Restorative Justice
What is Restorative Justice?
For many, Restorative Justice is an entirely new concept. For others, it may be a new buzz word that is not quite fully understood. This page provides a basic overview of Restorative Justice and highlights some important principles. The movement to actively live out the principals of restorative justice in daily life is often referred to as Restorative Practices.
Restorative justice offers an different way to view and respond to crime and other harmful behaviors. In our traditional criminal justice system, a crime is a violation of law against the State. The offender must answer to the state to pay for his/her crimes. It is very offender-focused with the emphasis on making sure the offender gets punished appropriately. The system is administered by court officials and uninvolved third parties. Restorative Justice looks at crime as a violation of the relationships between people that causes harm. The response to this harm focuses on identifying the needs of the victim(s), the offender(s) and the community, and finding out how to repair the harm that was caused. The victim’s voice is important in restorative justice – to share his/her story and let the offender know how to make it right. The offender must take responsibility for her/his actions and follow through to restore the relationship, not just to the victim, but also the community.
Why use Restorative Justice?
Hard core proponents of restorative justice will answer: because it’s the right thing to do. Many people will probably need to know more before they start thinking about a restorative approach to justice. Restorative justice may not be the sole solution to every injustice, but it does address many weaknesses in our current approach. Victims of crimes report that they often feel powerless in the criminal justice system – they are not involved in the process in a meaningful way, beyond providing evidence and testimony for the court and many times feel re-victimized by the way their voice is unheard by the authorities. Offenders pay their restitution to the State, not to those directly harmed. And our prisons are filled with offenders who serve their sentence and “pay off their debt to society,” but never have to come face-to-face with the harm they caused and thereby escape accepting true accountability for their actions.
Is it effective? Yes, restorative justice practices have very high victim satisfaction rates and program completion rates -- meaning that offenders who start in a restorative justice process stay with the process through completion. And one of the by-products of quality restorative justice programs shows a reduction in re-offending rates by the offender. This correlation is especially strong in programs involving youth offenders, which offers great promise for our future! Restorative practices include victim-offender mediation, family-group conferencing, community peace circles, as well as many other models in practice around the world.
What are the foundational principles of Restorative Justice?
First and foremost, the value of respect is the foundational value of restorative justice. Respect guides how the stakeholders are involved in the process and how the stakeholders interact with each other. Respect permeates all the principles, models and steps of restorative justice practices. The importance of relationships and our interconnectedness with each other are also vital values that underlie the principles of restorative justice.
Howard Zehr identifies three pillars of restorative justice in The Little Book of Restorative Justice:
For more information
I highly recommend the following books as excellent introductions to restorative justice. Each book is less than 100 pages and provides a practical and simple overview of the topic.
For many, Restorative Justice is an entirely new concept. For others, it may be a new buzz word that is not quite fully understood. This page provides a basic overview of Restorative Justice and highlights some important principles. The movement to actively live out the principals of restorative justice in daily life is often referred to as Restorative Practices.
Restorative justice offers an different way to view and respond to crime and other harmful behaviors. In our traditional criminal justice system, a crime is a violation of law against the State. The offender must answer to the state to pay for his/her crimes. It is very offender-focused with the emphasis on making sure the offender gets punished appropriately. The system is administered by court officials and uninvolved third parties. Restorative Justice looks at crime as a violation of the relationships between people that causes harm. The response to this harm focuses on identifying the needs of the victim(s), the offender(s) and the community, and finding out how to repair the harm that was caused. The victim’s voice is important in restorative justice – to share his/her story and let the offender know how to make it right. The offender must take responsibility for her/his actions and follow through to restore the relationship, not just to the victim, but also the community.
Why use Restorative Justice?
Hard core proponents of restorative justice will answer: because it’s the right thing to do. Many people will probably need to know more before they start thinking about a restorative approach to justice. Restorative justice may not be the sole solution to every injustice, but it does address many weaknesses in our current approach. Victims of crimes report that they often feel powerless in the criminal justice system – they are not involved in the process in a meaningful way, beyond providing evidence and testimony for the court and many times feel re-victimized by the way their voice is unheard by the authorities. Offenders pay their restitution to the State, not to those directly harmed. And our prisons are filled with offenders who serve their sentence and “pay off their debt to society,” but never have to come face-to-face with the harm they caused and thereby escape accepting true accountability for their actions.
Is it effective? Yes, restorative justice practices have very high victim satisfaction rates and program completion rates -- meaning that offenders who start in a restorative justice process stay with the process through completion. And one of the by-products of quality restorative justice programs shows a reduction in re-offending rates by the offender. This correlation is especially strong in programs involving youth offenders, which offers great promise for our future! Restorative practices include victim-offender mediation, family-group conferencing, community peace circles, as well as many other models in practice around the world.
What are the foundational principles of Restorative Justice?
First and foremost, the value of respect is the foundational value of restorative justice. Respect guides how the stakeholders are involved in the process and how the stakeholders interact with each other. Respect permeates all the principles, models and steps of restorative justice practices. The importance of relationships and our interconnectedness with each other are also vital values that underlie the principles of restorative justice.
Howard Zehr identifies three pillars of restorative justice in The Little Book of Restorative Justice:
- Restorative justice focuses on harms and needs – the needs of the victim, but also the needs of the offender and the community
- Wrongs or harms result in obligations – the offender needs to take responsibility for the harm caused and take actions to make things right as much as possible
- Restorative justice promotes engagement or participation – the principle stakeholders (victim, offender and community) have significant roles in the process
For more information
I highly recommend the following books as excellent introductions to restorative justice. Each book is less than 100 pages and provides a practical and simple overview of the topic.
- The Little Book of Restorative Justice, by Howard Zehr
- The Little Book of Restorative Discipline in Schools, by Amstutz and Mullet