Restorative justice is a movement that seeks to repair the harm caused by a criminal act or social injustice by encouraging those involved to actively participate in the process.
Offenders are made aware of the full consequences of their actions and encouraged to apologize, pay restitution or take some other action to repair the damage. Victims are encouraged to meet with offenders and play a role in deciding what response might constitute justice. In essence, restorative justice focuses on the crime as an act against an individual and community rather than an act against the state.
In doing so the process seeks a peaceful resolution that satisfies the parties involved, repairs the damage and brings a better understanding of the underlying causes for the crime or social injustice.
Definitions of restorative justice vary, but each focuses on the need to build a constructive response to wrongdoing. The Center for Restorative Justice at Suffolk University in Boston offers this definition:
"Restorative justice is a broad term which encompasses a growing social movement to institutionalize peaceful approaches to harm, problem-solving and violation of legal and human rights. These range from international peacemaking tribunals…to innovations within the criminal and juvenile justice systems, schools, social services and communities. Rather than privileging the law, professionals and the state, restorative resolutions engage those who are harmed, wrongdoers and their affected communities in search of solutions that promote repair, reconciliation and the rebuilding of relationships. Restorative justice seeks to build partnerships to reestablish mutual responsibility for constructive responses to wrongdoing within our communities.
Restorative approaches seek a balanced approach to the needs of the victim, wrongdoer and community through processes that preserve the safety and dignity of all.”
Restorative justice differs from contemporary justice in several ways, according to a briefing paper for the Centre for Justice & Reconciliation in Washington, D.C.:
"First, it views criminal acts more comprehensively – rather than defining crime as simply lawbreaking, it recognizes that offenders harm victims, communities and even themselves. Second, it involves more parties in responding to crime – rather giving key roles only to government and the offender, it includes victims and communities as well. Finally, it measures success differently – rather than measuring how much punishment is inflicted, it measures how much harm is repaired or prevented.”
"The roots of the modern restorative justice movement can be traced to Kitchener, Ontario. In 1974, a Mennonite probation officer and a volunteer service director organized a discussion group to develop a more humane and efficient criminal justice system.
The concept of restorative justice and its basic principles have evoled continuously since those initial discussions in Canada 23 years ago.
"But a case can be made that restorative approaches to crime actually date back thousands of years. The Babylonian Code of Hammurabi (c. 1700 B.C.) prescribed restitution as a sanction for property offenses, and the Sumerian Code of Ur-Nammi (c. 2060 B.C.) required restitution for offenses of violence. Convicted thieves were ordered to pay double the value of stolen goods as dictated by the Roman Twelve Tables of Laws (449 B.C.). Germanic tribal laws promulgated by King Clovis (496 A.D.) called for restitutional sanctions for both violent and nonviolent offenses. The Laws of Ethelbert (c. 600 A.D.) included detailed restitution schedules. The Hebrew culture promoted the concept of peace as much as any ancient people.
"A shift in paradigm took place with the Norman invasion of Britain, however. By the end of the 11th century, crime was no longer perceived as injurious to persons, but rather was seen as an offense against the state. William the Conqueror developed a legal system for centralizing power. William’s son, Henry I, issued laws detailing offenses against the "king’s peace.” Infractions that violated this peace were considered to be an offense against the king; the actual victim was denied any significant role in the justice system.
"Kings William and Henry I developed a justice system that has lasted for centuries. Is it possible that in the next millennium we will reverse the trend of crimes being violations against the "king’s peace” and revert to the philosophy that crimes are injurious to individual people? Maybe.
"Today, the concept of restorative justice is drawing considerable attention, and rightfully so; there are many examples of successful and positive restorative programs. I generally prefer the term "community justice” rather than "restorative justice” because most people have some concept of what community means as it relates to the justice process – community corrections, community policing, community prosecution and community courts.”
Models and Practices
The concept of restorative justice is applicable not only to the legal system but to schools and communities needing to resolve conflict in a manner satisfactory to all. It encompasses various models and processes, from mediation to group conferences with victims and offenders and representatives of the community affected by the act.
In his book, "The Little Guide to Restorative Justice,” Howard Zehr, considered a pioneer in the field, defines the scope of the concept. According to an abstract of the book:
"The three pillars of restorative justice are harms and needs, obligations, and engagement. Restorative justice encourages outcomes that promote responsibility, reparation, and healing for all. The goals are to put key decisions into the hands of those most affected by crime, make justice more healing and more transformative, and reduce the likelihood of future offenses. Achieving these goals requires that victims are involved in the process and come out of it satisfied; offenders understand how their actions have affected other people and take responsibility for those actions; outcomes help to repair the harms done and address the reasons for the offense; and victim and offender both gain a sense of "closure,” and both are reintegrated into the community. The various models of restorative justice include victim-offender conferences, family group conferences, circles, diversionary programs, and transitional programs.” See Zehr talk about restorative justice and the restorative justice continuum.
Does it work?
The results of studies on whether restorative justice prevents offenders from reoffending are mixed. According to a study published in 2005 in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology:
"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.”
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