Restorative Justice Advantages And Disadvantages

Over recent years large debates in criminology have revolved around the idea of punishment. From these ideologies alternative methods to the traditional justice system and its processes have emerged including that of restorative justice (RJ). Restorative justice offers a brighter alternative, which is less complex and informal than purely judicial approaches. This essay will discuss the reasons that support RJ processes as better suited within the justice system. The essay will discuss peacemaking, family group counseling, conferencing and mediation in detail, it will then go on to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these alternatives whilst providing sufficient evidence throughout. The essay will discuss RJ in relevance to indigenous cultures including Maori and discuss its use globally. …show more content…
The restorative justice referred to in this essay is commonly called modern restorative justice. Modern because many traditional cultures have used and incorporated RJ philosophy for centuries and as such RJ is not a new viewpoint. Since its growing popularity in the 1970s the philosophy and scope of RJ and its practices have reached beyond just the criminal justice systems and have found themselves in a range of every day practices such as schools. Though RJ processes involve a range of practices including, conferences, mediation, peacemaking circles and other non judicial approaches, they all have in common the quality of allowing the victim, offender and community a platform to communicate with one another in a setting other than a courtroom (Leverton,