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Restorative Justice
Restorative justice is contrasted with retributive justice and described as "a process whereby all the parties with a stake in a particular offense come together to resolve collectively how to deal with the aftermath of the offense and its implications for the future" (Marshall, 1999).
Comparison of Justice Systems - Current Thoughts and Practices
| Retributive Justice: | Restorative Justice: |
| One person harms another - direct responsibility | |
| Focus on blame | Focus on problem-solving |
| Adversarial relationship (lawyers fight it out) | Dialog and negotiation (victim & offender) |
| Pain/punishment | Restitution/restoration |
| Interpersonal conflicts are obscured - Individual vs. State | Conflict recognized and valued - solutions sought |
| One social injury replaced by another | Focus on repair of social injury |
| Competitive lawyers and points of view | Discovery and social interests served |
| Victim mostly ignored and sidelined | Victim rights affirmed |
| Offender passive (does the time) | Offender to take responsibility & make restitution |
| Offender merely has to take punishment | Must learn impact of their crime and how to make right |
| Purely legal - devoid of moral, social, economic, etc. | Whole context must be considered |
| Debt to state is abstract | Debt is to victim with state facilitating |
| Stigma of crime is unremovable | Removed through restoration of Shalom (peace in the land) |
| No repentance or forgiveness | Possibility of both |
| Depends on a representative | Direct involvement |
| Fear and ignorance | Courage and knowledge |
| Punitive model is broken | Evaluate and replace with alternative sentencing |
| All of society pays for prisons and associated costs - lousy return on the dollar | Society pays for treatment and resolution - good return on the dollar |