Introduction to Restorative Justice
Restorative justice is a powerful and compassionate approach that shifts the focus from rule violations and punitive measures to repairing the harm and fostering accountability. At Waugh Law & Mediation, we believe in the potential of restorative justice to make right the wrongs, mend relationships, and promote healing.
On this page, I provide answers to some commonly asked questions about restorative justice, and share resources I’ve created through my restorative justice consulting and facilitation work.
Learn more about my work in restorative justice by scheduling a free meeting with me.
Restorative Justice Principles
Restorative justice practitioners can lose sight of the theoretical underpinnings that lead to their adoption. Zehr cautions us to remember that restorative justice is not a singular practice or program but a group of principles and values, capable of application to many practices and situations. In Changing Lenses, he articulates these principles that underpin restorative practices.
Unlike some visions of restorative justice that limit applications to wrongdoing, this conception of restorative justice as a set of values and principles creates a wholly different approach to conflict and is broad enough to guide the healing work of a restorative lawyer.
These principles:
Allow us to abandon a binary oppositional-based approach to conflict, defined by sides and assumptions about objective needs.
Permit uncertainty while celebrating our collective ability to imagine resolutions that extend beyond a fixed, predetermined capacity.
Create opportunities to increase community resilience because they encourage growth beyond punishment and beyond resolving the presenting conflict.
Five Principles of Restorative Justice:
Focuses on the harms and consequent needs (of victims, but also communities and offenders)
Addresses obligations resulting from those harms (offenders’ but also communities’ and society’s)
Uses inclusive, collaborative processes
Involves stakeholders in the situation (Victims, offenders, community members, society)
Seek to put right the wrongs
Restorative Justice Questions
Restorative justice scholar and educator Dan Van Ness identifies a group of early adopters of restorative justice, including Howard Zehr, Mark Umbreit, and Ron Classon. Professor Zehr often describes restorative justice by comparing the questions that conventional processes ask to those posted by Restorative Justice.
Questions Asked: Conventional vs. Restorative Justice
| Modern Criminal Justice Processes | Restorative Justice |
|---|---|
| What happened? | What did each person experience happening? |
| What rule was broken? | What were you thinking at the time? |
| Who did it? | Who was affected and how? |
| What is the punishment under the rules? | How can you make it right? |
| How will the person who did it be punished? | What do you need to help next time? |
What does restorative justice look like in practice?
It helps to understand what restorative justice is by looking at the practices often associated with restorative justice. These include two popular practices: the encounter between the victim and offender and a talking circle that provides a format to discuss wrongdoing.
Restorative justice explorers Van Ness and Gerry Johnston include the "encounter" as a critical point in the restorative justice process. The encounter brings together the victim and offender in a dialog. Facilitated by a trained practitioner, the participants are prepared and then engage in conversation.
More inclusive than a criminal proceeding, the meeting allows those most affected by wrongdoing to openly communicate the harm and their resulting needs. Van Ness indicates that the purpose of the encounter is to identify the injustice, make things right, and set future intentions.
Whether the encounter takes the form of a facilitated discussion between the victim and offender (Victim Offender Conference) or a facilitated discussion between a youthful offender, their family, friends, community (Family Group Conference), it provides an opportunity to create multiple coexisting narratives and allow for a productive expression of emotion. The encounter provides an opportunity for an apology and may be central to reintegration.
The other restorative justice practice that many restorative programs adopt is the talking circle. In a talking circle process, the participants pass a designated object, "a talking piece" around a circle. Everyone has an equal opportunity to speak since only the person with the talking piece talks. Circles have been used in the United States as part of re-entry programs and in the U.S. and Canada for sentencing. Another use of circles in restorative justice is the circle of support and accountability that have been developed in some areas to decrease the potential for re-offending, particularly by sex offenders.
Restorative Justice Resources
Books
Howard Zehr, Changing Lenses, (multiple editions)
Daniel W. Ness and Karen Heetderks Strong, Restoring Justice, Fifth Edition: An Introduction to Restorative Justice
Do you have questions about restorative justice?
Contact our office today and schedule a free consultation.
Frequently asked questions about restorative justice:
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No. Restorative justice requires that the victims agree to participate in the process. It also requires offenders to accept responsibility before engaging in restorative justice processes.
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Restorative justice processes are potentially part of a criminal justice response to wrongdoing at any part of the proceeding. Restorative justice may be used as part of an alternative process to the judicial process. For example, it may be part of a response following a conviction or a plea. In some cases, restorative processes occur many years after a conviction or when an offender plans to be released.
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Restorative practices are actions taken within a community to go beyond the restorative potential after wrongdoing to prevent it. Restorative practices are activities that are adopted, consistent with values and principles of restorative justice, that provide structure for the environment. For example, we often see school systems that adopt restorative practices to change the educational environment to make wrongdoing less likely to occur.
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Brenda earned a master's degree in conflict transformation from Eastern Mennonite University. As a prosecutor, she found many victims were unsatisfied with the system. She has witnessed many situations where the restorative response exceeded the stakeholders' expectations to create opportunities for healing and, in some situations, restoration of relationships.