Formal Justice System
- Justice system professionals dominate and control the sentencing process in the formal justice system.
- The decision imposed is largely based on precedents and legal principles, very rarely addressing the needs of the victim and may only be marginally relevant to the offender and his community.
- In the formal court process we ask: what happened? Who did it? What do they deserve?
- We focus on the facts; this avoids the opportunity to ask the victim how they were affected.
- Victims rarely have their voice heard in the courtroom; instead, the evidence found by professionals is left to speak for the victim.
Restorative Justice System
- Adversarial process bypassed.
- Restorative Justice allows a greater focus on post-penalty actions.
- Allows us to find the ‘’right response’’ to offending behavior and opens lines of communication between offenders, victims and those close to them.
- Restorative justice is an opportunity to make amends and repair the harm an offender has caused.
- Restorative justice allows for the recovery from anger and embarrassment caused by the offender’s actions.
- Often seen as an easy-going form of justice, not suited to indictable offences or more serious crime where victimization is high.
- In Restorative Justice we ask instead: what happened? Whose obligations are these? What do we need to do to right the wrongs?
- In restorative justice, the victim is permitted a much greater allowance to voice their opinion thus they are much more satisfied with the justice they receive and are less likely to seek revenge.
Questions to ask before applying restorative justice
- Is this a serious crime?
- Are you a serious offender?
- How will the formal court system effect the offender's livelihood?
- Example: Woman involved in prescription drug dealing; officer’s duty is to apprehend and bring her before the court system to be punished. However, upon meeting the person, the officer finds she is a choir teacher with children and a supportive husband. She commits the crime to make ends meet for her family. The officer does not want to take this mother away from her children and therefore seeks to enroll her in a restorative justice education program rather than serve jail-time potentially disintegrating her family.