Restorative Justice Model Essay

394 Words2 Pages

Presently, Canada’s current justice system is far from perfect. While there are attempts to rehabilitate wrong doers, prevent others from committing offences and provide compensation to victims, the strong reliance on imprisonment and retribution, prevents those goals from being achieved. The Canadian justice system views criminal behaviour as a crime against "the state” rather than the community as a whole, leaving crime victims with no voice through out the legal process. Restorative justice models, however, provide the victim with a sense that justice was served, bring the offender the feeling that the legal process was conducted in a fair manner, remind the community that it has a responsibility to the parties involved and lower costs associated …show more content…

Firstly, the idea of making reparations for harm done is central to restoring pre-crime conditions. While the implementation of this goal has been difficult, its inclusions will certainly pave the way for future reforms based on restorative concepts. Secondly, appropriate types of correctional rehabilitations have proven to be effective given certain conditions. The transformation that can be achieved through this process can cause fundamental changes in people, relationships and communities further lowering repeat offences. And thirdly, as opposed to retribution, deterrence is the forward-looking use of punishment. The idea is to discourage people from committing crime by making them aware of punishments and their severity. The following underlying principles of a restorative justice approach are based on respect for the dignity of everyone affected by the crime. A process of communication between the victim and the offender encourages the wrong doer to take responsibility for their harmful behaviour in a meaningful way, to gain insight into the causes and effects of that behaviour on others, to change that behaviour and to be accepted back into the community. While the victim gains the opportunity to ask questions, receive answers, and contribute to the outcome of the process. Unlike the traditional justice system, this approach sees crime as a violation of people