Dealing with Offending Behaviour - Restorative Justice

Question 1

Restorative Justice (RJ)

Answer 1

A process of managed collaborations between offender and victim

• Rehab. for offender by see consequence of actions + closure for victim by confronting offender
• Involves trained mediator
• Emphasis from need of state => survivor

Question 2

Key Features of RJ

Answer 2

• Focus on on accepting responsibility + positive change
• Not restricted to courtrooms + must choose to meet each other
• Focus on postive outcomes for victim + offender

Question 3

Variation of Process

Answer 3

• Is flexible + can be alternative to prison
• May pay financial retribution to victim , reflect on psychological damage

Question 4

Sentencing

Answer 4

• RJ may occur pretrial and effect sentencing
• can be alt. to prison
• could occur while in prison as an incentive for reduced sentencing

Question 5

Restitution - Types

Answer 5

• Financial: offender pays
• Practical: offender does repairs themselves
• Emotional: support healing process by helping rebulid victim’s confidence

Question 6

The RJC (Restorative Justice Council)

Answer 6

• Sets + monitors standards
• Supports survivors + specialists
• Promotes the use of RJ principles to prevent + manage conflict

Question 7

(S) Supports needs of survivors - Shapland et al 2008

Answer 7

The RJC reported result of 7yr project
- 85% of survivors were satisfied w/ process
- 78% would recommend it
- 60% said process made them feel better about incident (2% felt worse)

Suggests => RJ is a worthwhile experience that help survivors of crime cope w/ aftermath of incident

Question 8

(L) Counter to RJ supporting survivors’ needs - Wood + Suzuki, 2016

Answer 8

Satisfication surveys say…
- Survivors were used to rehab offenders, not the other way around

Suggests => needs of survivors may be seen as secondary to need for rehabilitation

Question 9

(S) RJ leads to a decrease in offending - meta analysis by Strong et al 2013

Answer 9

• Found offenders who experienced RJ were less likely to reoffend (largest reduction in violent then property crime)
• Bain (2012) : found lower recidivism w/ adult offenders who 1-to-1 w/ survivor than community contact

Suggests => RJ has a postive impact on reoffending and maybe more so than other approaches

Question 10

(L) Offenders may abuse the system - Van Gijseghem (2003)

Answer 10

• Success of RJ hinges on offender genuinely feeling regret for actions
• Suggests offenders may use RJ to avoid punishment, play down their faults or take pride in relationship w/ survivor

Explains => why not all offender ultimately benefit from RJ + reoffend

Question 11

AO3 Extra : Domestic violence

Answer 11

• In these cases, power imbalances between abuser + abused puts pressure on survivor to go along w/ partner’s suggestions during RJ
• BUT: has produced positive results for survivors e.g couples that wish to stay together + adress harm caused (Son et al, 2018)

Suggests => some types of crime - offender may manipulate situation