Restorative Justice

Restorative Justice Author’s Name Institution of Affiliation Course Name Instructor’s Name Date Restorative Justice Over the years, there has been an increase in criminal activities. These crimes have prompted the government to employ different ways to administer justice. One of the common ways is restorative justice. This approach has been used to help repair the harm by offering an opportunity to the people taking responsibility for the harm and those who have been harmed to communicate to repair the harm resulting from criminal behavior. Even though there are various restorative justice programs, the most common one is victim-offender mediation. The victim-offender mediation program allows the victims to meet the offenders within a structured and safe setting where the trained mediator facilitates negotiation and dialogue in problem-solving (Meléndez, 2021). One of the goals of this approach is to hold the offenders directly accountable for their actions by making them learn how their behavior negatively affected the victims, therefore setting up plans to make amends with the victims. The other reason is to empower the victim. Despite this program having existed for a long time, most people still question it. It is, therefore, critical to examine this program's benefits and costs to ascertain if its benefits outweigh the costs. One of the benefits of a victim-offender mediation program is that it helps to prevent the criminal from engaging in future crimes. When the victim and the offender meet during the mediation process, the victims can usually explain how their be...