Restorative Justice

Restorative Justice Process
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Restorative Justice Process
Restorative justice aims to correct the harm done by an offense committed to an individual or group of people. To achieve this, it needs the cooperation of the offender, the victim and their close allies. It is applied because most people do not want to use punishment and subjection to suffering as a way of preventing crime (Hart Publishing, 2013). Here is a case study of how two cases of David and Ed were handled through a restorative justice process and criminal proceedings respectively.
In the case study, the crime was committed in the neighborhood. They felt it was unwise for them to just watch as one of them got harmed, and hence decided to solve the problem. There was much anxiety and fear, for example, the child who had concerns over his playing items being taken away if the offenders reached their home. This level of fear in a child would mean they had information from their guardians of the pathetic details therein (Simon & Larry, 2012). With the kid this fearful, the guardians would fear more, due to the great understanding they had over the consequences. The victim’s daughter also showed how worried she was by keeping a constant check over the mother. Her mother’s safety was her major concern. These are ways in which fear was spreading as people got increasingly worried of the developing situation.
The criminal justice system is geared towards the interpretation of an offense and passing a judgment on the offender if found guilty. It probes with questions like: Is the offender guilty? What sentence can be passed? For the restorative justice system, questions discussed were in both the parameters (Hart Publishing, 2013). Whoever was involved, the harm caused and the steps to be taken in repairing the harm form major questions. Furthermore, it inquired if the people accused would embrace a crime-free life once they resolved the problem. In the criminal justice system, the resolution is under the state and laws within their judicial systems. For the restorative system, they have no rules to guide in the procedure. The process followed to reach a conclusion keeps changing from one case to the other.
At the end of a criminal justice procedure, there is a belief that threat by punishment deters criminals from doing a similar thing in the future. It inflicts fear in people over what might happen to them as well when they are in a similar situation. Some sentences like a jail term cause tr...