The Benefits and Dangers of Participating in Restorative Justice - Literature review Example

Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code & Name: Date of Submission: Introduction Restorative justice involves reconciling the relationship between the offender and the victim. According to Carlan, Nored and Downey (2011, p. 27) restorative justice refers to the method through which offenders and victims identify and tackle the consequences of a crime in a conference or a meeting with the assistance of a trained mediator. The process aims at healing the involved parties rather than viewing a crime as a wrongdoing against the state. Restorative justice embraces the results of a crime to both the victim and the offender and goes ahead in trying to improve the relationship between them. However, the process is not always appropriate but those who make the decision of participating in it experience positive outcomes. This paper is going to discuss the benefits and dangers of participating in restorative justice. Benefits of Restorative Justice Accountability Roche (2003, p. 231) notes that when offenders, victims and their supporters participate in restorative justice meetings they are able to hold each other accountable for the crime. The process makes it easier for the offender to accept responsibility for their actions and the resultant consequences. Accepting accountability for the crime committed against the victim makes it easier for the offender to make amends. According to Zernova (2007, p. 40) restorative justice restorative justice holds the victims accountable for their actions and therefore requires them to be accountable of their actions. This is important to the victims as it enables them to actively participate in the process. The process involved in restorative justice provides an opportunity for the offender and other parties involved in the crime to accept individual responsibility for their actions. Restorative justice encourages other parties who participated in the crime to accept the responsibility regarding the role that they played during the crime. In the documentary Karl, who organized the robbery accepts responsibility when confronting the family of the victim. He accepts accountability of his actions when he sees how in the victim’s family. Therefore, through restorative justice the offender is able to amend the harm caused as a result of participating in the crime by taking the responsibility and apologizing to the victim. Thus the victims’ rights and needs are brought at the centre stage Justice Experience Offenders and victims in the restorative justice process are able to experience better justice as compared to the court process (Sullivan & Tifft 2006, p. 104). Restorative justice provides the involved parties and the community with the best form of justice by bringing the wrong doer and the victim together. The mediation process that characterizes restorative justice provides the offender and the victim with an opportunity for dialogue. In the Paintball case the offender shot 15 year old girl injuring her eye and this made him to be held guilty for his actions. However, the offender motivation to meet the victim’s parents proved to resolve the case because he expressed his willingness to donate his eyes for the victim. This made the victims parents to close the case as they felt that it was unjust to take the offenders eyes given that his actions were intentional. The conference enables the victim and the offender to speak freely about how the crime affected them and to further develop a mutually agreed decision that is satisfactory to both of them. Spuy, Parmentier and Dissel (2007, p. 38) note that the dialogue involved in restorative justice process provides the victim and the offender with the best justice hence this enables them to experience satisfaction with the process. The process is aimed at supporting the victims and the offenders by treating them respectfully and fairy and this ensures that they experience justice. Participating in restorative justice conference presents an opportunity for the community to rebuild after experiencing crime. The process provides strategies for overcoming the stereotypes held by the community and this is done by providing valuable justice. Restorative Justice provides justice to the community hence this enables the community members to close the case and to begin rebuilding themselves. The process restores the purposeful control of justice by the community. Harmony The aim of restorative justice is to make things to be right. This means that by participating in restorative justice conferences the offenders are molded in such a way that they are not likely to repeat the offense and this ensures that harmony exists (Umbreit & Armour 2010, p. 78). The conference presents the offenders with the experiences and the pain felt by the victims and this motivates them to transform themselves in order to ensure that peace and harmony coexists. Moreover, the process provides an opportunity for the offender to repair the relationship with the victim which had been destroyed as a result of the crime. In the case facing the demon, after the restorative process the offenders and the parents of the victim were able to restore harmony and improve their relationships. Restorative justice aims at resolving disputes, peacemaking and building relationships between the offender and the victim as well as with the community. McLaughlin at el (2003, p. 57) emphasizes that restorative justice restores harmony due to the fact that the process is based on dialogue which takes into consideration the prevailing injustices. The process facilitates the offender and the victim to engage in discussions until such a point that they feel harmony has been restored. Participating in restorative justice ensures that the offender and the victim restore harmony between themselves and this is based on the victim perceiving that justice has been done. Social Support Victims and offenders need support from the community as well as from those who love them. Thus, participating in the restorative justice process presents the offender and the victim with the best opportunity of obtaining support and encouragement from the society, families and friends (McLaughlin at el 2003, p. 57). The process enables the victims to obtain support and it further gives them an opportunity to be encouraged so as to express their feelings and their needs. Participating in the restorative justice conference enables the victims and the offenders to voice out their wishes and needs. This enables the society to provide them with the required support hence restore justice to them. Restoring the dignity of the offenders McLaughlin at el (2003, p. 57) states that offenders are able to restore their dignity in the community by participating in the restorative justice process. The process enables the offenders to repair their dignity due to the shame that they incurred for participating in the crime. Restoring dignity of the offenders through restorative justice process is an important step in rehabilitating the offender (Reamor 2005, p.15). In the documentary facing the demons the offenders accepted the responsibility of their actions and this enabled them to restore their dignity to the victims family as well as the society. The restorative justice process provides an opportunity for the offenders to confront and accept the responsibilities and the consequences of their actions. Moreover, the process enables them to realize the negative impacts and the suffering of the victims as a result of their actions. For instance Edgar C a former psychologist who had suffered mental illnesses and this made him to sexually abuse a client. During the restorative justice process and under medication he was able to express his feelings of regret towards his victim because he understood the consequences of his behavior. The restorative justice process presented him with a meaningful opportunity of regaining his dignity. This presents them with a chance of apologizing with sincerity hence this enables them to restore their dignity to the community as well as from the victim. Seeking for forgiveness According to Umbreit and Armour (2010, p. 74) participating in restorative justice presents an opportunity for the victim to seek for forgiveness from the victim and from the affected members of the community. Bukuluki (2011, p. 64) notes that the process of restorative justice enables the offender to begin the process of seeking for forgiveness after committing the crime. Seeking for forgiveness eliminates the desire of the victim for revenge. Seeking for forgiveness enables the victim and the offender to move on with their lives and forget the crime. The process motivates the offender to accept the wrongdoing and seek for forgiveness. For instance Mr. Gullien responded to disturbance in his apartment by taking a gunshot. However, the victim was an innocent child. Mr. Gullien was charged for murder. During a restorative hearing with the victim’s family, he expressed his sincere apologies for his actions. He expressed his regrets for his actions and he pleaded with the family to forgive him. This acts as a means of reconciling the relationship between the offender and the victim. Forgiveness enables the victim to overcome their anger towards the offender hence this improves the relationship between themselves. Therefore, restorative justice process motivates the victim to forgive the offender. Furthermore, seeking for forgiveness motivates the offenders to transform themselves towards improving the society by reducing the crime. Create a sense of Security and empowerment The victim can experience insecurity and lack of empowerment as a result of the crime. Reamer (2005, p. 215) notes that participating in the restorative justice process enables the victim to receive assurances from the offenders that they are not going to repeat their actions. For instance restorative process was used in a case where a customer assaulted Antony in a departmental store after he tried to calm the customer. The customer was able to reassure Antony that he did not intend to harm him hence Antony should not live with fear of being attacked and assaulted. On the other hand, the victims and the community may feel that their power has been deprived as a result of the crime. Participating in the process enables the victim and the community to confront criminals and crime and to affirm the rights hence this enables them to empower themselves. Furthermore, the process motivates the offenders to change how they conduct themselves and motivate them to take responsibility of their actions and this provides them with a sense of empowerment. Dangers of participating in restorative justice Injustice According to Levison (2008, p. 1390) offenders, victims and community may come out of the restorative justice process feeling alienated, disrespected, damaged and disempowered hence this can lead to injustice. This may make it difficult for the process to repair injuries and harms caused to the society as well as to the people as a consequence of the offence. Zernova (2007, P. 119) notes that it is difficult to promote the interests of the offender, the community and the victim. This may in turn make the process to create some injustices to the concerned parties. Moreover, the process focuses on emphasizing the advantages associated with facilitating reconciliation hence this may lead to victimization and create injustice. Victims of interpersonal violence cases seek for justice rather than reconciliation and this may make them to emerge out of the process feeling alienated and injured. Furthermore, the process may fail to consider the secondary victims in the community because of the fact that they are indirectly affected by the offence. The restorative justice process may place more emphasis on the victims and the offenders and fail to consider the impacts of the crime on the society. This may make the society to incur injuries hence create injustice on their part. Safety Participating in the restorative justice process may place the safety of the victims and the offenders at risk. Restorative justice process is undertaken in open conferences characterized by informality and this prevents adequate protection and safety measures being implemented in order to prevent the victims and the offenders from possible attacks. The safety of the victims and the offenders is not usually taken into consideration. The fact that the process is carried out in open spaces may motivate the victim to attack the offender with an aim of exercising revenge for the crime (Lavinson 2008, p.1391). In addition, the process exposes the offender and the victim at a risk of suffering psychological abuse and this reduces their safety. The offenders can taunt the victims in order to manipulate them hence minimize the guilt placed on them. The offenders can psychologically abuse the victims in order to make them to accept the blame with an aim of reducing the blame placed on them. Problems of achieving equality and consistency According to McLaughlin at el (2003, p. 124) achieving equality and consistence in the restorative justice process is a difficult task. The participants in a restorative justice process have unequal powers and contributions. Moreover, the participants may experience oppression and this means that the decisions make may not create a balance among the participants. Furthermore, restorative justice process may provide different outcomes for similar cases hence making the method to lack consistency in its application. The process may fail to treat the offenders fairly are they may be seen as the main causes of the predicament and this can make the process to fail in terms of achieving equality for the victims. Forgetting the restorative Action The process has a tendency of focusing on meeting the needs of the victims and therefore forgetting its restorative role. Sullivan & Tifft (2006, p. 560) notes that the process focuses mainly on the offender and how to meet the needs of the victim. Therefore, participating in the process may make it difficult for the offenders to restore their relationships with the victim. This is because of the fact that the mediator may play the role of ensuring the needs of the victims are met by guarding their demands. The mediators may place their goals at responding to the needs of victims and thus forget the role in assisting the rehabilitation of the offender. Lavinson (2008, p.1392) argues that the restorative process mainly focuses at restoring the wishes of the victim and this may make the process to fail in meeting its initial goals. Therefore, the offenders may fail to amend and reconcile their relationship with the offender by participating in the process. Conclusion In conclusion, the restorative justice process enables the offenders to accept responsibility of their actions and through this they are able to seek for forgiveness hence improve their dignity in the community as well as with the victims. Moreover, the restorative justice process enables the victims and the offenders to experience justice and through this enables them to live in harmony. However, restorative justice process may fail to offer justice to the victims and the offenders and this can injure and alienate them. Furthermore, the process may fail to ensure equity and consistency of the participants. It may further fail to restore justice between the offender and the victim. References Bukuluki, P 2011, Negotiating Retributive and Restorative Justice in Conflict Resolution, Lit Verlag, Zurich. Calan, P, Nored, L & Downey, R 2011, An Introduction to Criminal Law, Jones and Barnett Publishers, London. Levison, D 2008, Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment, Berkshire Publishing Group, London. McLaughlin, E, Fergusson, R, Hughes, G & Westmarland, L 2003, Restorative Justice: Critical Issues, SAGE Publications, London. Reamer, F 2005, Heinous Crime: Cases, Causes and Consequences, Columbia University Press, New York. Roche, D 2003, Accountability in Restorative Justice, Oxford University Press, Melbourne. Spuy, E, Parmentier ,S & Dissel, A 2007, Restorative Justice, Politics, Policies and Prospects, Juta, Cape Town. Sullivan, D & Tifft, L 2006, A Handbook of Restorative Justice, Routledge, Oxon. Umbreit, M & Armour, M 2010, Restorative Justice Dialogue, Springer Publishing Company, New York. Zernova, M 2007, Restorative Justice: Ideals and Realities, Ashgate Publishing Limited, Hampshire. Read More