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DISCOVER RESTORATIVE JUSTICE IN SCHOOLS

How an alternative justice approach is reshaping school discipline procedures and resolving conflicts with minimized harms being caused...

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RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

Introduction

A first encounter with the term of “restorative justice” gets people to spontaneously question the following issues: 

  1. What is it?

  2. What does it intend to restore?

  3. How is it different from traditionally adopted retributive justice?

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Restorative Justice & What It Intends To Restore

“Restorative Justice is a theory of justice that emphasizes repairing the harm caused by criminal behavior. It is best accomplished through cooperative processes that allow all willing stakeholders to meet, although other approaches are available when that is impossible. This can lead to transformation of people, relationships and communities.”

                                                                                                                     ———— Centre for Justice & Reconciliation

Restorative justice is a new movement emerging during the 1970s within the fields of victimology and criminology as “alternative approaches to the court process”. With an appeal to invite victims into the criminal justice process and strengthen their engagement, the victims’ rights movement provided the momentum for the advent of restorative justice. Through giving voices fairly to all parties involved (victims, offenders, and communities), restorative justice aims to recognize impacts the crime has made on victims or the wider community, repair the damage caused, and rebuild relationships. 

It can be boiled down to the following three big ideas

  • Repair: crime causes harm that requires to be repaired

  • Encounter: bring together the parties involved

  • Transformation: make fundamental changes in people, relationships, and communities

Basic principles of restorative justice (Little Book of Restorative Justice by Howard Zehr): 

  • emphasizes the harms and the harm-repairing needs that involve several parties including victims, offenders, and affected community members

  • stresses obligations resulting from the harms 

  • adopts inclusive and collaborative processes

  • involves parties with a legitimate stake in the situation

  • intends to put right the wrongdoings

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Restorative Justice & Punitive Justice

With a history of being addressed in the past 30 years, the concept of restorative justice sheds a light on the age-long problem and limitation in the legal system—the needs of victims and offenders are not acknowledged adequately in the aftermath of harms being caused. In comparison, traditional retributive justice pays attention to the party that makes the mistake and thus addresses imposing consequences of punishment.

According to Marilyn Armour, downsides of the criminal justice system include:

  • breeds high rates of recidivism

  • causes increasing expenditures that exceed amounts spent on education and health in some states’ budgets

  • overuses prison and extended probation, causing a chronic pain to families and communities throughout the country

  • burdens many ex-offenders with a felony record, which robs them of employment and leads many into homelessness, vagrancy, and future criminal behavior

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HISTORICAL TIMELINE

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VICTIM-OFFENDER RECONCILIATION PROGRAM (VORP)

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FIRST AMERICA-BASED PROGRAM

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VICTIM-OFFENDER MEDIATION

1974

The Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP) in Kitchener, Ontario was widely recognized as the first case of experimenting the contemporary restorative justice where two youths convicted of vandalism were brought together, under the suggestion of a youth probation officer, to meet the affected victims by their crimes. Since then, the VORP served as a “probation-base or post-conviction sentencing alternative” to create occasions to repair victim-offender relationships.

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1978

Following the Ontario example, the first America-based program was established in Elkhart, Indiana. It set an applicable foundation for today’s 400 VORP-like programs across the country and even Europe, whereas they launched little push to the criminal justice system due to the disadvantage in both size and number.

In 1994, American Bar Association brought restorative justice into prominence by promoting victim-offender mediation that are usually associated with first-time criminals and minor crimes.

1994

American Bar Association brought restorative justice into prominence by promoting victim-offender mediation that are usually associated with first-time criminals and minor crimes.

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PRINCIPLES OF RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

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COUNTRY-WIDE DEVELOPMENT

1995

Since 1995, the United Nations NGO Working Party on Restorative Justice has underlined the principles of restorative justice in prison settings on a global scale.

2008-Today

Starting from 2008, American Bar Association has been distributing grants to restorative justice programs for their further development in criminal law settings. Now in thirty-five states, restorative justice principles have been either weaved into legislation or practiced as prison alternative.

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