1. The purpose of a justice system is to balance the disproportion of power that occurs after a crime. When a crime is committed, the perpetrator gains power by taking the victim’s sense of security. This system would need to combine retributive justice and restorative justice in order to satisfy all those involved in the crime. For example, after the crime, the perpetrator will need to be punished in a fair way and be taught why his or her action was wrong. The victim will need closure and a way to ease back into day-to-day life after his or her ordeal.
2. The current criminal justice system in Canada is retributive. This means that punishment, such as a jail sentence, is the preferred use of taking power away from the perpetrator. The major critique of this system is that the victim is never involved in the process. This is a problem because the victim is never able to talk of the emotions caused by the crime. By suppressing these emotions, the victim is never able to have closure or forgive the perpetrator. Not giving forgiveness is also a problem for the perpetrator who might feel guilt over what he or she has done and not be able to express this guilt to the victim.
3. Restorative justice processes try to give closure to the victim and perpetrator. These processes also attempt to make the two parties give forgiveness for the crime committed. It does this by sitting the victim and perpetrator down face-to-face with a mediator to hash out the issues. However, this kind of setting would only work if the perpetrator felt remorse for the crime he or she committed. For example, mediation would not work for a premeditated murder case because the murderer intended to kill the victim.
4. Truth and reconciliation commissions are form...
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... exist again, which is one thing that this Commission succeeded in accomplishing.
Works Cited
Henri, Yazir. “Reconciling Reconciliation: A Personal and Public Journey of Testifying before the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.” Political Transition: Politics and Cultures. Ed. Paul Gready. Virginia: Pluto Press, 2003. 262-275. Print.
Pellett, Gail. “Facing the Truth with Bill Moyers”. Films on Demand. Ed. Vanessa Procopio. 1999. University of Ottawa. Accessed on January 21, 2014. Web.
Tutu, Desmond. Foreword by Chairperson. Truth and Reconciliation of South Africa Report. Vol. 1. By Desmond Tutu, Alex Boraine, Mary Burton, Bongani Finca, Sisi Khampepe, Richard Lyster, Wynand Malan, Kjoza Mgojo, Hlengiwe, Mkhize, Dumisa Ntsebasza, Wendy Orr, Denzil Potgieter, Fazel Randera, Yasmin Sooka, and Glenda Wildcshut. South Africa: n. p., 1998. 1-23. Print.
According to Graham, reconciliation is both “… a goal in the sense that it aims to restore relationships or to promote agonism or mutual tolerance, respect, and dignity […] [And] it is a process because it requires multiple modes, steps, stages, and transformations across all levels of society and amongst all stakeholders in a conflict” (Graham 2015). Through reconciliation and the related processes of restorative justice, parties to the dispute explore and overcome the pain brought on by the conflict and find ways to build trust and live cooperatively with each other. Restorative justice seeks to have a positive impact on offenders by confronting them with the consequences of their actions and delineating their responsibilities, giving them both the opportunity to repair the damage caused to the victim and to work on finding a solution to their problems (Umbreit, Bradshaw and Coates, 1999). According to Philpott, there are six components of political reconciliation: building socially just institutions and relations between states, acknowledgement, reparations, punishment, apology, and forgiveness (Philpott
Canada is a country where rehabilitation has been a formal part of sentencing and correctional policies for an extended period of time (Andrews & Bonta, 2010). Furthermore, a group of Canadian researchers have examined the methodology and effectiveness of rehabilitation, and are principal figures in the correctional rehabilitation field (Cullen & Gendreau, 2000). However, despite rehabilitation being a central aspect of Canadian identity, there has been a shift in the justice system’s objectives. The rise of the Conservative government and their omnibus bill C-10, Safe Streets and Communities Act, has created a move towards retribution. Bill C-10 was passed on March 12, 2012 (Government of Canada, 2013) and was a proposal to make fundamental changes to almost every component of Canada’s criminal justice system. Law changes included new and increased mandatory minimum sentencin...
“Restorative justice is a process whereby parties with a stake in a specific offence collectively resolve how to deal with the aftermath of the offence and its implications for the future” (Munchie, 2004).
The symbol of the Canadian judicial system is the balanced scales of justice. When a wrongful act is committed, the scales of justice are greatly misplaced and require a solution to counterbalance the crime and restore balance. Additionally, the scales represent the idea that law should be viewed objectively and the determination of innocence should be made without bias. The Canadian criminal justice system encapsulates the idea of the scale of justice, to control crime and impose penalties on those who violate the law. One of the most important aspects of this system is that an individual charged with a criminal offence is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The current system has two prevailing methods involved in the process of dealing with crime: Retributive and restorative justice. This paper will analyze aspects of retributive justice and restorative justice, with reference to their respective philosophies, for the purpose of finding which is more effective at achieving justice and maintaining balance.
As agents of justice and philanthropists of duty one must evaluate the criminal justice system and its approaches to the solution of crime to determine what is good, appropriate, and what will reduce recidivism. As a western society the United States has changed and adapted its judicial system in hopes of conforming to our changing society and the increase in criminal behavior. Through these adaptations emerged a system within criminal justice that changes the focus of rehabilitation of the offender to not only include imprisonment, but to include reconciliation with the victims and the community that the offender harmed. The restorative justice approach takes a look at the crime, the criminal, and the offended; with hopes for healing and justice
Stewart, M. (2011). The space between the steps: reckoning in an area of reconciliation. Contemporary Justice Review, 14(1), 43-63. Retrieved from http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all?content=10.1080/10282580.2011.541076
Mandela used this forgiveness to assist him in his attempts to “win over skeptic whites” and negotiate “the country’s first all-race elections” (Myre).
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
It aims to describe an arrangement of the major political and social institutions of a society such as the constitution, legal system, economy, family, and so on as being fair. Fairness is also at the core of restorative justice. Unlike the retributive system restorative justice is concerned with reforming. Not just the offender but the wrongdoing itself. As previously mentioned, the victim is not primary subject of the retributive system the law or state is. This is an unfair assurance of power by the state over the victim, to the point they where the victim may even feel re-victimized. The State assess what was lost, the state gets to talk at the trial, the victim rarely gets a chance to even see the offender before the trial. By keeping the participants of the trial apart the likelihood of proliferating long lasting resentment, and emotional trauma increases. Dining both parties closure and healing. Rawls believes the state should only be the facilitator of these communications between the parties not key participant in the
The criminal justice system views any crime as a crime committed against the state and places much emphasis on retribution and paying back to the community, through time, fines or community work. Historically punishment has been a very public affair, which was once a key aspect of the punishment process, through the use of the stocks, dunking chair, pillory, and hangman’s noose, although in today’s society punishment has become a lot more private (Newburn, 2007). However it has been argued that although the debt against the state has been paid, the victim of the crime has been left with no legal input to seek adequate retribution from the offender, leaving the victim perhaps feeling unsatisfied with the criminal justice process.
When Mary Catherine Parris was told that I would be talking to her about restorative justice, her response was, “Is that a real thing?” (personal communication, September 23, 2015). Through this assignment I realized that restorative justice is not talked about within the criminal justice system. For both of the individuals I spoke with, the idea of restorative justice seemed like a joke. In trying to persuade them both that restorative justice is a real thing, I was met with very similar beliefs and comments from both individuals. They both believed that restorative justice would not work and believed that some aspects of the approach were completely useless (M. C. Parris, & R. Clemones, personal communication, September 23, 2015). The responses
Coster, P., & Woolf, A. (Eds.).(2011). World book: South Africa’s Anti-Apartheid Movement, (pp. 56-57). Arcturus Publishers: Chicago.
Mr. Nelson Mandela as peace maker struggle to reinstate the apartheid rule of South Africa with multi-racial democracy, During
Restorative Justice is an approach to the justice system that focuses on the needs of both the
“I believe that the biggest factor which changed South Africa’s government was the international pressure it got, mostly from the UN. I would love to believe that South Africa’s government eventually understood their mistakes but the UN played a huge role. Without the tension from the United Nations, I probably wouldn’t have been able to get out of prison as soon as I did.”