Restorative Justice is a community-based form of justice that seeks to put things right between people. Given this emphasis on restored relationships, it gives full attention to victims, offenders and the connected community.
Models of restorative justice may involve opportunities for offenders and victims to meet, usually with community members present. But this is not the main point of restorative justice. The most important thing is that in the wake of a crime or misdeed, justice workers and members of the community assist and empower victims and offenders to each move forward in ways that allow them to be fully functioning in the community. And this might involve separate journeys for both sides whether or not they meet. In fact, if you were a victim of a crime where an offender was never caught, wouldn’t you want your needs met? The community should be there for you.
All crimes cause an impact to people. This is really why we have laws in the first place. Restorative justice looks beyond the broken law to the brokeness in the community. It looks to where the harm was done. The word ‘im-pact’ in Latin literally means “to un-peace”. A restorative process can happen before, during or after a legal process that addresses the broken law, however, it puts greater attention on how the harm done can be mended and how the right people can come together for the fullest possible resolution. All restorative models seek to:
- Support victims in ways that truly meet their needs
- Hold offenders accountable in ways that foster learning and responsibility-taking
- Involve the community in ways that empower them and make them feel safer
While it may seem that restorative justice is a new movement, it’s actually been around for a long time. Read more
So far, the above discussion helps to describe WHO is involved in restorative justice processes, but that still leaves the discussion of HOW it all works.
HOW IS THIS DONE?
BCRJP uses many different models that range from conferences to circles, mentoring relationships to group workshops, but they all are based on the same building blocks.
In our society, we are generally wired to want quick solutions once we’ve identified the problem. We opt for the Short Route of moving from Ownership to establishing Reparation (or from establishing blame to establishing punishment). A restorative process prefers the Long Route through the third element of empathy, because this is where the deeper learning happens that ensures a greater motivation for making reparation.
These building blocks essentially provide the basic outline for all of our dialogues:
- What happened? (Ownership)
- Who was affected? (Empathy)
- How can things be repaired? (Reparation)
They also define an awareness of time progression that is essential in helping offenders and victims to move forward.
But most importantly, this process is designed to build an internal experience that creates a positive incentive on the part of the offending party to make better choices based on the good of others.
Punishments might provide a deterrent for future misbehaviors, but they generally don’t make better citizens. A restorative process, however, promotes an internal learning opportunity that helps both offenders and victims to be reintegrated as contributing members of the community. The learning process helps victims feel like their situations are taken seriously, while also giving offenders better reasons for not re-offending (beyond not wanting to get caught again). Internalization also helps offenders to show their commitment externally by making amends and personal improvements.
To these ends, BCRJP provides a wide menu of services that pay close attention to constructive communication processes that CONNECT the right people together, and then help those people reach a SHIFT point so that they can move forward. We find that the best conversations to be had are ones that are with people rather than conversations to people.
