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(PDF) Restorative Justice Assignment

   

Added on  2021-04-24

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Running head: RESTORING JUSTICE AND RESTORATIVE JUSTICE 1RESTORING JUSTICE AND RESTORATIVE JUSTICEStudent’s NameCourseProfessorCityDate

RESTORING JUSTICE AND RESTORATIVE JUSTICE 2Restoring Justice and Restorative justice Restorative justice is a theory of justice which accepts the effects of criminal behavior.The three principles surrounding restorative justice are that justice should focus on repairingharm because crime causes harm, people affected by crime should participate in the resolutionprocess and that the government's responsibility is to build peace to maintain order in thecommunity (Beck, Kropf, & Leonard, 2010). Certain Acts are criminalized because they causeharm to the society. Restorative justice requires that the justice process should focus on repairingthe harm caused by criminal acts. Mostly in the non-restorative system, those who cause harmshould pay back by harm being caused to them in return. In restorative justice, the focus is on theaccountability of the offender hence repairing harm other than creating more harm (Morris,2011).This piece will focus an article on The Conversation titled In Historic Times, Punishmentalone is not Always the Best Response. The article by Brian Stout (Stout, 2017) focuses on theissue of sentencing offenders who committed a crime many years in the past and what thepunishment aims to achieve. According to the author, in historic cases, the courts have not beenfocused on the importance of restoration and rehabilitation, but the focus has mainly been onretribution. The author then asks what are sentences for, and attempts to answer (Stout, 2017). InNew South Wales, Robert John Hall was convicted for five years without a parole period of 12months for crimes he had committed in 1990. The accused had been charged with rape offenses,and the leniency of the judge led to a lot of criticism. While deciding the case, the judgeconsidered several factors, but the decision was mostly based on Hall's character in the past 27years. Hall had in the past years showed good character in the way he dealt with his family andhis involvement with community work for the benefit of the society. When sentencing an

RESTORING JUSTICE AND RESTORATIVE JUSTICE 3accused, the factor that the judges usually consider is incapacitation; in that, the society isprotected from the offender. Brian asserts that incapacitation becomes less relevant in historiccases because a person spends many years living in the society, and when they have notcommitted any offense, incapacitation becomes irrelevant (Stout, 2017). Many crimes are usuallyperceived on the possible effects on the society and the effect on the offender. There are noprovisions which require that if a person has not committed an offense for a considerable periodshould be given a lesser sentence. However, argument of deterrence makes a lot of sense in suchsituations. According to this article (Stout, 2017), the details of a particular sentence is not what islikely to deter the accused, but by the likelihood of an offense being detected. This, therefore,leaves the retributive purpose of a sentence questioning the sentence which can be appropriatefor a particular crime. An offense should attract retributions; this is not questionable. However,in practice, it is hard to achieve the proportionate punishment for a crime. In Hall's case, thelenient punishment attracted a lot of criticism. This shows how the society still has a desire to seeaccused persons punished severely for the crimes they commit. When the rates of sexual assaultremain high, and the conviction rates are still low, it is understandable when the public isoutraged by the lenient sentencing. On the other hand, it is also important that the justice systemsends a message that the society does not entertain such violent acts and that they stand with thevictim. However, imposing punishment does not necessarily mean that they send the message oftheir sentiments to the criminals and the society. The author suggests that as much as punishmenthas a key role in the deterrent of bad behaviors and building the society, it should not be the onlyapproach or the primary approach (Stout, 2017). If the justice systems only acknowledge a crime

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