Restorative Justice Approach

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Thousand-Year-Old Approach to Justice Curbs Violence Restorative Justice is not a new concept. It requires the offender to accept responsibility, make amends, and provide restitution to the victim. The offender, victim, and community work at problem solving and healing relationships. Our criminal justice system has been re-invented, but it is still failing to reduce crime and recidivism or otherwise known as repeat offenders. Taking responsibility for our actions is scary at times; no one wants to admit they have made a mistake. In our personal lives, it is not as hard to admit we have made a mistake, because we do not have a third party who will hear the offense from others not directly involved. Schools, prisons, juvenile justice systems, …show more content…

Prison is not always the answer. When returning to society with a felony record, it follows them for the rest of their life. Rehabilitation of education and job skills will not get them hired with a felony record. They will face obstacles in finding housing. Underlining addiction or mental health issues go untreated. Our recidivism rate is a disgrace compared to other countries. Prisons are seeing a large drop in recidivism rates that are practicing this approach before releasing criminals back into society. Using restorative justice in our criminal justice system will allow other options than prison. It comes to mind of a person who was under the influence, otherwise would have never made a poor choice, caused an accident and the passenger was killed. The focus would remain on the true victim, his wife and four …show more content…

We will see offenders with addiction or mental health issues get treatment, thus lowering recidivism. I have a relative that was been missing since January of this year, his daughter was born during this time. Our justice system is in the process of bringing charges against his friend for homicide. We could get our questions answered, based on our families faith he would get forgiveness, His daughter could get restitution that she deserves. Some of the harm to the remaining victims could be undone. Canada is using restorative justice in their criminal cases. In turn their recidivism rates are dropping. However, this would be a voluntary process with both the offender and victim. True evil will surface and that will prevent an offender or victim from volunteering. Those with high-income jobs will be lost. Health care facilities will need more

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