The Restorative Justice Process

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Restorative Justice recognizes that crime hurts everyone. It is a theory of justice that emphasizes repairing the harm caused by criminal behavior. This is done by, bringing the victim, the offender and the community together to discuss the harm caused by the crime and how to come to a resolution. If one party is unwilling or unable to meet there are other avenues that can be met. Many involved in restorative justice walk away from the meetings transformed.
Restorative justices process is more involved than the traditional criminal justice process. In a traditional court preceding the focus is on the prosecutor and offender. There are areas that the victims are excluded from such as information about services and the case, their presence in
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There are few elements that are needed to have a successful interaction between victim, offender, and community member: the meeting, the narrative, and the agreement. The meeting needs to be appropriate for the situation. The meeting allows both sides to speak and be heard. It allows the victim to describe what happened to them, how it has affected them, and how they view the crime. The interaction allows the individuals involved to come to an agreement on what happens next.
A number of programs have become associated with restorative justice process. Three programs have been depicted in our class reading and class activities from the week. In our readings from Transcending, we learned about victim-offender mediation and victim-impact panel. Our class activity was an interactive activity to demonstrate restorative justice through a circle
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It is similar to victim-offender mediation. During class we had a mock restorative justice activity. The focus of the activity was a woman named Brenda. She was participating in the restorative justice process to avoid five years in jail. She is accused of robbing an elderly woman. Brenda and some of her family, the victims and her family, member of the community, and government representatives came together to discuss Brenda’s actions and the best way to help Brenda. The group had to decided if Brenda would be sent to jail for five years or be given an alternative sentence. The group decided to give Brenda an alternative sentence that included counseling, drug treatment, restitution, and random drug screenings. This process gave the victim an opportunity to ask question and have some kind of

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