Dealing with offending behaviour: Restorative justice

Question 1

What is restorative justice?

Answer 1

A system of criminal justice which focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with the victims and the community at large

Question 2

Outline the restorative justice process

Answer 2

• Supervised meeting held between 2 parties with a trained mediator
• Victim can confront the offender and explain how they were affected
• Offender can see the consequences of their actions

Question 3

What are the key features of restorative justice?

Answer 3

• Focus on acceptance of responsibility and positive change
• Active rather than passive involvement of all parties in the process
• Not restricted to courtroom setting
• Other community members may have a role in the process

Question 4

What is the Restorative Justice Council (RJC) responsible for?

Answer 4

To establish clear standards for the use of restorative justice and to support victims and specialist professionals in the field

Question 5

Strength: needs of the survivor

Answer 5

• RJC reported results of a 7 year research project, 85% of survivors reported satisfaction with process of meeting offender face to face. Only 2% said it made them feel worse
• Restorative justice achieves some of its aims, helping survivors of crime cope with aftermath

Question 6

Weakness: not all research is positive

Answer 6

• William Wood and Masahiro Suzuki (2016) argue that they are not as survivor-focused as reported in satisfaction surveys
• Restorative justice processes can become distorted, survivors of a crime are ‘used’ as a way to help rehabilitate offenders than being helped themselves
• Needs of survivor may be secondary to the need to rehabilitate offenders

Question 7

Strength: recidivism

Answer 7

• Leads to a decrease in reoffending
• Heather Strang et al (2013) compared offenders with restorative justice schemes to those with just custodial sentencing
• They were less likely to reoffend
• Reduction was larger in offenders with violent crimes than crimes against property
• Restorative justice has a positive impact on reoffending, maybe for some types of offence more than others.

Question 8

Weakness: abusing the system

Answer 8

• Unaware of offenders intentions
• Offenders may use restorative justice to avoid punishment, play down their faults, taking pride in relationship with survivor using direct contact
• Explains why not all offenders ultimately benefit from restorative justice and they reoffend