Restorative Justice

Running head: RESTORATIVE JUSTICE 1
Restorative Justice
Name
Institution

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Restorative Justice
In essence, Restorative Justice is a type of an approach to the overall wrongdoing in a
society that is grounded on involving victims, offenders, as well as communities in the process of
problem-solving which is often aimed at repairing the harm done by the offenders.
Consequently, the principle whereby all the stakeholders are involved in the process of finding
justice is slowly gaining traction in recent times across the globe. There is various literature that
has indicated that Restorative Justice is rather promising as well as effective practice in the
corridor of justice, especially within the juvenile’s justice (Acosta & Karp, 2018). Restorative
Justice tends to bring those elements responsible by crime or rather those that are responsible for
the harm into communication, thus enabling virtually everyone affected by a certain incident to
play a significant role by preparing the harm as well as finding a positive solution (Bohmert,
Duwe, & Hipple, 2018). Restorative Justice can be undertaken at any stage of the adult criminal
justice system. At some stage, it can be considered to form a part of a police out of court disposal
including community resolution or rather a conditional caution. Notably, this can be undertaken
in case the offender is in the community or even when he or she is in custody.
The main condition of delivering Restorative Justice is known offenders as well as
victims, offender’s acceptance and responsibility in a volunteering engagement form all side or
all parties. This system often focuses on how the way evidence is gathered rather than what
evidence means in a certain investigation. Essentially, the current criminal justice system is
thought to have been designed by lawyers, from lawyers and therefore in most cases victims and
offenders are left as bystanders in the proceedings. For the last 30 years, there has been the
emergence of a restorative justice movement emerged in Canada. Notably, this is considered to
be a movement that has been responsible for finding the current system to be inadequate in

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dealing with various offenders, communities, and victims particularly in the aftermath of crime.
In essence, the current justice system is considered to be retributive, whose main objective is to
fix the blame as well as guilt. In this restorative justice often emphasizes on the fact that victims
should be a rather forgotten entity particularly in the current justice procedure and therefore they
should possess a greater role especially in the process of determining the main outcome of their
cases.
Furthermore, RJ is not considered to be a program, but rather a way of looking at crime.
Compared to the current system, RJ focuses on restoring the overall loses that have been suffered
by the victims while holding the offenders accountable for the harm that they have caused to the
victims. On the other hand, the system focuses on building peace within the community. In
recent times, there has been various litany of justice that has been applying various principles of
the RJ. Nonetheless, these programs embrace voluntarily participation of the victims of the
offense, members of the community, and the offenders. In most cases, those that have been
affected directly can come together with an aim of discussing the overall harm they have caused
and thus accepting the responsibility for their actions additionally, wrongdoers are as well
encouraged to accept the responsibility for their actions.
There is a various set principle that guides the restorative justice in contemporary society.
in this light, the RJ programs are guided by four key values which include the encounter where it
creates opportunity for those victims, offenders as well as the community members who want to
meet with an aim of discussing the crime and the aftermath of it and the amends where offenders
are expected to take various steps in repairing the harm that they have caused to the victims.
Additionally, the program is guided by the aspect of reintegration which seeks to restore victims
as well as offenders as a whole this contributing to the members of the society and the element of