Lesson 12: Restorative Justice

Question 1

Restorative Justice

Answer 1

According to John Braithwaire (2004) ‘crime hurts, justice should heal’. Restorative justice programmes switch the emphasis from the needs of the state (to enforce the law and punish criminals) to the needs of the victim (to come to terms with crime and move on with their lives). Victims are encouraged to take an active role in the punishment of the offender, and offenders are required to take responsibility for their actions and face up to what they have done to their victim.

Restorative justice is a process of managed collaboration between the offender and the victim based on the principles of healing and empowerment. A trained mediator facilitates a meeting between the offender and the victim. The victim is given the opportunity to confront the offender and explain how the crime affected them. The offender is confronted with the consequences of their actions, including the emotional distress they have caused the victim.

Answer 2

Restorative justice programmes are quite diverse but they all share key features:

• Focus on acceptance of responsibility and positive change for offenders (less emphasis on punishment).
• Not restricted to courtrooms, survivors (seen as more empowering than ‘victims’) and offenders meet face-to-face in a non courtroom setting.
• Active rather than passive involvement of all parties in the process.
• Focus on positive outcomes for survivors and offenders.

In some variations of restorative justice offenders make financial restitution for the physical and emotional damage they have done. Offenders sometimes even repair damaged property themselves.

Restorative justice can function as an alternative to custodial sentences, especially if the offender is young, as an additional to community service, or as an incentive to reduce an existing custodial sentence

Question 3

Advantages of Restorative Justice

Answer 3

+ Shapland et al. (2007) conducted a government funded research project and found that every £1 spent on restorative justice would save the criminal justice system £8 by reducing recidivism. However, because restorative justice requires specialist and highly trained professionals it is very expensive and finding funding has proved challenging.

Question 4

Disadvantages of Restorative Justice

Answer 4

• The success of restorative justice relies on the offender showing remorse. Some offenders might sign up for the scheme to avoid prison, or reduce their sentence, rather than from a genuine willingness to change. This could explain the high dropout rates in restorative justice, offenders often change their mind because they were not committed to the process in the first place.
• Victims may have an ulterior motive for agreeing to take part in restorative justice, they may simply want to seek revenge.
• The organisation ‘Women’s Aid’ has called for an end to the use of restorative justice in domestic abuse cases because the offender can exploit this opportunity to convince the victim to take them back. Abusers often have a lot of power over their victims and so a meeting between them could be dangerous.
• Restorative justice is unpopular with the general public because it is regarded as a ‘soft option’. This means that politicians are unwilling to support it because they want to please the electorate by seeming ‘tough on crime’.