Restorative Justice Process

Restorative Justice Process

Restorative justice is a process or an approach in which a meeting is organized between victims and offenders of crime in the presence of representatives from the community. The significant goal is to interact and tell what happened, who got injured or was victimized in the crime, and finding the best solution of consensus for what the offenders may be willing to do to repair or mend up the broken gaps after committing the crimes. Payment could be involved, apologies, together with other amends, or a combination of both money and apologies. The aim is to compensate the people who became victims of a particular crime and also restrict or act as a warning to the offender not to repeat the offenses in the future. The restorative justice system was started to respond to the failings of the old, traditional way that never considered restoring offenders back to the community (Richards, 2014). It is a natural way of promoting unity, peace, and trust progressively in society.

The process of promoting peace in the community is essential because it is there that the ex-offenders and other people who committed crimes are returning. They will be interacting with the victims, their families, and friends who got victimized. Friends and family members of the victims may want to seek another form of revenge on the offenders if they feel that justice never prevailed in court, or after the prison sentence, offenders might wish to revenge upon the victims and their kin. Restorative justice looks at the life of the victims to a great extent, the pain experienced, especially when they tell their part of the story.

Many offenders after serving time in prison, they start wondering how they will be accepted back in the community, beginning life anew, the way the outside world will view them, interact with them, and get basic needs which are vital for survival. It is that reason that results in them seeking reconciliation with the victims’ families and the re-entry process.

Through the principles of Restorative justice system, the public is taught to reconsider the crime nature, because it is an individual who committed the crime against another individual, and not a crime against the state. By restoring trust and hope between victims and offenders of crime, there is a promotion of peace in the community. The community people are able to embrace a new thing that is a vision for change. Through reviewing the current policies that do not allow contact with offenders and the victims, there will be a strong bridging of the existing gaps in the justice system (Richards, 2014). Everyone, starting with the victims, their families, and friends, combined with the offenders’ friends and family, will be part of this bridging system. No one will be left out, and the fears embedded in both parties are managed effectively. For the sake of humanity, each person requires forgiveness, peace, and a chance to say sorry or forgive another one through the Restorative justice system. Humankind was created to live together peacefully in a unified society. The use of forgiveness in the Restorative justice system will yield significant fruits in peace and trust promotion in the society.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Richards, K. (2014). A promise and a possibility: the limitations of the traditional criminal justice system as an explanation for the emergence of restorative justice. Restorative Justice, 2(2), 124-141. doi:10.5235/20504721.2.2.124