Theory Of Restorative Justice

The concept of restorative justice centers on a mutual understanding between the offender and community in regards to the offender's previous criminal acts. This theory focuses on repairing harm the offender inflicted on the community in a non-retributive manner. With the assistance of the community, victims and the cooperation of the offender, this theory points the ability to repair the criminal in a non-traditional means. The traditional mindset being of the community or society seeing an offender as a lost cause and for a “lock them up and throw away the key” mentality. Instead, offenders should still be accountable for their actions, however, the community and victims come together in an informal means of justice to heal the criminal. For restorative justice to be successful, the offender must accept both monetary restitution and be willing to apologize. In addition, the offender must accept responsibility for his actions, as well value their
position in within their respective communities. If these key factors are present, reintegrative shaming is believed to be a helpful tool in accomplishing offender reform. Moreover, when a criminal develops personal shame, along with the assistance of victims and other members of the community, reform can begin to take place in order to reintegrate back into the community. The shaming must be kept to a minimum and be controlled in order to prevent the efforts of rehabilitation to fail. This method of reform can also provide a means of deterring crime. Programs such as victim impact panels are one of the methods used in this theory.
Impact panels provide victims with the ability to face offenders guilty of crimes similar to that the victims had been subjected to. This provides victims the opportunity to explain to criminals the harm their actions have on victims. The goal of such a program is to give victims the platform to voice their experiences in being victimized and educate offenders. Another program used is family group conferences. In contrast to victim impact panels, the family group conference does place the victim and the victim’s offender in the same room, along with families from both sides. Offenders are granted the opportunity to explain their actions to their victim. Additionally, the victim is given the same opportunity to speak and explain the harm the offender has caused them. The outcome of such a meeting results in the victim and offender coming to a mutual agreement, an apology, and some form of restitution to be paid to the victim and their
family.

I believe restorative justice is effective, as long as the offender values their community and genuinely understands the impact of their actions. This form of treatment can be very beneficial opposed to our current methods used today. Victim impact panels have proven to be beneficial for a couple of my personal friends. I have two friends that were arrested for DUI and were directed to participate in impact panels. Both panels my friends attended were families of victims who had been killed by drunk drivers. The word my friends used to describe their experience, “horrifying.” It honestly changed their lives. In fact, upon talking to them about their experience, both friends became very emotional and filled with regret even though they had not harmed anyone with their errant decision to drive intoxicated. They were both so moved by their experience with the impact panel, one of them stopped drinking altogether, and the other will not set foot in a vehicle, even after one drink. So with my personal experience in knowing offenders who have benefitted from restorative justice, I fully believe it can be a far better means of reform than just giving up on certain offenders and hoping a jail cell will solve their problems.