In 1977, Eglash coins the term restorative justice (Gavrielidies, 2012), a term that not many people know of due to the lack of mainstream popularity, yet it is clearly evident that restorative justice practices can impact the community in a positive manner. An idea that supporters of restorative justice constantly sends out with good reason though, as the case of (Guest speaker), the case in the Diamond article (2012), and the case of Mr. Kelly (2016) clearly show that restorative justice can improve the life of an individual. This is a welcome sight as restorative justice provides a different perspective on crime, and more recently, another version of restorative justice has emerged from psychometric research (Flynn, 2014), which people refer …show more content…
The first being the social identity theory. In the 1980s, Social identity theory gained prominence as unlike the other theories, it draws from a multiple disciplines including psychology, sociology, and even criminology to help examine the relationship between the social group and the individuals residing in the social groups (Brown, 2000). What this theory proposes is that the social identity is a common trait that everyone in the social group processes (Stets & Burke, 2000), an idea that emotionally intelligent justice clearly reflects in its core values. This is because supporters of emotionally intelligent justice advocate that crime is not merely a violation against a person, but instead against the community as well. This falls in line with what social identity theory is proposing since if an individual violates a law, they are deviating from the common trait of being good law abiding citizens. A social trait that the group, or in this case, the community wants the individuals to exhibit and if they are not reflecting this trait, they then break the social cohesion of the group; similar to what numerous criminologists such as Merton states as they associate low level …show more content…
This is important to note as people will naturally take pride in their own group and see their own group in a positive light (Hornsey, 2008) when people compare their group with other groups (Tajfel & Wikes, 1963). As well, people will naturally consider their own group 's trait as salient to help distinguish themselves from other groups (Tajfel & Wikes, 1963). This is important as like what Elliott (2007) said, if people take pride in their community it could help prevent them from a life of crime or even if they do commit a crime, it would help then reintegrate back into society. Furthermore, social identity theorists state that "social identity is derived primarily from group membership" (Brown, 2000, p.747), which is an illustration of how important a social group is. This is something that the criminal justice system often ignores since the core values of the criminal justice system is deterrence where the state agents focus on the certainty of a threat (Matthews & Agnew, 2008) to encourage the potential offender from refraining from certain illegal actions (Quackenbush, 2011). Unlike emotionally intelligent justice which focuses on community involvement. The second portion of social identity theory is the self-categorization theory, which is a subset theory that examines the individual through self-categorization or identification (Stets
Crime and deviant behavior surprisingly helps increase “social activity” among various different people within a society. Therefore, crime and deviant behavior brings “people together in a common posture of anger and indignation…when these people come together to express their outrage over the offense…they develop a tighter sense of solidarity than existed earlier” (Erikson 4). For example, in the Steven Avery case, the people of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, all had very strong feelings of Steven Avery and his family, and as a result they were seen as deviant people in their own hometown. Those feelings towards him, and his family, would be a critical factor when he was accused of the horrendous crime (Making). Based on their feelings towards the Avery family, the society in which he lived developed the overall concept of us versus them (Erikson 11). Therefore, another concept that arises as a result of crime and deviant behavior is public temper, which is described as a “mutual group feeling” (Erikson
Throughout this paper, criticisms and praises will be mentioned in the borrowing of these ingenious practices, along with arriving to a conclusion of whether we are ready to deal with offenders in the restorative justice aspect. This is an important issue because, with a newly arrived program, we need to realize whether or not we are rushing into something that the criminal justice system is not ready for and also whether they are effective.
As said by Governor George Ryan, “Since 1973, over 130 people have been released from death rows throughout the country due to evidence of their wrongful convictions.” With each of these wronged convictions, the victim who should rightfully be convicted was able to walk free and possibly continue to commit crimes. Many of these wronged convictions entail parts of conflict theory with them because the dominant group will view things that they believe are socially deviant as criminal. The example in class of the 1992 Chicago gang ordinance shows how the dominant group, the police force, viewed standing on a street corner as socially deviant and thus, labeled it criminal. In The Central Park Five, the five who were convicted were in Central Park late at night, which was socially deviant. Since there was crime that was committed that night, it was easy to take the socially deviant situation of the kids being in the park late at night, them being in the same place as the crime, and them all being non-white and the victim being white and turn the crime on them. At the start of the night, there were kids who were throwing rocks at cars and assaulting homeless people to the extent of smashing one with a beer bottle. Out of all of the kids who were in the park that night, when they all took off running, it didn’t matter which five were stopped and taken to the police station, as long as there were non-white and in the park that night they could have been one of the “central park five”. “Central park five” turns into a label knowing that regardless of who the kid was and their background, the officers involved were going to manipulate they into confessing to the crime and then end up being convicted. Crime today involves conflict theory and can
Throughout the history of law enforcement within the United States, theories has been explored and implemented as polices in addressing deviant behaviors produced by humans. Models such as Crime Control through the Conflict perceptive suggest the human nature is persuaded by social opportunities and considered a fundamental aspect of social life (Schmalleger, 2009, p. 347). However, social disorders must be addressed in a cordial and civil procedural fairness; thus, individual rights guaranteed by policies such as Due Process ensure that individuals under allegations are treated equally and just. Although crime and deviant behaviors exist within our communities, policies are intended to reduce such disorders by following cohesive criminal justice frameworks with the intentions of protecting individuals accused of crimes. Crime Contro...
In the Social Identity Theory(SIT), TT, looked at inter groups relations from an identity perspective. They claimed, layered on top, beside and underneath inter group conflict is identity issues. Therefore, group identity becomes a psychological engine that allows us to understand how group conflict emerges. In this essay I will focus on 3 concepts SIT suggests. The first social comparison and distinctiveness are concepts which give insights about person’s psychology in his group’s affect on it. For gay people, it is obvious that they are not in a helathy place with these 2 concepts. After I talk about instability which is a cognitive alternative that shows gays that their relative position in the society can be changed. Later, I talk about 5 stage model which incorporates macro and micro to explain intergroup relations. I
Not only has there been debates about what approach should be used when punishing juvenile offenders, but there has also been debates about the need for two separate justice systems. Some individuals believe that juveniles need to be punished for their delinquency by being sentenced to jail just as an adult offender would be. According to Urban, Cyr, and Decker (2003), The Violent Crime Control Act of 1995 allows juveniles who are 13 years old and up to be sentenced as an adult if they have committed a violent crime with a fire arm on federal property. Advocates of such acts believe the juvenile justice system has failed at “rehabilitating” offenders by placing more focus on rehabilitation and treatment practices. Because of this these advocates
Similarly to rehabilitation, restoration looks to better society, however, this approach to justice emphasises the needs of the victim. In cases of minor crimes such as vandalism or petty theft, restoration is preferable to rehabilitation. This is because those who commit these minor crimes often don’t have the need for rehabilitation as mental health isn’t a large concern. In these small cases, it is also not burdensome to compensate for the losses of the victim, making restoration the ideal
“Restorative justice is an approach to crime and other wrongdoings that focuses on repairing harm and encouraging responsibility and involvement of the parties impacted by the wrong.” This quote comes from a leading restorative justice scholar named Howard Zehr. The process of restorative justice necessitates a shift in responsibility for addressing crime. In a restorative justice process, the citizens who have been affected by a crime must take an active role in addressing that crime. Although law professionals may have secondary roles in facilitating the restorative justice process, it is the citizens who must take up the majority of the responsibility in healing the pains caused by crime. Restorative justice is a very broad subject and has many other topics inside of it. The main goal of the restorative justice system is to focus on the needs of the victims, the offenders, and the community, and focus
Even though restorative justice has many supporters, it also boasts numerous opponents as well. In response to a proposal for restorative justice, conservatives largely contest the idea in favor of a more “get-tough” on criminals approach. “According to conservative theory, human beings are obliged to curb their drive for self-gratification. Offenders are to be punished harshly in order to provide them with a moral lesson and to serve as a general deterrent” (Mantle, Fox, & Dhami, 2005, p. 20). Many citizens worry that with the advancement of restorative justice comes the loss of state and government power. Because formal court processes are usually avoided and communities execute their own “judge and jury” practices when a crime is committed, restorative justice is sometimes seen as a threat to traditional U.S. state and federal court systems. A reduction in the involvement of the American court systems is viewed as a “breakdown of traditional social and legal authority” (Mantle et al., 2005, p. 20). With “a culture that is becoming increasingly conservative and focused on security rather than personal freedom,” (Siegel, 2008, p. 194) many conservatives are resistant to a form of justice that gives more liberty an...
When looking at the Criminal Justice system there are so many different elements make up the system to create a whole, it is sometimes hard to grasp every element. Throughout history people and governments alike have tried to figure out cost saving yet efficient strategies to keep offenders from reoffending and out of jail. Restorative justice is one of these elements; created to focus on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community at large. Within the realm of restorative justice there are many different types of procedures and programs from alternate dispute resolution to veteran trauma courts and everything in-between. Not everyone will agree that these specialty courts and procedures
The social identity theory is a person’s sense of who they are based on their social
Some of the strengths of the social identity theory are that; throughout the years it has supported many empirical studies, it has also demonstrated the social categorization in intergroup behaviors, allowed us to differentiate between social and personal identities and has provide explanations for other areas of psychology (conformity). A weaknesses of the Social identity theory is that its application is restricted in the sense that it has very low ecological validity. Another weakness is that SIT favors situational factors rather than dispositional is not supported by evidence. The social Identity theory can be used to how to explain how we form our social and personal identities in the terms of in and out groups. SIT can also be used to explain why there is conflict between humans and different societies.
In all aspects of their lives we associate with various groups, for example demographic, cultural or peer groups. Social Identity theory developed by Henri Tajfel in 1979 explains how people develop a sense of belonging and membership in particular groups. This theory explains behaviors in terms of social groups, we form social groups and create perceptions of others and ourselves that are influenced by the various groups to which we belong. A social group is a set of individuals who hold a common social identification or view themselves as members of the same social category (Chen & Li, 2009). Individuals can have multiple, co-occurring identities which could vary. This paper aims to explain how the Social Identity theory is used to explain violence and prejudice behavior and it also looks at the advantages and disadvantages of this theory compared to other theories in explaining the same behavior.
Johnstone, G. and Ness, D. (2007) Handbook of Restorative Justice. USA: Willan Publishing. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/the-big-question-what-are-the-alternatives-to-prison-and-do-they-work-419388.html [Accessed 01 January 2014].
As the purpose of restorative justice is to mend the very relationship between the victim, offender, and society, communities that embrace restorative justice foster an awareness on how the act has harmed others. Braithwaite (1989) notes that by rejecting only the criminal act and not the offender, restorative justice allows for a closer empathetic relationship between the offender, victims, and community. By acknowledging the intrinsic worth of the offender and their ability to contribute back to the community, restorative justice shows how all individuals are capable of being useful despite criminal acts previous. This encourages offenders to safely reintegrate into society, as they are encouraged to rejoin and find rapport with the community through their emotions and