Criminal Justice

Use reliable, quality resources to locate an article on restorative justice.

Read and reflect on your article.

In a Word document, compose a journal entry and address the following questions with your interpretations, thoughts, and feelings about this innovative option for offenders and address the following:

How could restorative justice practices impact and affect the victim and the offender? What types of crime do you think would be effective to address with restorative justice practices?
Would you rather live in a place that practiced traditional criminal justice or in one that practiced community justice? Why?
Do you think citizens want to get involved in their own crime-prevention programs? Why or why not? Would you want to participate in a restorative justice model if you were the victim of a crime?
Do restorative justice processes resolve matters in a timely fashion? Why or why not?

ANSWER

Impact of Restorative Justice on the Victim and Offender

Restorative justice focuses on reestablishing the balance that has been offset by a crime, which involves the victim and the offender in the decision making process to restore balance. The focus of restorative justice is to heal rather than punish. Restorative justice offers the victim the chance to communicate with the offender and explain the crime’s real effect (O’Mahony and Doak, 2017). On the other hand, the offender is given a chance to account for the crime and help them be accountable and make amends. Restorative justice offers both the offenders and the victims more satisfaction that justice has been done. This approach lowers the victim’s post-traumatic stress and reduces the victim’s desire to revenge against the offenders. The primary goal of restorative justice is to repair the harm, reintegrate the offender, and achieve balance and healing for the victim. Restorative justice can be used in all types of cases, from petty crimes to domestic violence, sex offenses, and murder.

Community Justice

I would rather live in a place where community justice is practiced rather than traditional criminal justice. The traditional criminal justice focuses on deterrence, punishment, retribution, and denunciation for breaching the law. On the other hand, community justice focuses on repairing the harm caused by involving the victim, the offender, and the community. Community justice is a better way of responding to crime since it focuses on repairing or restoring to bring more satisfaction injustice than traditional criminal justice (Clear, 2018). Considerably, the conventional criminal justice system may increase reoffending and revenge due to humiliation and disrespect. For instance, the offender effectively understands the crime they committed, thus reducing future offense, which boosts community safety.

Involving Citizens in their crime-prevention programs

Citizens want to get involved in their crime prevention programs to prevent crimes in their neighborhoods. The community crime prevention programs are aimed at increasing the involvement of individual citizens in preventing crime. The formulation of community organizations is designed to lower crime and improve the neighborhood’s quality of life. Ideally, law enforcement has failed to fight crime without the local citizens’ support who understand their areas better.

I would want to participate in restorative justice if I was the victim of a crime since it offers more satisfaction that justice has been done. I believe that restorative justice aims at repairing the harm caused by the crime since it focuses on recovery, satisfaction, and meaningful dialogue (Crocker, 2016). Therefore, this brings an opportunity to making things right and restoring through a peaceful conflict resolution. Every victim feels the desire for violent revenge due to post-traumatic stress. However, restorative justice allows the offender to account for the crime and express remorse for the crime, making better compensation for the crime.

Restorative justice processes resolve matters in a timely fashion.

Restorative justice processes resolve conflict on time since it is swift in offering solutions and making quick, meaningful changes in offender’s and victims’ lives. The primary goal of restorative justice is to repair harm through which the victim and the offender are involved (Crocker, 2016). This allows the victim to quickly recover from the initial trauma of the offense. The use of restorative justice has reduced the use of imprisonment and judicial processes, which consume time to provide a meaningful intervention. Relatively, restorative justice has reduced reoffending.

References

Clear, T. R. (2018). The Community Justice Ideal. Routledge.

Crocker, D. (2016). Balancing justice goals: Restorative justice practitioners’ views. Contemporary justice review, 19(4), 462-478.

O’Mahony, D., & Doak, J. (2017). Reimagining restorative justice: Agency and accountability in the criminal process. Bloomsbury Publishing.