help them and heal the damage caused by their offences. The offenders basically attempt to fix the harm they have done by apologizing and restituting. In expiation theory, victims of cybercrime, cybercriminals and the criminal justice system finds a way to restore or make amends for the harm resulting from the offense. It therefore recommends expiation theory promote the process of helping and repairing the harm caused by cybercrime and facilitates community reconciliation.
... Restorative practices can be traced to indigenous conceptions and traditions of justice that value human dignity and respect, emphasize healing and accountability, and strive to repair relationships and promote safer communities (Van Ness & Strong, 2014). Restorative practices utilize dialogical and relational pedagogies to orient the wrongdoer with the person or people harmed to humanize the injury committed and emphasize justice and forgiveness (Gregory & Evans, 2020;Pranis, 2007;Strelan et al., 2011). ...
Increases in student experiences with social and mental health, acts of violence, and the school-to-prison nexus have prompted many schools to evaluate alternatives to safety that are equitable, inclusive, and student and family-centered. Punitive approaches to school safety have been shown to disproportionately affect underserved schools and students, especially racially- and ethnically-minoritized students, students with disabilities, LGBTQ + students, and students of low socioeconomic status. Building on an equity-based framework, we reviewed the literature on school safety alternatives that promote a safe, inclusive campus and foster students' overall wellbeing. In our scoping review, we identified 17 alternatives aligned with the equity-based framework. We then used an integrative review to organize these alternatives into four approaches: Equity and Inclusion, Social-psychological, Community-based, and Self-governance. Research findings of these approaches support the adoption of programs and practices across these four areas to enhance students’ overall well-being and provide an equitable and safe environment for all within the school community.
... Restorative justice (RJ) is practised in many jurisdictions for various pur poses ranging from conflict resolution in schools and rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders to reconciliation of system-wide offences during a post-civil war/political conflict period 5 Van Ness and Strong, 2014;. However, there is no single accepted definition of RJ or a unique theory from which it has arisen (Van Ness and Strong, 2014; . ...
... This is in contrast to an approach which defines crime solely as violations against the government, and whose aim is prevention of crime through rehabilitation, incapacitation, and prevention. (Ness & Strong, 2009). ...
This research intends to analyze the existence of restorative justice and penal mediation in the Indonesian criminal justice system and to analyze the scope of the concept of restorative justice and penal mediation in the Indonesian criminal justice system. The research method used, normative juridical, is library law research which is carried out by examining library materials or secondary data sourced from primary, secondary, and tertiary legal materials. The research results obtained are the existence of restorative justice and penal mediation in the Indonesian Criminal Justice System. Number 11 of 2012 concerning the Juvenile Criminal Justice System. Restorative justice is a design of criminal justice that pays for the interests or needs of victims of victims, families and affected communities on the basis of the accountability of the perpetrators of criminal acts. So that it is necessary to strengthen the normative framework as a law enforcement effort from restorative justice to make law, both in a narrow formal sense and in a broad material sense, a guideline for behavior in every legal act, both by the legal subjects concerned and by law enforcement officials who are officially given the task and authority by law. Therefore, a rule that has legal certainty regarding restorative justice should be designed by a sovereign institution so that it has legal certainty. This is regulated in the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia Article 20 paragraph (1) that "The House of Representatives Holds the Power to form Laws".
... Restorative justice is becoming popular in most countries in the world to revive the victim's role in criminal settlement (Zehr 2004;Gavrielides 2018;Ness and Strong 2014). In Asia and Africa, restorative justice is claimed to have nexus with customary law (Liu, Jou, and Hebenton 2013;Hand, Hankes, and House 2012;Anderson 1998). ...
... While engagement is a value, not all restorative justice practices involve dialogue between a victim and the person who harmed them. Practices can range from being fully restorative to only partially restorative (Van Ness & Strong, 2015;Zehr, 2015) and can engage with just individuals, two or more people interpersonally, or with the wider community (Toews, 2006). The implication is that restorative justice can be applied in as many different ways as there are people and unique harms and needs, as long as the process is consistent with restorative goals and values. ...
... Specific outcomes such as victim satisfaction are complex and multiple factors may be at play which no single theory can explain outright ( Van Camp and Wemmers 2013). Common principles, general guidelines, and commitments underpinned by values have developed separate RJ processes and outcomes from the criminal justice system (Doolin 2007;Anfara et al. 2013; Van Ness and Strong 2015). Research has identified that practitioners understand the work they are doing encompasses both practice and values (Anfara et al. 2013), of which encounter, amends, reintegration, and inclusion are considered 'cornerstone' values ( Van Ness and Strong 2015, p. 49). ...
This paper is a qualitative documentary analysis of six restorative justice reporting templates used by the Offices of the Police and Crime Commissioner in England for collecting restorative justice service data. Findings identify differences in the following areas: general presentation and format of templates; types of data recorded; areas of interest; definitions and use of descriptive language; methods and timing for counting data; and interpretation of restorative justice processes and outcomes. Conclusions highlight the need to standardise definitions and methods, outlining potential pitfalls when using data to draw further conclusions when equivalency is problematic, and further research avenues that could illuminate the use of data to evidence effectiveness, efficiency, impact and success.
... Problematically, poor communication may impede opportunities for positive outcomes at all points of contact through the justice system, from arrest through to incarceration and beyond (Anderson et al., 2016;LaVigne & Van Rybroek, 2011;Sowerbutts et al., 2021;Willis & Hoyle, 2022; see Fig. 1), including effective participation in other prison-based rehabilitation programs and restorative justice. Restorative justice is a verbally mediated process involving parties affected by an offence with the aim of coming to a mutually beneficial resolution (Van Ness & Strong, 2014). Participation in this process requires especially good receptive and expressive language skills, and socioemotional and linguistic competence (Winstanley et al., 2019). ...
El presente trabajo cuantitativo es explicativo observacional con tres variables, una independiente que es la justicia juvenil restaurativa, otra dependiente que es la reinserción social y una tercera que es la interviniente que es la músico terapia. Teniendo una población de 1777 y una muestra de 317 participantes, se aplicó la estadística descriptiva y la inferencial, para saber que tanto la músico terapia puede afectar a los adolescentes que han quebrantado la ley penal y permitir que se reinserten en la sociedad mediante la justicia restaurativa. Se aplicó la prueba d de Somers ya que las variables son categóricas ordinales, siendo los resultados en cuanto a su p-valor igual a ,000 por lo que se aceptó la conjetura del investigador.
Restorative justice is often understood as a form of approach in resolving a criminal case involving the perpetrator, victim, and other parties such as family, or the community and does not focus on imprisonment, but rather on restoring the victim's condition after the crime has occurred. The Indonesian government has implemented restorative justice in the criminal justice system. Explicitly, restorative justice is stated in Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 11 of 2012 concerning the Juvenile Criminal Justice System and Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia National Police Number 8 of 2021 concerning Handling of Criminal Acts based on Restorative Justice, recorded in the State Gazette of the Republic of Indonesia in 2021 Number 947. This study aims to determine the model of approach and inhibiting factors in the application of restorative justice in resolving criminal cases. This research is an empirical legal research. The data collection technique was by interviewing informants, and the data analysis used was qualitative analysis. The results of the study show: (1) The restorative justice approach has been implemented at the Kupang City Police by paying attention to values and based on the Pancasila ideology. (2) The implementation of restorative justice in the police is carried out in two models, namely victim offender meeting and Conferencing. (3) the implementation of restorative justice in the police found 3 inhibiting factors, namely legal factors, law enforcement factors themselves and community factors.
Restorative practice is a social science that studies how to mend broken relationships or strengthen weakened relationships between individuals, communities, or countries. Restorative justice is a criminal justice response to crime and wrongdoing and is diametrically opposed to retributive justice, which is society’s existing response to crime. While retributive justice treats crime as a violation of law, requiring punishment, restorative practice treats criminal activity as a violation of people, requiring the wrongdoer (the offender) to accept responsibility and take steps to heal the relationship. In this way, the focus is on the needs of the victim while holding the offender accountable. The process allows each party to have a role in deciding how best to heal the relationship. Restorative practice is not meant to replace traditional criminal justice. In fact, to be truly effective, restorative processes and principles must be embedded into and operate within traditional criminal justice systems.
Restorative justice is often understood as a form of approach in resolving a criminal case involving the perpetrator, victim, and other parties such as family, or the community and does not focus on imprisonment, but rather on restoring the victim's condition after the crime has occurred. The Indonesian government has implemented restorative justice in the criminal justice system. Explicitly, restorative justice is stated in Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 11 of 2012 concerning the Juvenile Criminal Justice System and Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia National Police Number 8 of 2021 concerning Handling of Criminal Acts based on Restorative Justice, recorded in the State Gazette of the Republic of Indonesia in 2021 Number 947. This study aims to determine the model of approach and inhibiting factors in the application of restorative justice in resolving criminal cases. This research is an empirical legal research. The data collection technique was by interviewing informants, and the data analysis used was qualitative analysis. The results of the study show: (1) The restorative justice approach has been implemented at the Kupang City Police by paying attention to values and based on the Pancasila ideology. (2) The implementation of restorative justice in the police is carried out in two models, namely victim offender meeting and Conferencing. (3) the implementation of restorative justice in the police found 3 inhibiting factors, namely legal factors, law enforcement factors themselves and community factors.
The relevance of the proposed study is due to the existing problems of the institution of conciliation in the criminal proceedings of the Russian Federation.
At the same time, no detailed legal regulation of the conciliation mechanism in the CPC of the Russian Federation significantly reduces the effectiveness of law enforcement through using alternatives to criminal prosecution. As a result, there is a need to find new effective ways to resolve criminal law disputes allowing for the full restoration of the rights of victims of crime. One of these methods is mediation procedure, which contributes to resolving criminal law conflicts in an extremely constructive and mutually beneficial way for both sides of the dispute with the help of an independent third party (mediator). This procedure is reflected in the concept of restorative justice.
The purpose of the study is to determine the theoretical background of the institution of conciliation in criminal proceedings on the basis of a historical, legal and comparative analysis of its procedures, as well as to identify the issues related to law enforcement. In this regard, the proposed paper examines a well-established mechanism for the settlement of criminal law conflicts in western legal systems.
This mechanism provides for a special subject of conciliation – a mediator possessing professionalism, independence and impartiality. The paper substantiates the reason of introducing the institution of mediation into domestic criminal proceedings, proposes its functional and legal model providing for a range of crimes with possible conciliation, the stages of its implementation, as well as requirements for mediators as candidates. The paper extensively uses comparative legal method helping to determine the prerequisites for introducing the institute of mediation in the Russian criminal procedure legislation as an independent form of resolution of criminal law conflicts. The Authors come to the following conclusions: It is advisable to update the provision of Article 25 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation and codify the concept of mediation as “a way to resolve a criminal conflict used with the voluntary consent of the victim and the offender with the help of an impartial third party” and the conditions for its application. It is necessary to legislate a new impartial and independent party in criminal proceedings – a mediator who will act as a third party in the mediation, exclusively on a professional basis. Moreover, the Federal Law “On Alternative Dispute Settlement with the Help of Mediator (Mediation)” dated July 27, 2010 No. 193-FZ needs to be edited in terms of extending mediation to criminal law relations, which will allow conflicting parties to resort to this procedure. In particular, amendments to this law should concern the requirements of a professional mediator, including those involved in criminal proceedings.
Artykuł ma na celu omówienie idei, założeń oraz modeli i form sprawiedliwości naprawczej, wraz z próbą ich systematyzacji oraz poszukiwaniem wspólnych cech dla całego ruchu sprawiedliwości naprawczej, obejmującego wiele sfer życia społecznego. W tym celu wyjaśniony został wyjątkowy sposób traktowania przestępczości i innych zachowań dewiacyjnych w tym podejściu. Następnie skonfrontowane zostały poglądy na temat idei, zasad i celów sprawiedliwości naprawczej. Na tej podstawie wskazuje, że mediacja nie powinna być utożsamiana ze sprawiedliwością naprawczą, ponieważ nie zaspokaja potrzeb wszystkich aktorów – osób pokrzywdzonych, sprawcy oraz wspólnoty. W drugiej części artykułu zostały opisane i usystematyzowane różne formy sprawiedliwości naprawczej. The article aims to discuss the ideas, assumptions, models and forms of restorative justice. Along with an attempt to systematize them and look for common features across the restorative justice movement, which covers many spheres of social life. To this end, the unique way in which crime and other deviant behavior are treated in this approach is explained. Next, views on the ideas, principles and goals of restorative justice are confronted. On this basis, it argues that mediation should not be equated with restorative justice, since it does not meet the needs of all actors – the victim, the offender and the community. In the second part of the article, the various forms of restorative justice were described and systematized.
Funders of research have an opportunity to advance health equity and social justice by incorporating principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) in their approach to grantmaking. We conducted a pragmatic review to identify opportunities for grantmakers in the health care sector to integrate DEIJ in their funding activities. The resulting framework discusses recommendations within three phases as follows: (1) Organizational Context (i.e., initiate DEIJ efforts within the grantmaking organization, invest in community partnerships, and establish DEIJ goals), (2) Grantmaking Process (i.e., DEIJ-specific practices related to grant design, application, proposal review processes, and support for grantees), and (3) Assessment of Process and Outcomes (i.e., measurement, evaluation, and dissemination to maximize impact of DEIJ efforts). Throughout all grantmaking phases, it is critical to partner with and engage individuals and communities that have been historically marginalized in health care and research. In this article, we describe how adoption of framework practices can leverage grantmaking to advance DEIJ for communities, researchers, and projects.
Traditional law enforcement often focuses on punishing perpetrators without regard to restoring victims and damaged social relationships. Restorative Justice (RJ) has emerged as an alternative that emphasizes restoring victim harm, offender responsibility, and repairing social relationships. Sukoharjo Regency implemented RJ to resolve criminal cases more humanistically and efficiently. This study aims to analyze the implementation of RJ in handling criminal cases at Sukoharjo Police, evaluate its compliance with Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and assess public views on this approach. This research used a qualitative method type empirical juridical. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with police officers, victims, perpetrators, and community leaders, as well as analysis of official documents such as police reports and related regulations. The results showed that the implementation of RJ at Sukoharjo Regency was largely in accordance with the established SOPs. The mediation process is conducted transparently and involves all relevant parties. The community generally has a positive view of RJ, considering it a fairer and more efficient way to resolve criminal cases. However, there are several obstacles, such as limited trained human resources and a lack of public understanding of the RJ concept. RJ implementation at Sukoharjo District Police has successfully achieved the goals of recovery and restorative justice, although there is still room for improvement. Increased education and socialization to the community is needed, as well as additional training for police personnel to become more effective mediators. Sukoharjo Police are advised to increase RJ socialization programs, provide ongoing training for officers, and strengthen coordination with community leaders to support more optimal RJ implementation. Penegakan hukum tradisional seringkali berfokus pada penghukuman pelaku tanpa memperhatikan pemulihan korban dan hubungan sosial yang rusak. Restorative Justice (RJ) muncul sebagai alternatif yang menekankan pada pemulihan kerugian korban, tanggung jawab pelaku, dan perbaikan hubungan sosial. Di Kabupaten Sukoharjo sudah banyak pengimplementasian Restorative Justice untuk menyelesaikan perkara pidana secara lebih humanis dan efisien. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis implementasi RJ dalam penanganan perkara pidana di Sukoharjo, mengevaluasi kepatuhannya terhadap Standar Operasional Prosedur (SOP), serta menilai pandangan masyarakat terhadap pendekatan ini. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kualitatif dengan pendekatan studi kasus. Data dikumpulkan melalui wawancara mendalam dengan aparat kepolisian, korban, pelaku, dan tokoh masyarakat, serta analisis dokumen resmi seperti laporan kepolisian dan regulasi terkait. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa implementasi RJ di Sukoharjo sebagian besar sudah sesuai dengan SOP yang ditetapkan. Proses mediasi dilakukan dengan transparan dan melibatkan semua pihak terkait. Masyarakat secara umum memiliki pandangan positif terhadap RJ, menganggapnya sebagai cara yang lebih adil dan efisien dalam menyelesaikan perkara pidana. Namun, terdapat beberapa kendala, seperti keterbatasan sumber daya manusia terlatih dan kurangnya pemahaman masyarakat tentang konsep RJ. Implementasi RJ di Sukoharjo berhasil mencapai tujuan pemulihan dan keadilan restoratif, meskipun masih ada ruang untuk perbaikan. Diperlukan peningkatan edukasi dan sosialisasi kepada masyarakat, serta pelatihan tambahan bagi personel kepolisian untuk menjadi mediator yang lebih efektif. Sukoharjo disarankan untuk meningkatkan program sosialisasi RJ, menyediakan pelatihan berkelanjutan bagi petugas, dan memperkuat koordinasi dengan tokoh masyarakat untuk mendukung pelaksanaan RJ yang lebih optimal.
Demolition is a criminal act that not only violates the human rights of victims, but also has a serious impact on the community's sense of security. This study aims to examine the legal protection provided to victims of demolition in Judge Decision Number 399/Pid.B/2020/PN Dps and its implications for public safety. This study uses a normative juridical method with a case study approach. Primary data is obtained from judges' decisions, while secondary data is collected from laws and regulations, legal literature, and previous research. Data analysis is carried out qualitatively with legal interpretation and argumentation techniques. The decision of Judge Number 399/Pid.B/2020/PN Dps shows that there are efforts to protect the law for victims of demolition through the provision of compensation and rehabilitation. However, this ruling has not fully reflected the more comprehensive aspect of restorative justice. The implication of this decision on public security is that there is still potential vulnerability and public distrust of law enforcement. Legal protection for victims of demolition needs to be strengthened with a more comprehensive restorative justice approach, involving the active participation of victims, perpetrators, and the community. The strengthening of legal protection is expected to increase public security and prevent similar crimes from occurring in the future.
El artículo se destaca la evolución de los derechos de las víctimas en el ámbito penal, que ha perdido los logros alcanzados como los actuales. La profundiza en las reformas legislativas que han tenido el reconocimiento y la protección de los derechos de las víctimas. Se examina cómo estas reformas impactan su participación en el proceso penal y el respeto a sus derechos fundamentales. A pesar de los avances, se discuten las dificultades que enfrentan las víctimas en el sistema judicial. Se hace referencia a la Constitución del Ecuador, en particular al Artículo 78, que garantiza a las víctimas derechos como la no revictimización, la verdad, la justicia, la reparación y las garantías de no repetición. El análisis busca identificar las brechas entre la teoría legislativa y la práctica judicial, enfocándose en áreas que se puede mejorar en las áreas que se puede mejorar. El estudio se concentra en aspectos clave como el acceso a la información, la participación en los procedimientos judiciales y la protección de la privacidad de las víctimas. Al ofrecer una visión completa del progreso legislativo y los desafíos actuales, el artículo al debate sobre la justicia penal y la abogada por un sistema que efectivamente garantice los derechos y la participación de las víctimas en el proceso legal.
Este estudo investigou a aplicação da Justiça Restaurativa como alternativa ao sistema penal tradicional na educação, com foco na sua implementação e nos impactos percebidos nas escolas. Utilizando uma abordagem qualitativa e estudos de caso em escolas que adotaram práticas restaurativas, a pesquisa revelou que tais práticas promovem um ambiente escolar mais seguro e inclusivo, reduzem incidentes disciplinares e melhoram a comunicação e a resolução de conflitos entre estudantes. No entanto, desafios como resistência cultural e falta de recursos foram identificados. Conclui-se que a Justiça Restaurativa na educação não só oferece uma resposta mais humana aos conflitos, mas também prepara os estudantes para serem cidadãos responsáveis e empáticos.
The concept of professional resistance describes the principles professionals should follow when they seek to counter social harm and injustice. Applied to medical education, the principles of professional resistance can help learners and teachers balance the responsibilities to respond to harm and injustice with their roles and responsibilities as health professionals. However, there remains the problem of how educators and leaders can constructively respond to learner acts of resistance. It would seem that many leaders have dismissed learner resistance with variations on "Those Darn Kids!", a complaint that has long been levied at those in younger generations who challenge power and authority. How can productive change in medical education be achieved if learners' complaints are not taken seriously? Rather than dismissal, leaders and educators in these situations need the tools to engage learners in conversations that draw out their concerns.
Se aborda desde una perspectiva multidisciplinaria los desafíos contemporáneos en los campos de la legislación sobre drogas, la innovación pedagógica para la creación de spin-offs universitarios, el impacto económico del tecnoestrés en la productividad académica, y las tendencias evolutivas en las penas y su enfoque hacia la reinserción. A través de un análisis crítico de la legislación sobre drogas, el documento resalta la importancia de considerar la salud y la rehabilitación en lugar de la criminalización. Examina cómo la integración de empresas familiares en la educación universitaria puede fomentar la innovación y el emprendimiento. Destaca los costos ocultos del tecnoestrés en la productividad académica, subrayando la necesidad de estrategias de manejo. Finalmente, discute la evolución de las penas con un enfoque en la reinserción social como medio para mejorar la seguridad pública y reducir la reincidencia.
Offender accountability is a primary goal of restorative justice meetings. Yet existing research on restorative justice demonstrates wide variation in how accountability is defined in research and achieved in practice. Empirical research also shows offenders sometimes struggle with providing information or demonstrating culpability, and victims are sometimes not satisfied with offender accounts or view offenders as justifying their behavior. Toward these problems of “getting to accountability,” we set forth a definition that is comprised of three phases – the giving, taking, and making of accountability – primary to how offenders demonstrate and how victims and others perceive accountability in restorative justice meetings. Following this, we discuss implications for research and practice.
This study describes the problems and solutions related to differentiating sentences for the parallel integration of restorative justice in Indonesian courts. This study is normative-legal research using statute, comparative, and conceptual approaches. This study utilizes primary legal materials and secondary legal materials. This study is based on 25 (twenty-five) cases decided by judges in Indonesian courts. The research results indicate that the values of restorative justice are very relevant to the cultural values of gotong royong in Indonesia. Judges must consider the community’s cultural values and the implementation of restorative justice in their decisions. Parallel integration of justice has been re-applied in Indonesian courts. Still, in practice, judges do not have guidelines for parallel integration, so it is very possible that there will be differences in punishment for applying parallel integration. Therefore, as a solution to the problem of differentiation of sentences, the authors propose 2 (two) concepts of court decisions, namely (1) the verdict of the indictment cannot be accepted, and (2) the decision of the public prosecutor cannot be accepted.
El abordaje del fenómeno de los abusos ocurridos en el seno de la Iglesia católica requiere incorporar perspectivas y reflexiones desarrolladas fuera del marco eclesial y ya aplicadas a realidades seculares, para situarlo en un contexto más amplio que permita entenderlo mejor y proponer respuestas que resulten pertinentes también para la sociedad en la que la Iglesia habita. Con esta finalidad,ante todo metodológica: se propone como categoría central de análisis y respuesta la perspectiva de las víctimas, el reconocimiento de su condición y los derechos que les pertenecen; se presenta un modelo de justicia restaurativa que asegure un papel relevante a las víctimas y demás afectados; se considera el abuso como un ejemplo de violencia injusta al que puede aplicarse el modelo del triángulo de Johan Galtung y, finalmente, se justifica la aplicación a la Iglesia de las categorías de la ética organizacional.
Artykuł ma na celu omówienie idei, założeń oraz modeli i form sprawiedliwości naprawczej, wraz z próbą ich systematyzacji oraz poszukiwaniem wspólnych cech dla całego ruchu sprawiedliwości naprawczej, obejmującego wiele sfer życia społecznego. W tym celu wyjaśniony został wyjątkowy sposób traktowania przestępczości i innych zachowań dewiacyjnych w tym podejściu. Następnie skonfrontowane zostały poglądy na temat idei, zasad i celów sprawiedliwości naprawczej. Na tej podstawie wskazuje, że mediacja nie powinna być utożsamiana ze sprawiedliwością naprawczą, ponieważ nie zaspokaja potrzeb wszystkich aktorów-osób pokrzywdzonych, sprawcy oraz wspólnoty. W drugiej części artykułu zostały opisane i usystematyzowane różne formy sprawiedliwości naprawczej.
Evolution of the idea, definition and practice of restorative justice Summary: The article aims to discuss the ideas, assumptions, models and forms of restorative justice. Along with an attempt to systematize them and look for common features across the restorative justice movement, which covers many spheres of social life. To this end, the unique way in which crime and other deviant behavior are treated in this approach is explained. Next, views on the ideas, principles and goals of restorative justice are confronted. On this basis, it argues that mediation should not be equated with restorative justice, since it does not meet the needs of all actors-the victim, the offender and the community. In the second part of the article, the various forms of restorative justice were described and systematized.
Restorative justice is a transformative approach to addressing harm that focuses on repairing the damage caused by crime, promoting healing for all parties involved, and rebuilding relationships within communities. In the context of revolutionizing justice in the pipeline era, restorative justice offers a promising alternative to the punitive and retributive nature of traditional justice systems. This chapter will explore the principles of restorative justice, successful practices and programs, and the benefits it offers to victims, offenders, and the community at large.
Onarıcı adalet sisteminin bir uzantısı olan uzlaştırma kurumu, çağdaş hukukta ceza adaleti anlayışına yön veren mekanizmalardan biridir. Cezalandırıcı adaletten onarıcı adalete evrilen ceza sistemleri içinde çocuğun korunması ise ceza adaletinin başlıca amaçlarındandır. Bu çalışmada öncelikle onarıcı adalet sistemi ve uzlaştırma kurumu incelenecek, devamında suçun pasif süjeleri olan mağdur ve suçtan zarar gören kavramları tartışılacaktır. Son olarak çocuğun onarıcı adalet sistemi ve uzlaştırma kurumu içindeki yeri ise çocuğun yüksek yararı kavramı çerçevesinde değerlendirilecektir.
Young people that offend evidence higher rates of trauma and post-traumatic distress than non-offending peers. Effects of post-traumatic distress also parallel research on some young people that participate in restorative justice (RJ) meetings who struggle with communication, emotionally withdraw, become agitated or defiant, evidence poor understanding of harms they have caused, or fail to demonstrate empathy or remorse. In this paper I suggest post-traumatic distress may explain some variation in RJ process and outcomes hitherto ignored in existing research. I also suggest research on trauma in young people raises four areas of concern for thinking about RJ as a “trauma-informed” practice, including impacts of trauma and post-traumatic distress on (1) oral language proficiency and non-verbal communication; (2) the experience and expression of emotions; (3) offender perceptions of fairness and respect; and (4) difficulties in behavioural changes following participation in RJ meetings. I conclude with discussion of challenges to and suggestions for using RJ as a trauma-informed practice in youth justice settings.
Implementasi Far East Law System dalam mekanisme Restorative Justice di Negara Indonesia berbasis Civil Law adalah topik yang menarik untuk dibahas dalam sebuah jurnal. Jurnal ini akan membahas tentang penerapan sistem hukum Far East dalam konteks Restorative Justice di Indonesia yang didasarkan pada Civil Law. Restorative Justice adalah pendekatan yang melibatkan pelaku, korban, dan masyarakat dalam mencapai keadilan yang lebih holistik dan pemulihan. Dalam konteks Indonesia, penerapan sistem hukum Far East dapat memberikan kontribusi dalam memperkuat mekanisme Restorative Justice dengan mengedepankan prinsip-prinsip seperti rekonsiliasi, perdamaian, dan pemulihan. Jurnal ini akan mengeksplorasi bagaimana implementasi Far East Law System dapat mempengaruhi proses restorasi keadilan di Indonesia, serta mengidentifikasi tantangan dan peluang dalam menerapkan sistem hukum ini. Diharapkan jurnal ini dapat memberikan wawasan yang berharga dalam melihat bagaimana integrasi antara Far East Law System dan Restorative Justice dapat meningkatkan efektivitas sistem peradilan di Indonesia
Evidence demonstrating the essential role of human service nonprofits in restoring justice to communities has led to an increased need in understanding how these nonprofits view their service delivery role in relation to the state in a restorative justice context. Despite the increase in funding dedicated to restorative justice programs and increased collaborations between states and nonprofits, few studies have explored perceptions of collaborative restorative justice roles in state-led initiatives. This exploratory qualitative study uses semi-structured interviews to understand how leaders in these programs view their organization’s roles in restorative justice implementation. The analysis evaluates the variations in perceptions among nonprofits leaders as well as the differences in perceptions between nonprofit versus public managers/policy makers. Results indicate that nonprofit leaders and public managers/policy makers view nonprofits as pivotal to restorative justice policy implementation given their capacity to engage in grassroots problem-solving and develop strengths-based programs.
This study aims to develop a model for the effective implementation of restitution criminal sanctions against individuals involved in trafficking in persons. The findings of this research hold strategic significance in terms of providing legal protection to victims and enhancing the concept of restitution. The study focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of imposing restitution sanctions on traffickers through judicial decisions in Indonesia. By employing a sociological juridical approach, this research examines legal norms and court rulings pertaining to prosecutors' charges against individuals involved in trafficking crimes. The analysis of these judicial decisions reveals that out of the cases reviewed, only seven included restitution sanctions, and none of the perpetrators fulfilled their restitution obligations. Instead, the offenders prioritized serving prison sentences over compensating the victims. Consequently, it is essential for prosecutors to prioritize the prosecution of perpetrators under the Law on the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Individuals. Furthermore, judges should consider utilizing the Law on the Eradication of Non-Criminal Persons and emphasizing imprisonment as an alternative to restitution.
Pembentukan dan penegakan hukum dalam pemeriksaan bukti permulaan di bidang perpajakan belum mencerminkan tujuan hukum, yakni berdasarkan keadilan, kepastian hukum, dan kemanfaatan public, dan belum mencerminkan fungsi perpajakan yang utama, yakni fungsi budgeter dan fungsi mengatur. Berdasarkan metode yuridis normative dengan mempergunakan bahan hukum primer, sekunder, dan tersier, dihasilkan 2 (dua) kesimpulan. Pertama, belum terdapat peraturan perundang-undangan perpajakan ihwal penerbitan tax assessment notice dalam pemeriksaan bukti permulaan di Indonesia, sehingga mengabaikan tujuan pemungutan pajak yang harus adil, berkepastian, dan berkemanfaatan. Kedua, konsep hukum yang ideal dalam penerbitan SKP dalam pemeriksaan bukti permulaan di Indonesiapada masa yang akan datang adalah dengan menerapkan ketentuan pemeriksaan bukti permulaan yang berorientasi fungsional, pragmatik, bertujuan, dan rasional, dan kompetensi dalam pelaksanaannya.
Der vorliegende Beitrag fasst neuere europäische Entwicklungen wiedergutmachungsorientierter Verfahren und Maßnahmen zusammen, die im Englischen mit dem Begriff der Restorative Justice (RJ) beschrieben werden. Während in Deutschland in erster Linie der Täter-Opfer-Ausgleich bekannt ist, nutzen andere Länder verstärkt weitere Formen wiedergutmachungsorientierter Verfahren, wie z. B. „conferencing“ oder „circles“, auch auf der Ebene des Strafvollzugs. Es werden die unterschiedlichen Verfahren und ihre Verbreitung der Praxis verschiedener Länder beschrieben. Auch die neuere Evaluationsforschung wird vorgestellt, die positive Ergebnisse im Hinblick auf die Zufriedenheit der Tatbetroffenen, die Aushandlung und Umsetzung von Wiedergutmachungsvereinbarungen und nicht zuletzt die Legalbewährung bzw. Desistance i. S. einer Beendigung krimineller Karrieren andeutet.
While the potential of restorative justice is increasingly being recognized worldwide, its relation to criminal justice is a matter of debate. This chapter opts for a “consequential” approach to restorative justice. In the longer term, this view pursues the modification of the punitive premise in criminal justice into a reparative/restorative premise. The chapter explains the social-ethical and instrumental reasons for this option and describes the emerging contours of a restorative criminal justice system. It explores the relation of restorative justice to punishment, and it seeks grounds for constructing appropriate legal safeguards by considering restorative justice as a form of “inversed, constructive retributivism.” Finally, the process toward more restorative justice is positioned as a step in the civilization process.
In recent years, individuals study and work from home with some degree of normality. Technology and the Internet have become an essential part of life. This increased reliance on technology and constant engagement with the online world has its negative repercussions. However, it has increased the number of offenders involved in cybercrimes. Considering the aftermath of cybercrimes and the need to address the impact of cybercrimes on victims, this paper reviews the existing mechanisms, such as legislation, international frameworks and conventions. The main purpose of this paper resides in the discussion of the possible use of restorative justice in supporting the needs of the victims. Taking into consideration the cross-border nature of many of these offences, other solutions have to be considered in order to give the victims a chance to be heard and to heal the wounds caused by the crime. This paper argues for the use of victim-offender panels, which are meetings between a group of cyber victims and a group of convicted cyber offenders, allowing victims to express the harm caused by the crime, to be healed and giving room for the offenders to feel remorse, lessening thus the likelihood of recidivism, under the umbrella of reintegrative shaming.
This book explores how restorative justice is used and what its potential benefits are in situations where the state has been either explicitly or implicitly involved in human rights abuses. Restorative justice is increasingly becoming a popular mechanism to respond to crime in democratic settings and while there is a burgeoning literature on these contexts, there is less information that focuses explicitly on its use in nations that have experienced protracted periods of conflict and oppression.
Restorative justice is an alternative paradigm for dealing with the effects of crime and wrongdoing that seeks to bring healing to victims, offenders, and the community. Although a key element of social work’s ethical code is the obligation to work toward social justice, this has been viewed primarily as efforts to ensure a fair distribution of resources and opportunities. Yet justice is also restorative in nature—seeking to restore and enhance victims, offenders, and communities to fuller functioning. This article systematically reviews 80 social work peer-reviewed articles dealing with restorative justice. The role of social workers in restorative justice programs remains largely unknown. Suggestions are made for enhancing social work practice in the restorative justice arena.
Using Northern Ireland as a case study, this article explores the relationship between human rights and criminological discourses concerning paramilitary abuses. The article begins with a critical introduction to peacemaking criminology. It then explores four overlapping styles of interventions designed to mitigate paramilitary violence. These include, attempts to hold paramilitaries accountable through humanitarian law; the use of human rights as a rhetorical base for claimsmaking; attempts to encourage the internalization of human rights discourses through a process of political osmosis; and interventions which have been guided primarily by criminological concerns. The article concludes by suggesting a schema for a `new' version of peacemaking criminology that intersects with and builds upon the human rights paradigm in transforming political or ethnic conflicts.
This paper will introduce a whole-school approach to regulating safe school communities, based on principles of restorative justice. The idea is to move beyond regulatory formalism to a stance of response regulation, whereby the needs of the school community can be better met. The approach will incorporate a continuum of practices across three levels of regulation. The primary level of intervention targets all students, with an aim to develop students’ social and emotional competencies, particularly in the area of conflict resolution. This first stage aims to enable students to resolve their differences in caring and respectful ways. The secondary level of practices involves a larger number of participants in the resolution of the conflict or concern, as the problem has become protracted or has involved (and affected) a larger number of people. The tertiary level of intervention involves the participation of an even wider cross-section of the school community, including parents, guardians, social workers, and others who have been affected. This intervention is typically used for serious incidents within the school, such as acts of serious violence. At each level, the processes involved are based on principles of restorative justice, such as inclusive and respectful dialogue. The aim is to build safe school communities through being more responsive and more restorative.
The Good Society 13.1 (2004) 28-31
Restorative justice is a process where all the stakeholders affected by an injustice have an opportunity to discuss how they have been affected by the injustice and to decide what should be done to repair the harm. With crime, restorative justice is about the idea that because crime hurts, justice should heal. It follows that conversations with those who have been hurt and with those who have afflicted the harm must be central to the process. Empirically it happens to be the case that victims of crime are more concerned about emotional than material reparation (Strang, 2003). Lawyers are obviously not well placed to give an account of these emotional harms and how they might be healed. Hence, the practice of restorative justice has become a de-professionalizing project. Yet we will see that lawyers still have an important, though decentred, place in a restorative justice system.
Restorative justice comes in many forms. The most common in Europe and North America is victim-offender mediation. But the movement, inspired by New Zealand conferring and Canadian circle innovations, has been toward widening the circle to include supporters of the offender, supporters of the victim and sometimes other kinds of stakeholders from the community such as representatives of the school community when a crime occurs at school, or a congregation where it occurs within a church. So the first stage under most conferencing models is to approach the victim and offender to ask them not only to participate in a meeting with each other, but also to ask them to nominate who they would most like to have support them during the conference. When lawyers prepare for a court case, they invite people who, as witnesses, can inflict maximum damage on the other side; restorative justice facilitators empower stakeholders, both victims and offenders, to invite the people who will provide maximum support to their own side.
Conferrees discuss what happened and who was harmed by it. Sometimes the offender will be asked to summarize all the harms that have been mentioned by the participants. Then the conversation turns to what might be done to right the wrong. A plan with specific commitments on the part of the offender will be agreed upon and then this agreement will be signed by the victim, the offender and other stakeholders who have obligations under the agreement. Some programs have follow-up conferences to check implementation of the agreement and some even hold a celebration circle when implementation is completed.
Citizens beyond the victim and the offender might also sign the agreement because they assume responsibility for some aspect of the agreement. For example, the victim of a violent crime might ask that the offender attend an anger management program. A supporter of the offender says that after a previous offense the judge ordered attendance at an anger management program. The offender attended a couple of times and then just stopped bothering to attend. An uncle chimes in and offers to pick the offender up every Tuesday evening at 7 pm to ensure that this time he attends. The offender agrees that attendance would be good for him, but the program is confronting and an emotional struggle for him. So he would like the weekly support of his uncle to make him attend. Thus the uncle signs the agreement as well.
Note how restorative justice involves a shift from passive responsibility to which offenders are held by professionals for something they have done in the past to citizens taking active responsibility for making things right into the future. Active responsibility is a virtue of civic participation. As in the anger management example, restorative justice is about creating participatory spaces where active responsibility might be taken by offenders, but not only by offenders. Active responsibility is sometimes shared by victims. Occasionally burglars will explain to victims in a conference why their house is such an attractive target for practitioners of their craft. The burglar will assist the victim, perhaps with help from a police officer who is also in attendance, to design a target hardening strategy for which the victim voluntarily decides to take responsibility.
The evaluation...
The Huikahi Restorative Circle is a reentry planning group process that addresses individual incarcerated people's needs for achieving criminal desistence. The Circles use public health learning principles including applied learning experiences to increase self-efficacy and hopefulness, restorative justice, and solution-focused brief therapy language, which promote positive attitudes and healing. A primary strength of the Circles is treating individuals as their own change agents rather than the passive recipients of treatment directed by others. The author concludes that reentry planning resources are better invested in models similar to Huikahi Circles, which include the participation and decision making of incarcerated people and their loved ones, rather than professionally driven case management efforts.
The European Forum for Victim–Offender Mediation and Restorative Justice is a non-governmental organisation set up because European victim–offender mediation projects had seldom established contacts beyond national borders. Informal contacts revealed that practitioners, academics and policy makers were looking for a more regular exchange and mutual support in developing victim–offender mediation and other restorative justice practices. This article gives an overview of the background to restorative justice and victim–offender mediation, and pays attention to the development of the Forum, its current aims, objectives and activities, and other (policy) developments at a supranational level.
We analyse five areas of feminist engagement with restorative justice (RJ): theories of justice; the role of retribution in criminal justice; studies of gender (and other social relations) in RJ processes; the appropriateness of RJ for partner, sexual or family violence; and the politics of race and gender in making justice claims. Feminist engagement has focused almost exclusively on the appropriateness of RJ for sexual, partner or family violence, but there is a need to broaden the focus. We identify a wider spectrum of theoretical, political and empirical problems for future feminist analysis of RJ.
Author's version available at: http://www.griffith.edu.au/school/ccj/kdaly_docs/kdpaper6.pdf Yes Yes
This chapter reviews two studies on restorative justice conducted in the past several years. One examines variability in the conference process and the second compares outcomes for court and conference cases. The studies show the strengths and weaknesses of restorative justice from a victim’s perspective. The conference-only study demonstrates the limits of restorative justice in helping victims to recover from crime, and it suggests that some victims are more able to engage in a restorative justice process than others. The conference–court comparison demonstrates the limits of the court in attempting to adjudicate and sanction crime, and the court’s failure to vindicate victims. Restorative justice advocates and critics must grasp the significance and ‘truth’ of both studies. Advocates should adopt more realistic expectations for victims in a restorative process while critics should be mindful of the court’s limited ability to vindicate victims.
Psychologists in different tributaries of the discipline have long been preoccupied with aspects of 'Justice', but none previously has addressed the essential question raised in this book - namely of justice being as vital to the essentials of life and to the flowering of the human spirit as other basic needs. The same can be said for academics and practitioners in other disciplines in social science, as well as those in mental health and psychiatry. Although lawyers might come close to accepting the proposition, it seems to me that in the main their professional expertise is directed to the superficial maintenance of systems of justice rather than to the underlying reasons for doing so. This book, arising from academic, clinical, empirical, and theoretical studies, goes the further mile by giving justice its proper place in the hierarchy of basic human needs. It is designed in accord with a general systems theory in which contributions are welcomed from international scholars and researchers in different domains of knowledge. Above all, it is written in the hope of inducing others to share a commitment to justice and do their utmost to prevent injustice.
This research seeks to discern the victim role in restorative justice policy and practice in the U.S. through direct consultation with victims, their advocates and victim service providers. The authors discuss the theory and reality of restorative justice, including difficulties in implementation and features of good practice.
The English and Scottish youth justice systems share a commitment to preventive as opposed to retributive goals, but pursue them in sharply contrasting ways. In Scotland, a unified welfare-based system, committed to the prevention of harm to children, encompasses children who offend and children in social jeopardy. It uniquely and radically separates functions between the courts as factual and legal arbiters and children's hearings as treatment tribunals. A correctionalist system, committed to the prevention of offending, has emerged in England. It repudiates earlier views that young offenders should be left to "grow out of crime" with minimal state intervention. Subsidiary goals include responsibilization (of offenders and parents), reparation, and case-processing efficiency. It is characterized by much institutional innovation, including introduction of multiagency youth offending teams. This "joined up" approach stops short of encompassing "care" and "offense" cases within the same jurisdiction as Scotland does. The systems' philosophical differences are reflected in many contrasting operational practices. Political devolution in Scotland has introduced turbulence into the Scottish system; that and the newness of the English system make it difficult to predict future developments.
Little is known about the effects of having a loved one on death row, and alternative visions of punishment that offer the possibility for forgiveness and recovery are also underrepresented in our system of justice and within the academic literature. In the Shadow of Death- uses narrative accounts of individuals affected by the death penalty and crime to explore what it means to have a loved one on death row. The in-depth examination of this under-studied population adds to the literature on loss, trauma, grief, and recovery. In addition to theory on trauma and loss, the book also uses restorative justice theory, which holds offenders accountable while searching for ways to mend communities and lives torn apart by crimes, and explores options for the offenders' family members to be brought into the justice equation and the process of healing and recovery. The book uses myriad interviews with offenders' and victims' families, legal teams, and leaders in the abolition and restorative justice movement, as well as court documents that include in-depth psychosocial histories of offenders, in order to help ground a vision of justice rooted in the social fabric of community.
Children are at increased risk of becoming a victim of crime. Too frequently, children become victims of theft, burglary, violence, sexual assault, abuse, bullying and domestic violence. Yet current criminal justice systems are not designed to assist them in their struggle to overcome their victimization. Restorative justice, an alternative approach to justice which brings victims and offenders together to find their own ways to restore the harm, has a lot to offer for young victims. But there are many risks in a face-to-face encounter between a child victim and an older offender. This book establishes an integrated needs-rights perspective to look at these issues. The human rights of child victims are those stated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most consensual treaty ever accepted by the UN. The needs of child victims are those based on many empirical studies and theories developed in the psycho-social literature. Together, they create a detailed template that uncovers the shortcomings of the criminal justice system in addressing the needs-rights of child victims, and provide guidance as to how to practice restorative justice in cases of childhood victimization in a child-inclusive manner. Among the central findings of the book are the importance of participation and control, sense of fairness, apology, and acknowledgment of harm for child victims. Eight heuristics provide starting points for the development of safe, child-inclusive and respectful restorative justice programs addressing childhood victimization.
Recidivism reduction is an important objective of restorative justice programs. However, too much attention to recidivism may marginalize basic goals of restorative justice-particularly that of healing harms. In this paper we speculate on the prospects for restorative justice if recidivism rates of participating offenders were not monitored. We foresee both positive and negative consequences. Neglecting recidivism may undermine relationships between restorative justice programs and government agencies, insofar as the latter are chiefly concerned with offender management. Restorative justice also needs support from a public that wants “results.” Yet, a restorative justice untethered to the recidivism project could deliver the balanced approach it promises, attending to the needs of victim, offender, and community. We conclude that current arrangements, including institutions and attitudes, sustain restorative justice but also constrain what it can be.
Victim—offender mediation has grown to establish itself among criminal justice practices as an alternative to traditionally retributive notions of justice. As the number of programs claiming to be restorative in nature continues to grow, victim—offender mediation programs are emerging as one of the state's preferred delivery methods for restorative justice. Restorative practices, including victim—offender mediation, are inclusive practices. Participation is not only encouraged, it is a necessary element for victim—offender mediation to achieve restorative outcomes. Through the use of observations and content analysis of agreements produced in victim—offender mediation, this research uncovers several impediments to individual participation, including problems in the implementation of restorative practices; participant domination, including victim lecturing; and a lack of awareness among the participants about the restorative vision of justice.
This paper seeks to establish connections between John Braithwaite's theory of reintegrative shaming, the recent interest in `relational justice' and the `ethic of care' of feminist philosophy. Following Heidensohn (1986), it uses the figures of Portia and Persephone to represent, respectively, the ethics of justice and of care, and presents empirical material on victim-offender mediation, Family Group Conferencing (FGC), and Japanese approaches to social control to argue that procedures which allow for the expression of caring as a response to offending are both theoretically well-founded and practically feasible. The paper concludes with some reflections on the dangers of the current trend of penal policy in Britain. It is our hope that this paper will be considered not as a finished argument but as an encouragement to further debate and theorizing.
Two paths are inspired by Richard Quinney's deep insights into self and society: a path that stimulates sociological imagination and helps us analyze the political economy of crime, and a path of personal and collective transformation. Following the first path, we discover that the problem of crime is a problem with social arrangements that thwart individual and collective potential; foster economic inequality; generate physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering; and necessitate participatory injustice. Following the second path, we recognize that personal and collective well-being is dependant on the understanding that the more we become conscious of being bound to others'well-being, the more the true self emerges and peace becomes our way.
Despite its importance in Durkheim's work, the subject of religion's influence on health and well-being is rarely addressed in contemporary sociological research. This study of elderly persons in New Haven, Connecticut, examines the prospective relationship between religious involvement and several aspects of health status. Results show significant protective effects of public religious involvement against disability among men and women and of private religious involvement against depression among recently disabled men over a three-year period. Religious group membership also protected Christians and Jews against mortality in the month before their respective religious holidays during a six-year period. The article concludes that religious involvement exerts a strong positive effect on the health of the elderly; that this effect varies by religious group and by sex; that the health behaviors, social contacts, and optimistic attitudes of religious group members may explain part but not all of this association; and that several aspects of religious experience, such as participation in ritual and religion's provision of meaning play a role.
This study investigates the educative process in restorative justice reforms, revealing three characteristics effective in facilitating moral learning for the common good. These three characteristics can be formulated as principles to guide the theory and practice of communitybased moral education. First, restorative justice brings the moral authority in personal communal traditions and the moral authority in impersonal universal norms together in a mutually reinforcing combination. Secondly, restorative justice processes focus on the "space between places" in social relations-not on individuals or families or particular institutions, but on the space where these important social bodies intersect. Thirdly, restorative justice harnesses the resources of whole communities to take the actions and make the changes that can successfully address the problems that emerge as crime, rather than continuing the criminal justice system's focus on individual offenders or individual victims. These characteristics can be translated into three educational principles to guide the theory and practice of community-based moral education: (a) the complementarity between communal and universal moral norms; (b) the locus of moral education at the intersection between multiple levels of social experience; and (c) community development as a model of moral development.
For almost two decades restorative justice practices have demonstrated positive impacts on crime victim satisfaction when compared to court and other adversarial processes. Although these practices have by no means addressed the myriad needs of crime victims, researchers and policy makers have puzzled about how to interpret these generally positive findings. We suggest that remaining difficulties in concluding that positive findings are a result of restorative process rather than some other factor (e.g., procedural justice) are due largely to (1) the lack of clear standards for gauging the integrity, or “restorativeness,” of interventions and (2) the failure to articulate logical mechanisms (i.e., intervention theories) that connect practices to immediate and intermediate outcomes, and these outcomes to long-term changes in the well-being of victims, offenders, and communities. In part 1 of a two-part discussion previously published in this journal, we described alternative definitions of restorative justice and outlined three core principles that provide a useful normative theory of restorative justice. In part 2, we focus on the “intervening variable” in restorative justice, utilizing qualitative data from a national case study to illustrate some potential immediate and intermediate outcomes of restorative justice practice on victims. We also discuss the implications of these outcomes for intervention theory and future research.
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Although restorative justice principles and practice have been applied extensively in community-based juvenile justice settings, implementation in residential treatment facilities has been far less common. We describe recent experimentation and possibilities for broader application to disciplinary infractions, the response to harm and crime, promoting community and citizen input, “community building” for conflict resolution skill development and changing the culture of facilities, and reentry. We conceptualize three “communities” as most relevant to addressing needs of incarcerated youths, their victims, and support groups, and then discuss theoretical frameworks and empirical research supportive of restorative practice in this context. Challenges to implementation of restorative practice, compatibility with other treatment and disciplinary agendas, and concerns about preserving the integrity of the model are also considered.
Since Hirschi and Stark's (1969) surprising failure to find religious (“hellfire”) effects on delinquency, subsequent research has generally revealed an inverse relationship between religiosity and various forms of deviance, delinquency, and crime. The complexity of the relationship and conditions under which it holds, however, continue to be debated. Although a few researchers have found that religion's influence is noncontingent, most have found support—especially among youths—for effects that vary by denomination, type of offense, and social and/or religious context. More recently the relationship has been reported as spurious when relevant secular controls are included. Our research attempts to resolve these issues by testing the religion-crime relationship in models with a comprehensive crime measure and three separate dimensions of religiosity. We also control for secular constraints, religious networks, and social ecology. We found that, among our religiosity measures, participation in religious activities was a persistent and noncontingent inhibiter of adult crime.
Criminology was born in the age of reason to apply “reason” to justice, tempering the expression of moral indignation with the economics of deterrence. Modern criminology is now poised for reinventing justice around the emotions of victims, offenders, and society. One prime example is restorative justice. Others include wider use of biomedical mental health treatments for offenders, programs to make justice officials more aware of the emotional impact of their words on citizens, and programs to help justice officials manage their own emotions. Research can advance theory and innovations as a basis for a new paradigm of “emotionally intelligent justice.”
Dissatisfaction with the current paradigm of criminal justice is leading to new programs with different visions. Some, such as restitution, can be incorporated into existing structures. Others, such as victim-offender reconciliation, point to a possible new approach to criminal justice—restorative justice. In some ways, restorative justice is simply a new application of an ancient vision. It is new wine from old vines. But those of us who celebrate the harvest are advised to remember the parable of new wine and old wineskins. Before we begin to pour—before we insert restorative features into familiar responses to crime—we would do well to reflect on what the consequences may be.
This article has considered four likely consequences: the challenge to abolish criminal law, the challenge to rank multiple goals, the challenge to determine harm rationally, and the challenge to structure community-government cooperation. Although each challenge is significant, I have argued that all can be effectively addressed. Indeed, they must be if criminal justice is to become—using Justice John Kelly's image—a means of healing the wounds of crime.
The South African Cabinet has recently given approval for the introduction into Parliament of a Bill that will provide a new system to deal with child offenders. This article suggests that the context of political transition in South Africa made it easier to promote restorative justice as a fundamental principle of juvenile justice reform. The theme of reconciliation that characterized the transition is linked to the African philosophy of humanity and community, ‘ubuntu’. The acceptance of ‘a different kind of justice’, familiar from African traditional justice, community courts and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission provided fertile ground for debates about the modern international trend towards restorative justice approaches, and this has had a notable impact on juvenile justice reform. The article moves on to describe selected aspects of the Child Justice Bill, examining the extent to which these clauses reflect a restorative justice approach. Finally there is a discussion about some of the challenges to promoting restorative justice in an environment of public concern about crime.
Restorative justice conferencing, in response to youthful offending, has grown in popularity around the world. While there is now substantial empirical evidence that shows offenders and victims are satisfied with outcomes and perceive the process as generally fair, available data on reoffending have produced mixed results. Uncertainty about how conferencing affects future offending may result from how reoffending is analysed. In this paper, I used survival analysis to reanalyse data from the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Restorative Policing Experiment and assessed two methodological approaches: a standard comparative approach to examine differences in reoffending between offenders in conference and court and a variation analysis to examine differences in reoffending within conference and court groups. Comparative analyses showed that violent offenders referred to conference were less likely to reoffend compared to violent offenders referred to court. There were no differences in reoffending for property offenders in conference and in court. Variation analyses showed that female offenders attending conferences were less likely to reoffend than male offenders in conferences. There were no differences in reoffending for males and females in court. These results suggest that there is value in comparing the effects of traditional and restorative interventions, as well as assessing how variation within interventions is related to future offending.
This article reviews the primary claims made for restorative justice as a response to offending. It summarizes Home Office research published in 2001 which evaluated seven restorative justice schemes operating in England during the 1990s. The narrative sets the recent resurgence of interest in the potential of restorative justice within Great Britain in a wider context of successive state responses to victimization. The article highlights recent national and European initiatives and links the findings of the Home Office research to evaluations of other schemes in England and Scotland. It addresses basic questions concerning the proper measure for the evaluation of the success or otherwise of restorative justice schemes, and draws attention to the recommendations of the Review of the Criminal Justice System, that there should be a national strategy for the implementation of restorative justice initiatives.
Restitution is unique among criminal justice policies by virtue of the widespread support it has attained from many diverse constituencies. Restitution has received such universal praise as a panacea for victims of crime that in recent years a number of American jurisdictions have adopted legislation that creates a presumptive norm that restitution be awarded in appropriate cases. Despite popular support for its increased use and enactment of enabling legislation, restitution continues to be underutilized in actual case dispositions. The authors suggest that the underuse problem will not be cured and the powerful potential that restitution holds as a criminal justice sanction will not be realized until a consensus regarding the definition of restitution is achieved, significant gaps in the technical data about how restitution is effectuated are closed, and practical impediments to awarding and collecting restitution are dissolved. These goals, in turn, cannot be met until policy makers confront and begin to resolve the inherent conflicts posed when a restorative sanction, such as restitution, is pursued in a criminal justice system that is primarily punitive in nature.
Retributive and utilitarian goals for criminal justice decisions are in conflict. In part, this is because the retributive aim rejects prediction, while all utilitarian aims require it. In the context of this debate, we review research concerning the prediction of violence, and conclude that because such predictions are of low accuracy, they are only modestly useful for public policy formulation or for individual decision-making. Because we believe prediction, and utilitarian goals, to be important, this paper focuses on two issues that have potential for increasing the accuracy with which predictions may be made. One is the measurement of the seriousness of crime and ways to improve it. Second, we introduce the concept of societal stakes and suggest that this must be assessed as well. Finally, we propose a model that may be useful for lessening the conflict between retributive and utilitarian perspectives.