The Potential of Restorative Justice

What kind of role might restorative justice play in the future?

Johnstone, Gerry. Restorative Justice: Ideas, Values, Debates. (Second Edition).

Restorative Justice: Ideas, Values, Debates, provides a concise but informative introduction to the fundamental ideas of restorative justice and the many arguments surrounding the movement. Although not a detailed history or explanation of theory, the book offers an informative and clear look at the restorative justice movement, its opposing arguments, and its possibilities for the future. This second edition keeps the original text almost intact, with only some minor revisions, but with an additional chapter (chapter 9), which looks at developments in the campaign for restorative justice over the last decade. (Excerpt).

Therapeutic jurisprudence, restorative justice and brushfire arson

from Michael King's entry on Cutting Edge Law Blog: Last Thursday and Friday at the Monash University Conference Centre in Melbourne I took part in a symposium organised by Monash Sustainability Institute, the Australian Institute of Criminology and others about preventing bush fires.... A key feature of the symposium was its multi-disciplinary approach – professionals from the fire services, police, psychology, corrections, criminology and the law explored the different aspects of the motivations behind, detection and investigations into and prosecution and sentencing in relation to bush fire arson. Identifying potential arsonists and greater community education were other matters considered at the symposium.

Mediating criminal matters in the Ethiopian criminal justice system: The prospect of restorative justice

from the article by Jetu Edossa in Oromia Law Journal: In Ethiopia, the use of mediation process as a traditional method of dispute resolution has been practiced for centuries. Even today in rural areas, particularly criminal dispute resolution processes dealing with victims and criminal offenders are widely practiced and deep rooted with varying degrees among the different ethnic groups in the country. For instance, the use of mediation process through Jaarsaa Biyya or Jaarsaa Araara among the Oromo and the other ethnic groups has been used.

Duality or trinity, scales or circles: What approach for justice in a new generation?

Ball, Jennifer and Caldwell, Wayne and Pranis, Kay. Doing Democracy With Circles

In this book, we explore the potentials for using Circles to solve the multifaceted and often intensely emotional problems that public planers face on a regular basis. We have written this book specifically for the planning practitioner, the student of planning, and the community member who seeks better public decisions. Yet, it is also true that much of the information that we offer about Circles and how to adapt them to problem-solving may be useful to those who want to apply Circles for other purposes as well. (Excerpt)

Exhaustive mental-health strategy needs big cash boost to address crisis

from the article by Sharon Kirkey in the Leader-Post: The nation's first mental health strategy is calling for an overhaul of a system it calls so fractured and underfunded that it's turning prisons and jails into the "asylums of the 21st century" and leading many community service groups to drop waiting lists to avoid giving people false hope that "eventually their turn will come." The strategy from the Mental Health Commission of Canada calls for spending on mental health to increase from seven to nine per cent of total health spending over 10 years, an increase of $34 billion. According to the commission, the economic impact of mental illness on Canada's economy is "enormous" - at least $50 billion annually.

Schroeder, Ainslie. Mediating Sexual Assault: Justice for Victims Within and Beyond the Criminal Justice System.

Restorative justice measures, such as victim-offender mediation and family group conferencing, have been touted as bringing a richer and more lasting justice to all parties involved—victims, offenders, family members and the community alike. Significant concerns exist, however, regarding the appropriateness of applying restorative justice to gendered violence, both because of doubts that restorative methods can benefit victims in this context and because of the perceived incompatibility of restorative justice with the women’s movement goal of establishing violence against women as a serious public criminal law issue. This paper will focus on both the appropriateness and efficacy of restorative justice measures in addressing sexual assault and on the proper forum in which it should occur. I conclude that restorative justice for victims of sexual assault has demonstrable benefits for victims and offenders, benefits that could reach more parties if offered completely apart from the criminal justice system. While restorative justice measures will have some negative impact on efforts to keep violence against women in the public eye, its demonstrated benefits would likely exceed any detrimental effect. Generating options for women who are ill-served by the current system and in need of help is the best feminist response to this very difficult issue. (excerpt)

Cavallaro, James L.. Looking Backward to Address the Future? Transitional Justice, Rising Crime, and Nation-Building

The author proposes that the greatest threat to internal stability is not terrorism but non-political violent crime or so-called "street violence." He argues then that nations in the state of transition to democracy ought to spend more of their resources developing measures that cope with an increase in street violence rather than on focusing solely on redressing the institutionalized violence of the previous government.

Social work and restorative justice

from Howard Zehr's entry on Restorative Justice Blog Social Work and Restorative Justice: Skills for Dialogue, Peacemaking and Reconciliation, edited by Elizabeth Beck, Nancy P. Kropf and Pamela Blume-Leonard (Oxford University Press, 2011), is an important collection of essays on this subject. It will be of interest to both social work and restorative justice practitioners. The following is the Afterward that Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz and I were invited to contribute: The field that has come to be known as restorative justice was born in experiment and practice rather than theory; the term “restorative justice” and the conceptual framework came later. Although it did not directly emerge from the field of social work, restorative justice was born in a context and era much influenced by social work. It is appropriate, then, that the fields of restorative justice and social work are again converging, as the authors in this volume so convincingly argue....

Pranis, Kay. Restorative Justice - Implications for Women Offenders

Restorative justice is a proposed alternative framework to guide the criminal justice system. It is based on a set of assumptions which differ significantly from the assumptions of our current system. Consequently, a criminal justice system based on restorative justice would have some differences in process, structure, actions and decisions from our current system. I will present major differences between the two approaches and suggest ways that those differences might impact women offenders in particular. (excerpt)

Dunbaugh, Frank M. Picturing the Transformation Process

Mr. Dunbaugh disputes the contention that penal abolitionists should reject restorative justice and seek instead transformative justice. He urges that abolitionists must continue to pursue their primary goal - penal abolition - and that restorative justice is a proper vehicle to achieve that goal. He contends that transformative justice analyses lack: (1) a clear commitment to abolishing the penal laws, (2) a clear vision of what new goals are sought, and (3) a clear strategy for bringing about the desired transformation. He then attempts to suggest a direction for this transformation process.

Price, Marty D.. "Mediated Civil Compromise: A Tool for Restorative Justice."

Price posits an instance of embezzling as an example of a case of an offense in which society has little or no need to exact retribution from the offender and, likewise, little or no need to punish for the sake of deterrence. Realistically, harm was done only to the victim. If an agreement could be reached, by which: the offender would take meaningful responsibility for the harm done by restoring the victim's losses, and by which, the offender could demonstrate his remorse and become reconciled with the victim, then the state's justice dollars would be better spent prosecuting another offender who, absent remorse and meaningful responsibility, presents a genuine threat to the public. This is the philosophy of restorative justice, rather than retributive justice.

Price, Marty D.. Crime and Punishment: Can Mediation Produce Restorative Justice for Victims and Offenders?

Victim-Offender Mediation Programs (VOMP), also known as Victim-Offender Reconciliation Programs (VORP), bring offenders face-to-face with the victims of their crimes, with the assistance of a trained mediator, usually a community volunteer. Crime is personalized as offenders learn the human consequences of their actions, and victims (who are largely ignored by the justice system) have the opportunity to speak their minds and their feelings to the one who most ought to hear them, contributing to the healing process of the victim. Victim-offender mediation, with its focus on restorative justice, cannot provide all of the answers to our crime problem, but it is an essential part of the solution.

Price, Marty D.. The Benefits of Victim Offender Mediation

This article summarizes benefits of mediation for victims, offenders, communities, and the justice system.

Price, Marty D.. "Crime and Punishment: Can Mediation Produce Restorative Justice for Victims and Offenders?"

In our society’s justice system, justice equals punishment. Because our society defines justice in this manner, the victims of crimes often seek the most severe possible punishment for their offenders. However, punishment does not address the other important needs of victims such as restoring their losses, answering their questions, relieving their fears, helping them make sense of their tragedy or healing their wound. Regardless of their particular point-of-views, most people agree that our criminal justice system is broken and we don’t know how to fix it. Victim offender mediation, with its focus on restorative justice, cannot provide all the answers to our crime problem, but it is an essential part of the solution. A approach concerned with righting the wrongs to victims and making amends, repairing the harm done (whatever ways possible, including victim compensation) and restoring the lives affected by crime, offers us a much more hopeful vision for the future.

Weitekamp, Elmar G. M. "Reparative Justice: Towards a Victim Oriented System."

This essay critically evaluates the emergence of reparative justice, arguing that its confinement to trivial offenses is unwarranted. Reparative schemes have been used historically for a variety of violent offenses, including murder. The rediscovery of reparative justice as a penal sanction is attributed to the rediscovery of the victim in criminal justice and a need for a less severe and more humane sanction for offenders. Shortcomings in the current practice of restorative justice is discussed. Finally, the author calls for a plan to base reparative justice upon the works of Tony Marshall.

Liebmann, Marian. "Restorative justice for families."

With a particular focus on victim-offender mediation and conferencing, Liebmann discusses how this restorative justice practice can assist families affected by crime. She begins with definitions of mediation, reparation, and conferencing. Benefits and difficulties of victim-offender mediation are detailed in relation to victims, offenders, and courts. Further discussion also covers community and school mediation, and various forms of mediation connected with court proceedings. Summaries of some case histories exemplify the value of restorative justice for victims, offenders, and families affected by crime.

Eastern Kentucky University, Training Resource Center. Balanced and Restorative Justice

This 2-hour U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention funded videoconference held in 2001 reviewed the Balanced and Restorative Justice (BARJ) Model that outlined an alternative philosophy, restorative justice, and a new mission, "the balanced approach" requiring juvenile justice professionals to devote attention to: (1) enabling offenders to make amends to their victims and community; (2) increasing offender competencies so that they become competent, caring individuals, who can pursue crime free, productive lives; and (3) protecting the public through processes where individual victims, the community, and offenders are all active participants. BARJ builds on existing programs and practices, such as victim-offender mediation, family group conferencing, community service, restitution, and work experience. In better understanding this model, the telecast examined and explored three metropolitan communities that had implemented the BARJ Model within their respective justice systems; Community Intensive Supervision Program (CISP) in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Washington County Community Justice and BIHA Women in Action Peacemaking Circles in Minnesota; and the Colorado Forum and Community and Restorative Justice in Denver. The BARJ Model responded to many issues raised by the victims’ movement, including concerns that victims had little input into the resolution of their own cases, rarely felt heard, and often received no restitution or expression of remorse from the offender. The Model was seen as a vision for the future of juvenile justice built on current innovative practices and based on core community values.

Snyman, Rika. A Restorative Justice Response to Interpersonal Violence

Restorative justice redirects the focus of the entire criminal justice system and inspires an innovative approach to addressing interpersonal violence. This implies a restorative stance towards both offender and victim and a partnership approach in its prevention. The criminal justice system has limited potential to transform society and curtail individual behaviour. With regard to addressing interpersonal violence, there are some serious questions about the extent to which the criminal justice system can realistically carry the major burden of reform. If the approach is taken that the causes of crime need to be the focus of prevention programmes, then it is imperative that a restorative justice approach is needed when addressing the less serious crimes that eventually lead to serious crimes like social fabric crimes. Murder, rape, assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and indecent assault are regarded as social fabric crimes because they attach the moral fibre of the society in which they are committed. South Africa has one of the highest levels of violence in the world and the Northern Cape, one of the nine provinces in the country, ranks per 100,000 of the population, first amongst the provinces in the incidence of rape and serious assault and fourth in murder.

Chapman, Laura A. Beyond crime and punishment

Issues of crime and public safety directly affect people, and increasing globalization means that such issues will become more varied – so writes Laura Chapman, Executive Director of the Policy Research Secretariat (Canada). Examples of new crime and public safety concerns include computer hacking, international corruption, and international terrorism. Chapman argues societies must address root causes of criminal activity to enhance citizens’ confidence, trust, and safety. The complexity of threats requires strategic research and alternative crime prevention approaches.