|
Restorative justice should be distinguished from schemes for which the sole or primary purpose is to ensure that the person responsible carries out a reparative task, a community reparation order, community service, or that they provide restitution or compensation.
The primary aim of a restorative justice process, by contrast, is to enable all those involved or affected to be given the opportunity to enter, voluntarily, into a dialogue in which questions can be asked and answered, feelings can be expressed in a safe and constructive way, and people can express remorse and take moral responsibility for their part in what happened.
Some kind of reparative task or agreement will often emerge from this process, particularly in cases involving theft or property damage; but that agreement is secondary and should not therefore cloud the main aim.
The Youth Justice Board in England expresses this distinction in the following way:
- “Restorative processes provide opportunities for victims, offenders and the community to communicate and agree how to deal with an incident. Although restorative processes typically result in practical reparation, the communication between victim and offender can also produce powerful emotional responses leading to mutual satisfaction and socially inclusive outcomes …
- Reparative processes are ways of repairing the damage caused by offending behaviour. Reparation is generally viewed as restorative only when the victim has been consulted and the offender has not been coerced to provide reparation.” (Youth Justice Board).
|
