Methods Of Modifying - Restoritive Justice

Question 1

Describe methods of modifying behaviour

Answer 1

Restorative justice was developed as an alternative to traditional methods of punishment and can be used as a substitute for traditional punishments for example custodial sentencing alongside to have a reduced custodial sentence
- The key components within restorative justice is that it allows the offender to communicate with the victim allowing the offender to see the impact of their crime and acceptance of responsibility. It focuses on rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and is active rather than passive for all parties and empowers the victim to give them a voice .
- restart to Justice focuses on the positive outcomes for survivors and offenders.
- restart justice fulfil two key aims of custodial sentences one which includes rehabilitation for offenders because it encourages the offender to accept responsibility for their actions and the idea is that when offenders fully understand how the actions have negatively impacted their victims they will have a chance to develop empathy and have ability to take on the perspective of the victim this means it will be less likely that the offender will offend again in the future and reduce recidivism.
- another key aim is atonement for the criminals wrongdoing and this includes psychological atonement where the offend will show size of guilt and remorse and physical atonement which can include community work money or compensation .
- it suggested that the start of retribution focuses on relationships rather than punishment as crime harms people and therefore justice requires the harm to be healed as much as possible
- early models focuses on the offender and the victim only however recent ideas suggest that there are three shareholders.
- victim reparation (such as crime compensation and victim services) community of care reconciliation (such as offenders family services and family centred social work) and also offender responsibility (which includes related community services and victim sensitivity training )
- restorative justice is also flexible and in some cases it is not always a face-to-face interaction and so lots of variations can include phone calls, letters, offenders can repair damage properties themselves and even financial restitution to the victim for psychological and physical harm

Question 2

Evaluation- effectiveness

Answer 2

S- one strength of a start of justice as a method of modifying criminality is that their supporting research for the effectiveness in victims
E- example Sherman and Strang found that victims who used restorative justice were much less likely to develop PTSD and had higher levels of satisfaction compared to conventional methods of punishment.
E- This is further supported by the start of Justice Council who reported that 85% satisfaction from victim face-to-face meetings with their defender.
C- however Miers at el suggested that with there being close contact with the offender this may result in the victim being disturbed and be and then settling experience for them
W- therefore whilst we started justice may be affected for the victim. It is clear that it is only effective if the victim is willing to be involved.

Question 3

Evaluation- effectiveness

Answer 3

S- another strength of restorative justice is that there is supporting research for the effectiveness for the offended themselves
E- for example, an additional finding from Sherman and Strang found that there was reduced recidivism in adult offenders compared to prison sentences. They also found that there were the same levels of reduce reception in young offenders.
C- however the restorative justice program found that there was still a 37% rate of recidivism.
W- therefore whilst restorative justice may not completely reduce recidivism, it is clear that this is a strength as it has the same level or even better at reducing recidivism than traditional methods as this is cheaper than prisons - it should be used.

Question 4

Evaluation- not applicable

Answer 4

S- when limitation of restorative justice is that it may not be applicable to all offenders victims and crimes.
E- for example, for some type of crimes with stuff justice may not be suitable such as sexual assault domestic violence or murder.
E- this suggests that restore justice is not an appropriate response as it can end up causing additional harm to all involved .
W- this is therefore a weakness as restorative justice cannot be applicable to all victims offenders or cases and that restorative justice is for crimes that are considered less severe involving minor misdemeanours or often juveniles.

Question 5

Conclusion

Answer 5

overall , for restorative justice whilst there is research to suggest that it is not entirely effective in reducing recidivism and that it is only effective if the victim is willing to engage it is clear that the benefits outweigh the strengths due to their being supporting research for the benefits of both offenders and victims