Restorative Justice Is Not Offender Focused

Restorative Justice Is Not Offender Focused

Even though restorative justice may seem to lean towards the offender, I disagree with the statement that restorative justice becomes more offenders focused than victims. There has been a lot of research that has been conducted to evaluate the satisfaction of the victims and offenders who are involved in the process. Surprisingly, most of the victims seem to be more satisfied with the process than the offenders. According to Shapland et al., 2007, 85 percent of the victim notes that they were satisfied with the process, while 80 percent of the offenders felt that they were not satisfied with the process. According to this research, the participants said that there was a high level of satisfaction with the outcomes of the process. The high degree of satisfaction with the process was that 90 percent of the victims were pleased by the fact that the offenders apologized.

Consistent with findi9ngs above, a server conducted in New Zealand to assess the satisfaction of the victim and offender who amassed restorative justice revealed that   84 percent of the victims were satisfied while 81 percent noting that they would recommend the process to other people.  82 percent of the victims felt that it was a good way of dealing with crime, and it benefited them in some way.  91 percent of the victims also acknowledge that they felt safe while undergoing the process. Sherman et al., 20155 also established some benefits of the process to the victim where the victims experienced reduced leaves of fear na d decreased post-traumatic disorder.   Furthermore, this research also found that there is a reduced desire for the victim to revenge after going thorough process. This means that the victims are satisfied with the process. From the evidence above, there is a higher percentage of the victims who appreciate the RJ is effective than the offenders.  If the process favored offenders, the percentage of victims satisfied would be lower.

References

Shapland, J., Atkinson, A., Atkinson, H., Chapman, B., Dignan, J., Howes, M., … & Sorsby, A. (2007). Restorative justice: the views of victims and offenders. Ministry of Justice Research Series, 3(07). http://crjc.ca/wp-content/uploads/Restorative-Justice-the-Views-of-Victims-and-Offenders.pdf

Sherman, L. W., Strang, H., Mayo-Wilson, E., Woods, D. J., & Ariel, B. (2015). Are restorative justice conferences effective in reducing repeat offending? Findings from a Campbell systematic review. Journal of quantitative criminology, 31(1), 1-24. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/sj.2012.26

Ministry OF JUSTICE (2016) Restorative Justice Victim Satisfaction Survey, pp. 7–50. Available at: https://www.justice.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Publications/20170303-RJ-Victim-Report.pdf (Accessed: March 28, 2020).