Restorative justice effectiveness for young adult criminal rehabilitation

¶ … Articles Published on Criminal Justice and Restorative Justice Published between 1996 and 2006.

As Nilsson et al., (2007) suggest, "scholarly discipline" or the exploration of scholarly investigation and techniques warrants examination and investigation in and of itself (p. 357). The purpose of this paper is to examine the content or peer reviewed articles published within a ten-year period, focusing on specific content areas, in this case the criminal justice system and its experiences with restorative justice. Content analysis is helpful for offering insights into the "values" researchers have that drive investigation during any given period (Nilsson, et al., 2007:358). Thus, the researcher may identify gaps and trends in research during the specified period. The quantitative investigation allows for validity and reliability, providing the researcher the opportunity for statistical analysis that will provide direct insight into the proposed methods prescribed in the research, and offer clues that answer or establish a new hypothesis or theorem.

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to review quantitative articles on the criminal justice system and restorative justice between the periods of 1996 to 2006 to establish whether restorative justice is or remains a reliable means of reform for young adults. This study aims to explore the population of criminals between the ages of 18 and 30. Thus, the research questions are as follows: (1) Does examination of the literature provide substantial evidence that restorative justice is or is not an effective method of rehabilitation? (2) Are there other methods that prove equally effective for reforming the criminal justice system, and (3) Do trends in criminal justice suggest reform in justice measures are necessary in the current period?

Hypothesis

The author hypothesizes the following: Restorative justice is an effective tool for rehabilitating young criminals and reintroducing them into society and there community. Secondary to this the researcher hypothesizes that young adults subject to the restorative justice system are more likely to realize positive outcomes and contribute to their communities, having less relapse or reconviction rates than criminals punished by other means.

Data Collections

The types of data collected will include a series of journal articles investigating the efficacy or lack thereof of restorative justice programs among convicted criminals in the allotted time frame. The validity and reliability of the research will be based on quantitative statistical analysis of the frequency distribution for independent and dependent variables. Weighted statistics are utilized to calculate a "nationally representative" model of restorative justice for the public's review (USFR, 2001:1).

Results

Method

This section of the study describes the frequency distribution of the data collected during this study and idea of "central tendency, associated mean, median and mode." Various measures of dispersion are also reviewed, with an explanation of whether the research supports or disproves the hypotheses explored.

Variables - Independent and Dependent

The data collected reflects the independent and dependent variables explored for purposes of this study. The independent variables explored include: sex and gender of study participants, ethnicity of participants, socioeconomic status and religious or moral practices. The dependent variables explored include: participants age, the type of justice used (restorative model or correctional models).

Statistical Analysis/Means/Mode/Median

The statistical analysis measures the frequency distribution for "numeric" discrete variables and "categorical variables" labeled (e.g. A_AGE) (USFR, 2001:3). All variables are un-weighted for purposes of this study. Table 1.1 below provides the statistical analysis and distributions for the independent and dependent variables. ATYPE represents the type of justice system reviewed among all participants, R-restorative, C-correctional and RH-rehabilitative.

Table 1.1 - Frequency Distributions for Independent and Dependent Variables - Rehabilitative or Criminal Justice Type Utilized and Explored

TYPE

Frequency

Percent

Cumulative F

RH

Missing: 23

Using the information above, Cumulative F. represents the cumulative frequency given the population count of 200 participants of the 223 requested in the study. Thus the frequency of data missing (data that does not provide conclusive evidence regarding the source of rehabilitation used and outcome) include 23 representing approximately 10.4% of the population surveyed. Central tendency figures suggest a majority (i.e.

The mode, equivalent to the frequency represented most often given other data not represented in current table is 10, repeating twice.

Conclusion

Given the evidence provided from this study the researcher finds the following true. Hypothesis (1) - proven true, given restorative justices seems to be the more commonly used tool for rehabilitating criminals in the population specified. Other data collected from the content analysis however suggests hypotheses (2), suggesting less relapse is likely among participants engaged in this form of justice remains questionable. Further research is needed to establish or refute this hypothesis, given changing trends in criminal justice and criminal behaviors in the future. Overall, the researcher argues despite some comments to the contrary, restorative justice, which aims to involve victims in the rehabilitation process and encourages convicted criminals at a young age to rehabilitate and participate in their community, remains an effective form of justice.