Pros And Cons Of Restorative Justice

Restorative justice is a theory with many definitions, as well as many different approaches. The meaning can vary depending on who is defining it, how it is being used, and in what setting it is being used. It is ultimately focused on bringing peace to offenders, victims, and the community. The theory could greatly benefit the current criminal justice system, but not in one particular way. Every crime is a different situation and has a different path to restoration. Restorative justice could be beneficial to both juvenile and adult systems because restoration and peace should not be limited by age. Restorative justice is a term that emphasizes restoring the victim and the community instead of focusing on punishing the offender (Liebmann, 2007). It works to repair any harm caused or revealed through the crime that took place (Strong & Van Ness, 2010). Support and healing for the victim, as well as offenders taking responsibility for their actions, are seen as priorities within the principles of restorative justice. Other principles include
This is a disappointing statistic when taking into account how much money is spent on housing those individuals while they are in prison. On average, it costs 115,000 dollars to house an inmate for one year. This amount of money is not something to be thrown around on something that does not seem to do the job of motivating offenders to change. It only costs approximately 10,000 dollars a year to run a restorative justice program. The cost is not the only thing that shows a large difference when comparing the two approaches. Restorative justice programs lower the rate of re-offense from 70 percent down to only 15 percent (TEDx, 2012). With these statistics showing how beneficial restorative justice can be, it does not make sense to continue throwing away money on prisons that do not do the