Journal: Professional and Personal Application of Restorative Justice Principles/Replies

STUDENT REPLY #1 Edgar Etienne

The article Controversies around Restorative Justice by David Belden states that one political factor that might impact a community’s receptiveness to a restorative justice approach is the cost. The article gives the example of the San Francisco Bay Area, where it costs around $50,000 to run a juvenile offender through the justice system instead of about $4,500 for a restorative process (Belden, 2012). Seeing those numbers, the community might be more receptive to the restorative justice approach as the funds saved could be utilized in other ways. The article also mentions social and cultural factors such as keeping young people of color out of the prison to school pipeline and religion such as traditional Christianity, which supports genuine accountability and the redemption of an individual (Belden, 2012).

I do not believe my community is receptive to a restorative justice approach, but I think it would benefit from it. From middle school, I have seen peers and other young people go to juvenile detention centers for non-violent crimes that could have benefitted from a restorative process. From my perspective growing up here, there are not enough programs for the youth to prevent them from getting into mischief and once you get into that scene, there are not many avenues for you to take to get out. Many of the kids I grew up with that got criminal charges early in life were unable to reintegrate into society and ultimately reoffended. If I were to run into a community member who had that "tough on crime" approach, I would probably share that with them to show that approach is not working in stopping people from re-offending and does nothing for the victims who were affected by the crime. No one is winning in that approach. Then we can chat about restorative approaches that could assist both parties and the community.

Reference

Belden, D. (2012). Controversies Around Restorative Justice. Retrieved on August 17th, 2022. At https://web.s.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=3465bcbc-c40b-4dad-a8b2-aac644ce70b2%40redis&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPXNoaWImc2l0ZT1laG9zdC1saXZlJnNjb3BlPXNpdGU%3d#AN=87048918&db=tsh

STUDENT REPLY #2 Samuel Nagy

I think the political, social, and cultural factors of a community, can affect its receptiveness to a restorative justice approach. I think the biggest affect would be the way that justice was perceived. I truly feel that the outcomes of the high-profile cases would be judged by the community's apparent receptiveness to the restorative justice approach, good, bad, or indifferent. I do feel that the political, social, and cultural factors of each community can weigh heavy on the justice system, but within a well-balanced system, these factors are more complimentary rather than affecting the justice system in a negative fashion.

I do feel my community is receptive to a restorative justice approach, as there are already several diversion and specialty courts in existence here in Pima County, including Mental Health Courts, Drug Courts and Diversion based courts. We have a large direction on probationary type of justice here in Pima County. And for these reasons, I feel this community would also be open to restorative justice.

I feel if I was confronted by a community member who insisted that a "tough on crime" approach works best, that I would respond in a certain way, given what I have learned from this course. I would emphasize the number of jail days on average for the "tough on crime" approach and explain briefly about reconciliation and restoration through the restorative approach and how my life was changed also due to the court system pushing rehab rather than hard time (Prison). I feel I could really get behind this restorative justice approach.

STUDENT QUESTION FROM YOUR WEEK 6 DISCUSSION THAT I HAVE REPOST AND HIGHLIGHTED BELOW PLEASE ANSWER BACK TO ALL 3 STUDENT REPLIES WITH 150 TO 200 WORD COUNT WITH OUTSIDE REFERENCE THANKS….

Community receptiveness to restorative justice

Given the numerous objectives and aims of eradicating crimes in a community, members have proposed different rationales when punishing offenders. Initially, the extent to which offenders were punished was determined by the nature of the crime, hence the "tough on crime" approach (Moss et al., 2019). However, a new approach, restorative justice,' has emerged over time, and numerous communities are using it. However, the community's receptiveness to the approach is affected by cultural, social, and political factors; hence it compares to the initial approach.

Factors affecting the community's receptiveness to the restoration of justice

In any community, a restorative justice approach should maximize the participation and input of offenders and victims to search for healing, prevention, responsibility, and restoration. However, the members are affected by various factors when receiving the restoration process. For instance, politicians pass laws and bills that instill fear among community members. Similarly, the rule of law may affect the readiness to accept the harm caused (Willis and Hoyle, 2022). Social factors affecting the receptiveness include taboos and public opinion, affecting the victim's willingness to restore the committed crime. Moreover, cultural factors such as different norms and languages determine the readiness of the offender and the victim to receive the restoration process.

My community: An overview of receptiveness to the restorative justice approach

In my community, members highly regard the restorative justice approach. Undoubtedly, any home, workplace, and other critical environments can encounter injustices at any time. Therefore, there is always a need to respond to small and large grievances to avoid conflict and violence escalation. Also, the community percepts conflict as its property at large, and solving them while utilizing the approach ensures more peace in the community.

The best approach: A response to a community member

Although the "tough on crime" was widely used by many communities, it would not compare with the restorative justice approach. The latter would be the most applicable since its views crimes as injuries to property and personal relationships of the involved community members (Sandwick et al., 2019). Essentially, the approach does not consider punishment of offenders as the best tactic, hence replacing it with attempts and efforts to heal the victims and offenders' injuries and the overall community. Thus, it is the best due when reaching agreements and maintaining peace in any community.

References

Moss, S. A., Lee, E., Berman, A., & Rung, D. (2019). When do people value rehabilitation and restorative justice over the punishment of offenders? Victims & Offenders, 14(1), 32-51. https://doi.org/10.1080/15564886.2018.1539688

Sandwick, T., Hahn, J. W., & Hassoun Ayoub, L. (2019). Fostering community, sharing power: Lessons for building restorative justice school cultures. Education policy analysis archives, 27(145), n145. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1235090.pdf

Willis, R., & Hoyle, C. (2022). The Good, The Bad, and The Street: Does 'street culture affect offender communication and reception in restorative justice? European Journal of Criminology, 19(1), 118-138. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:6e79c495-30ef-4710-be1d-fc3c21320544/download_file?file_format=pdf&safe_filename=Willis_and_Hoyle_2019_the_good_the_bad_and_the_street.pdf&type_of_work=Journal+article

STUDENT QUESTION #3 Lydia Kelly

I have to disagree with your sentence that states “approach should maximize the participation and input of offenders and victim “I think the victim should have the maximum input and the offender minimum when it comes to restorative justice. When I was looking at articles for my posts this last six weeks, I came across so many articles about restorative justice in other cultures and countries. I wonder what they are doing to have the community to be so accepting with this method. How can we learn from them? I am happy to see your community thinks very well of restorative justice. Thank you for a great six weeks of thought-provoking discussions.