Restorative justice (RJ) is a different way of looking at the criminal justice system. Instead of focusing solely on the offender, Restorative justice places the emphasis on the victim first, making sure their harms and needs are addressed, then followed by the offender, and rounding out with the community. Restorative justice has been introduced in Brazil as early as the 1990’s after it has found its way from North America through restorative justice initiatives. Brazil officially implemented restorative justice in the early 2000’s for their juvenile justice system with three pilot projects in the cities of Porto Alegre, Sao Caetano do Sol, and in Brasilia. Brazil in particular along with Latin Americas relied on the military as the aid to police when crime and violence have become rampant (Achutti & Pallamolla, 2012). Brazil has been promoting restorative justice to help bring down crimes by bringing together victims, offenders, and the community for support and not rely on extreme military and police measures to resolve the issues. …show more content…
As previously mentioned Brazil placed their focus on juveniles for RJ and one such program in Sao Caetano, “Project Justice and Education: Partnership for Citizenship” was developed with the Youth Justice System and focuses on young people accused of having committed a crime where the youth Justice officials and the Public Prosecutors are primarily the administrators (Achutti & Pallamolla, 2012). The RJ practice used in this program were diversionary and for noncriminal offenses since those who implemented this program wanted these youths to understand their mistakes without having to go through the justice system. For the criminal offenses outside of school, youth courts were the direction
Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz states how schools that claim they are following restorative approaches through their policies in discipline are not necessarily restorative, but have enough flexibility to allow a restorative response.
Restorative justice is defined as “using humanistic, no punitive strategies to right wrongs and restore social harmony” (Siegel, 2008, p. 189). Instead of imposing harsh penalties on offenders like long prison sentences or even the death penalty, restorative justice calls for a more rehabilitative approach, such as reconciliation and offender assistance.
“After 250 years of enslavement in America, African Americans were still terrorized in Deep South; they were pinned to the ghettos, overcrowded, overcharged, discriminated, and undereducated”. The best solution is to owe them reparations. To aid them out of their unjust inherit status. The novel is based on real life situations of many African Americans that had to face during slave, and post slave era in the United States of America. The purpose is to show that not having reparations for the African Americans lead to many downsides to the nation’s inequalities. In the novel “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, he uses just ethics and remorse obligation, to demonstrate the nation should to pay for the damage done to the black community.
Restorative Justice is a new way of thinking about and responding to crime, especially in relation to youth offending. For the past decade, especially, there has been an increasing interest in new approaches towards criminal justice in general but more so in terms of juvenile delinquency and finding an appropriate form of punishment to escape the labelling of youth delinquency, which involve the community and focus much more on the victim.
The quality of correctional and criminal justice system connections is the determining feature of each country’s level of economic and social development. The more controlled the correctional system, the more orderly the overall image of the country appears. In the United States, the long history of the penitentiary system has contributed in the improvement of legal principles of corrections and criminal justice: the prison life in the U.S. has lost its negative features, and a range of recovery and rehabilitation programs work to make prisoners “better people”. Brazilian correction systems are surrounded by an array of legal and human rights debates; in the current correction systems, the levels of safety and security leaves much to be desirable, while the absence of a well-built system of probation and rehabilitation considerably reduces ex-prisoners’ life chances of returning to “normal community” life.
Does justice exist in America? Yes, justice does exist in America, but for whom is the question real question. In America all citizens should feel equal to one another but that is not the case. Rather than feeling equal to one another, the blacks and whites of the country feel hatred to one another. In American justice is served but it is mainly for whites and not blacks. The word justice is defined as the quality of being fair and reasonable. Unfortunately in America, justice is not always equally served due to racism in the modern society.
Over the years many laws and policies have been created and altered. As a result many activities have become illegal. With so many laws in place now, juvenile crime is also on the rise. More and more juveniles are being sent to prison than ever before. The goal of the juvenile justice system was to rehabilitate but now it is more focused on punishment. However, many rehabilitation programs are still in place to help delinquent juveniles get back on the path to becoming successful productive members of society. One program that comes to mind is the restorative justice program.
Over the years, the traditional criminal justice system has emphasized offenders’ accountability through punishment and stigmatization. The emphasis on the retributive philosophy made it challenging for the system to meaningfully assist and empower crime victims. In the criminal justice system, victims often face insensitive treatment with little or no opportunity for input into the perseverance of their case and report feeling voiceless in the process used (Choi, Gilbert, & Green, 2013:114). Crime Victims, advocates, and practitioners have called for an expansion of victims’ rights and community-based alternatives rather than punishment-orientated justice policies. What victims want from the criminal justice system is a less formal process, more information about case processing, respectful treatment, and emotional restoration. Therefore, there is a growing need to progress towards the restorative justice (RJ) system.
As the purpose of restorative justice is to mend the very relationship between the victim, offender, and society, communities that embrace restorative justice foster an awareness on how the act has harmed others. Braithwaite (1989) notes that by rejecting only the criminal act and not the offender, restorative justice allows for a closer empathetic relationship between the offender, victims, and community. By acknowledging the intrinsic worth of the offender and their ability to contribute back to the community, restorative justice shows how all individuals are capable of being useful despite criminal acts previous. This encourages offenders to safely reintegrate into society, as they are encouraged to rejoin and find rapport with the community through their emotions and
Agreeing on a definition of restorative justice has proved difficult. One definition is a theory of justice that focuses mostly on repairing the harm caused by criminal behaviour. The reparation is done through a cooperative process that includes all the stakeholders. Restorative justice can also be explained as an approach of justice that aims to satisfy the needs of the victims and offenders, as well as the entire community. The most broadly accepted definition for restorative justice, however, is a process whereby all the parties that have a stake in a specific offence collectively resolve on how to deal with the aftermath. This process is largely focused around reparation, reintegration and participation of victims. That is to say, it is a victim-centred approach to criminal justice, and it perceives crime differently than the adversarial system of justice.
Stephen has been developing and facilitating restorative interventions for school districts, police departments and private sector clients for over a decade.
When emerging from conflict, nations seek ways in which to address the atrocities of the past, in order to move forward into a more peaceful future. There are no shortcuts or simple solutions for healing the wounds of victims that experienced those treacherous events. Invariably, the utterance of retributive justice and restorative justice arises as the means to finding a solution. As the fields of retributive justice and restorative justice appear they are both relatively emerging examples of approaches, and, over the course of the past decade, there has been mutual expansion and interaction to inform the people of the needs, rights and expectations of divided societies and individuals whose lives have been shattered by conflict. On the contrary, as simple as that might sound justice to have such a brief definition (the quality of being just or righteous.) , it’s likely to assume that the term (justice) is a superficial one. This essay shall raise a very complex and contentious question: is there conflict in what defines true justice?
Restorative Justice is an alternative way to respond to offenders. It is a voluntary process. The article defined restorative justice as “a voluntary, community-based response to criminal behavior that attempts to bring together the victim, the offender, and the community, in an effort to address the harm caused by the criminal behavior.” It is based under the principle that criminal behaviours injure everyone and that all involved should work together to address the causes of the behaviour and its consequences. Its key concepts are healing, reparation, reintegration, and the prevention of future harm.
“Restorative justice is an approach to crime and other wrongdoings that focuses on repairing harm and encouraging responsibility and involvement of the parties impacted by the wrong.” This quote comes from a leading restorative justice scholar named Howard Zehr. The process of restorative justice necessitates a shift in responsibility for addressing crime. In a restorative justice process, the citizens who have been affected by a crime must take an active role in addressing that crime. Although law professionals may have secondary roles in facilitating the restorative justice process, it is the citizens who must take up the majority of the responsibility in healing the pains caused by crime. Restorative justice is a very broad subject and has many other topics inside of it. The main goal of the restorative justice system is to focus on the needs of the victims, the offenders, and the community, and focus
Restorative and community justice are plans that are introduced to the criminal justice that could potentially improve the formal procedures. Restorative justice is the process of an offender making a mends with their victim. For example, a school bully sits and discuss his/her reasoning for bullying, how they plan to change, etc. This plan may be effective but most times, victims could be frightened by their offender and may have a traumatic episode from flashbacks of the incident. This plan could be operative but not with certain crimes such as murder and rape.