Crime and Punishment Philosophies

¶ … Philosophies of Punishment

Restorative justice is a philosophy of punishment which does not neatly fit into conventional categories of retribution or rehabilitation. Rather than focusing solely on the victim or the criminal, it attempts to restore or to rebuild what was lost, hopefully better than it was before through healing and rapprochement. A good example of a restorative act would be having a teen that scrawled anti-Semitic graffiti on a synagogue to clean up the building and attend pro-tolerance sensitivity training. Dialoguing between victim and victimizer is also a frequently-used component of restorative justice. Rather than simply pooling the resources of the criminal justice to improve the life of the offender, restorative justice promotes healing by asking the offender to give back to the community. However, the offender is not simply healed. The victim also benefits from the restorative process. The expenses of rehabilitation are at least partially defrayed by the contribution offered by the offender in the form of his time and effort. Psychological healing is meant to take place in a mutually advantageous fashion.

The philosophy of restorative justice is that "justice requires that we work to restore those who have been injured; those most directly involved and affected by crime should have the opportunity to participate fully in the response if they wish;" and "government's role is to preserve a just public order, and the community's is to build and maintain a just peace" ("What is restorative justice," 2014). For more minor offenses, restorative justice can act as a deterrent by forcing the criminal to face the person he victimized and to realize that his actions have consequences. But even for more serious crimes, restorative justice can have psychologically healing effects. Restorative justice "considers harm done and strives for agreement from all concerned -- the victims, the offender and the community -- on making amends. And it allows victims, who often feel shut out of the prosecutorial process, a way to be heard and participate" (Tullis 2013). Restorative justice has been used around the world to mediate between different sides of a civil war or after a country (such as South Africa) must come to terms with its violent history and move on (Tullis 2013). It has also been used to help the families of victims of violent crimes and the parents of the persons who committed the crime. It is more effective than rehabilitation alone because the criminal is forced to confront his past even while the process still strives to make him a better person for the future.