Restorative justice

Question 1

what is it

Answer 1

• offender communicates with their victim
• focuses in

Question 2

Key aims of custodial sentencing

Answer 2

1. rehabilitation for offenders
   RJ encourages criminals to accept responsibility for their actions
   aim = offender fully understand how their actions have neg impacts on their victims, they’ll have chance to get empathy & ability to take perspective of victim
   makes offender less likely to offend again in future
2. atonement for wrongdoing (retribution)
   physiological atonement = offender shows feelings of guilt/remorse
   physical atonement = compensation (money, community work)

Question 3

Point 2

Answer 3

Who is involved
- Wachtel & McCold proposed starting point should be on relationships rather than punishment = crime harms people o justice requires harm healed as much as possible
- Early models focused on offender &victim only but now ideas suggest there are 3 stakeholders (victim, offender, community) = full RJ is involvement of all 3

Question 4

point 3

Answer 4

RJ is flexible - not always a face to face interaction
- Variations include letters, phone calls, financial restitution to victim that may reflect physiological pr physical harm done, repair damage themselves, community service

Question 5

strength

Answer 5

• Lowers rate of recidivism
• Sherman and Strang found for adult offenders, RJ more effective than prison sentence for reducing reoffending, also for young offenders
• BUT RJ council found recidivism rate after RJ still 37%

Question 6

weakness

Answer 6

• Physiological harm to offender and victim
• Prisoners more likely than gen pop to suffer a variety of mental illnesses & making them confront harm they’ve caused to others may trigger self harm/depression/suicide
• If crime serious/traumatic, victim facing offender may cause flashbacks or PTSD symptoms and if offender shows no remorse can be distressing
• Limited follow up for both people
• Harm caused by RJ process may go unrecorded and untreated = long term neg effects

Question 7

Weakness

Answer 7

• Not applicable to all offenders/victims/crimes
• some types of crime, RJ no suitable e.g hate crimes, rape as dont want to meet offender = traumatic = harm

Question 8

strength for victim

Answer 8

• helps victims move on healthily
• Sherman and Strang = reviewed previous randomised control trials of RJ in US, UK, Australia - found that compared to conventional method of justice, victims of crime less likely to develop PTSD and desire revenge and higher rate of victim satisfaction
• RJ council reported 85% satisfaction from victims in face to face meetings w offender
• BUT while most victims of crime feel satisfied with RJ, Miers found sig proportion are sceptical on offenders motives e.g. only taking part as they may get reduced sentence
• so research suggests it works, need to be aware for sometimes its not appropriate