Restorative justice is a group of conflict resolution/alternative dispute resolution processes used in the wake of an offense, or a criminal act that may bring an individual into contact with the justice system.
These offenses are most often petty crimes, but they can also be more serious crimes. In either case, restorative justice requires offenders to show accountability, which is acknowledgment of and responsibility for a given action and its consequences.
This resolution process is intended to produce results beyond those allowed by the court system by focusing on the needs of the victims, or members of a community that could have been impacted by a crime, and the offenders, as opposed to simply punishing the offender.
When it begins, the restorative justice process opens up a dialogue by bringing together the following parties:
The goal in this process is accountability, as the three parties will decide together on an appropriate way for the offender to give restitution to the victims and community members that have been impacted by the crime.
Restorative justice programs have an extremely high success rate. Victim satisfaction is higher than in most cases; the offenders’ accountability is also higher, and their recidivism (repetition of crimes) is lower than when many of these crimes are processed through traditional court systems.
In some municipalities, the court system will refer juvenile offenders to restorative justice programs for minor offenses, such as vandalism, graffiti, or shoplifting. The juveniles who have committed these crimes will then sit down with the victims.
For example, if the crime is shoplifting, the store owners will share how this affected them, and the community members can talk about how a theft from a store in their neighborhood has impacted their sense of safety.
Keep in mind that while this example pertains to juvenile offenders, there are a number of restorative programs that also work with adults.
In Context
Todd and his fraternity brothers were arrested for vandalizing public buildings during a long evening of pranks and mayhem. Their lawyer successfully arranged for their case to go through a restorative justice process.
Todd and his fraternity brothers sat down with the owners of the buildings that were vandalized and the city workers who cleaned up the results of their vandalism, as well as several community members who had seen and been angered by the vandalism. All parties talked together about their experiences. Todd talked about succumbing to the peer pressure to participate in the fraternity's rituals, while a shop owner talked about the shame of seeing her shop defaced, and a community member shared his feeling of fear at seeing a group of young men running wild in the town center.
Todd and his friends accepted responsibility for what they did. They formally apologized to the other parties and wrote a letter in the local newspaper extending their apology to the community. The fraternity also sponsored several volunteer beautification days, in which fraternity brothers—both the ones involved in the vandalism and others—came together with community members to build a public garden space.
Source: Adapted from Sophia tutorial by Marlene Johnson.
