DISMAS

M  I  N  I  S  T  R  Y

Restorative Justice

Restorative Justice

Rebuilding the Community

Restorative Justice focuses first on the victim and the community harmed by the crime, rather than on the dominant state-against-the-perpetrator model. This shift in focus affirms the hurt and loss of the victim, as well as the harm and fear of the community, and insists that offenders come to grips with the consequences of their actions. These approaches are not soft on crime because they specifically call the offender to face their victims and the communities. This experience offers victims a much greater sense of peace and accountability. Offenders who are willing to face the human consequences of their actions are more ready to accept responsibility, make reparations, and rebuild their lives.

Responsibility, Rehabilitation, and Restoration: A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice (Statement of U.S. Catholic Bishops, November 2000).

 

Defining Restorative Justice

Restorative justice is an alternative to the current way of thinking about crime and criminal justice. It emphasizes the ways in which crime harms relationships in the context of the community. Crime is viewed as a violation of the victim and the community, not a violation of the state. As a result, the offender becomes accountable to the victim and the community, not the state.

Accountability for offenders means taking responsibility for actions, and taking action to repair the harm caused to the victim and the community. Restorative justice provides active participation by the victim, the offender and the community in the process of repairing the fabric of community peace.

Victims services, restitution, community service, face-to-face meetings between victims and offenders, victim impact panels, and skill-building classes for offenders are elements of restorative justice.

 

Expanded Role for Victims

Under restorative justice the victims of crime have more opportunities to regain the personal power that was taken away from them by the offender. Instead of being left out of their own cases except to serve as witnesses, victims gain opportunities to speak about their feelings and experience justice. Victims become involved in determining how their needs can be met.

 

The Role of the Community

The entire community bears responsibility for all its members, including the victims and the offender. It is responsible for supporting and assisting victims and holding offenders accountable. It takes on the role of ensuring opportunities for offenders to make amends. While offenders are accountable for their individual choices, ultimately the community is responsible for addressing the underlying causes of crime so that victimization will decline in the future.

 

The Role of the Offender

Currently, the criminal justice system concentrates on legal issues and punishment. As a result offenders do not face the harm they have done, or do anything to right the wrong they have committed. Incarceration by itself may be regarded as a relatively easy sentence compared to restorative justice which holds offenders directly accountable to their victims. It confronts them with the personal harm they have caused and requires them to make real amends to the victims and the community.

 

Some Basic Assumptions

· Crime is defined as an act against another person and the community, rather than against the state.

· Crime has a negative effect on the victim, the community and the offender, therefore all parties should be included in the response to crime.

· Restoration (making things right) replaces punishment for its own sake as the highest priority of the criminal justice system.

· The victims is at the center of the process which defines the harm done and how it ought to be repaired.

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How is restorative justice practiced?

· Faith communities, professional agencies, and community volunteers provide support and assistance to victims and families of victims.

· Victims have the opportunity to help shape the obligations placed on offenders for repairing the harm caused by their crimes

· Victim/offender mediation is available for victims who wish to participate.

· Faith communities, professional agencies, and community volunteers also provide support and assistance to the families of offenders.

· Businesses and community organizations work with offenders to reintegrate them into the community while offenders fulfill their obligations of restitution to the victim and the community.

· Faith communities sponsor support groups for offenders trying to change negative life patterns.

· Offenders leave prison with better life skills due to programs which engage them in victim/offender mediation, family group conferences, victim panels and community panels.

· Offenders engage in community service projects which benefit the community.

· The community provides work opportunities so that offenders are able to make restitution to the victims of their crimes.