Questions and Answers: What´s Restorative Justice?

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1. What are the four primary aims of Harris’s model for evaluating restorative justice practices? And what other two factors should a restorative approach incorporate?
Harris initially proposes six aims - at least when it comes to restorative justice program with four primary aims as empowerment, restoration, reintegration and emotional/social healing (Doerner & Lab, 2012).
Empowerment enables all parties, both offender and victim, to be a part of the process of restoration. But not by the same definition over all as empowerment for the victim is wanting the offender to take responsibility for the offense. The victim also has a sense of empowerment with the ability to share their emotions and how the offense has affected their lives (storytelling) and has the power to agree with the ending resolution or not. Whereas the offender has a sense of power in acceptance their fault, listening to the victim’s story and even sharing their own story as to what may have brought them to committing the crime. In turn, empowerment is likewise for the offender in being a part in the resolution (Shnable & Nadler, 2008).
Restoration consists of the victim return to a whole along with the empowerment gained in the restorative process and the offender their image in the sense of public opinion. If the community feels justice has been served and the victim is satisfied with the outcome of the restorative process, the offender stands a better chance of returning to the community whole or pre-criminal act (Gromet, Okimoto, Wenzel & Darley, 2012). Both emphasizing the reintegration into the community in this case, too, given the emotional and social healing as the key players address the harm that has been done in the crime.
The remaining two factor...

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...ioned case of the youth with his disrespectful letter. If he was placed into a conference with the victims would he have enough support in the process of be overwhelmed with the victim’s support system including their friends, neighbors and more?
This would also bring into question who makes up the community in this situation. Would neighbors be necessary in the conference? And last would be the potential to remove the current criminal justice system from power. In the case of those who want to see the rehabilitation of the teenage theft in the aforementioned case, would the restorative process make the victim an obstacle (Doerner & Lab, 2012)?
References
BBC. (2011). Burglar abuses Leeds victims in letter. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-15853088

Doerner, W.G. & Lab, S.P. (2012). Victimology. 6th ed. Burlington, MA:Anderson Publishing

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