Restorative Justice Essay

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I was first introduced to restorative justice because I believe that forgiveness shouldn’t be given unconditionally. I believe offenders should be held accountable for their wrong doing and that victims can communicate openly about the effects that being wronged has done. Restorative justice helps hold offenders accountable, helps victims find their voice, and it also helps communities heal, together. At face value, restorative justice seems like a perfect action to an imperfect system. The articles that I found the most of, that also peaked my interest, were about restorative justice being used in school systems and taking zero tolerance’s spot. It interested me because I believe that teaching youth to understand the consequences and take …show more content…

They point out that the current policy is flawed because it doesn’t take in account how it’ll effect children; offenders misbehave and are removed from their environment and never really worked with to solve underlying problems. It “addresses the roots of student ‘misbehavior’” (Editors of Rethinking Schools, ERS). To me, that makes more sense to address and help children understand, rather than turn them away and make them feel isolated. Restorative justice brings offenders and victims together to collaborate a way to make a situation better; but, could this always work with every situation? Do some students deserve to be shut out and isolated? Paul Sperry argues in his article, “How liberal discipline policies are making schools less safe”, that the new systems have only empowered students to become more violent because there are no “real” consequences, just talk circles, which has made violence more prominent in schools and not less. But, even in his article Smith points out that students that have been through the restorative process and afterwards proceed to offend again were given a stronger punishment, for example one student was suspended and another referred for expulsion (Smith). I can see that consequences aren’t necessarily abandoned with restorative justice the administration just needs more

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