Restorative justice aims at involving the parties to a dispute; the victims, the offenders and the families concerned and the community at large in identifying harms, needs and obligations together by accepting responsibilities and taking measures to prevent a recurrence of the incident and also promote reconciliation. Restorative justice sees crime as an act against the victim and focuses on repairing the harm committed against the victim and the community rather than focusing on punishing the perpetrator. Restorative justice believes that the offender is also in need of assistance and therefore seeks to identify what needs to change in order to prevent a repeat of the act in future.
Restorative Justice is much more community centered and focuses on making the victim whole; this means that the community members take a more active role while in retributive justice; the community is represented by the state. Retributive justice usually focuses on punishing or treating the offender while in restorative justice, the focus is on repairing the harm between an offender and the victim and at times between an offender and the community. In retributive justice, crime is usually against a state and it’s a violation of a law and a theoretical
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This form of justice focuses on the needs of the victims as well as those of the offenders and also the community involved. In retributive justice, crime is an individual act and offender accountability is defined as taking punishment which is believed to be effective. In retributive justice, it is believed that punishment deters crime and changes behavior while in restorative justice; accountability is defined as assuming responsibility and taking action in order to mend harm. Crime in restorative justice has both individual and social dimensions of