Restorative Justice Model

812 Words2 Pages

In order to do so, I will review how restorative justice works, and what defines it in a society. Personally, I find restorative justice acts in a more integrated fashion to actually allowing offenders to actually seek forgiveness and make amends for any wrongdoings. As such, this essay will also highlight how restorative justice is a boon to the modern justice system. One of the benefits restorative justice offers that the traditional retributive justice system does not is the emotional bonds and relationships created between offenders and those that they have offended. The values of restorative justice and their purpose will also be examined, alongside how restorative justice matches with the current justice system. Finally, differences …show more content…

When it is used, it is frequently controlled through community-based justice. By relying on the local population or specific group, restorative justice focuses on resolving the offense between the offender and the victim. Because of the encouragement towards forming relationships in the restorative justice model, restorative justice focuses on three specific principles. Firstly, the process’s focus is to seek reparation of any harm caused to all parties involved in the crime, including the community, the victim, and even the offender. Secondly, the community, victim, offender, and government should be included in the healing process. Finally, the responsibility of keeping order befalls upon the government, but the process of keeping the peace belongs to the community as a whole (Van Ness, 1990). Once these practices are in place, only then can the process be labelled as restorative …show more content…

In Aboriginal traditional justice, the most important aspects of justice is to revive peace, as well as mend any broken bonds due to offences (Gilbert & Settles, 2007). By focusing on the cohesion of the community over self-gain, Aboriginal tribes managed to engage everyone in the community with the healing process. Some of the methods used involved meditative song “duels” to promote a feeling of peace between the involved parties by using the beauty of the music (Hoebel, 1954). While Hoebel depicts these confrontations as utopic and highly ideal for keeping communal peace, Chataway (1997) disagrees with the perfect nature of Aboriginal tribes dealing with confrontation, stating that the Kahnawake Mohawk community has records of many conflicts within the tribe itself, especially when it comes to a preference of traditional or logical ideologies. But despite actions taken by Aboriginals under restorative justice systems, they still continued to focus on the needs of those involved. As such, modern restorative practices have been based on similar techniques utilized by these Aboriginals, as community-based justice system has its “roots within Aboriginal traditions” (Roach,

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