Paul writes – I valued this summary of Restorative Justice. Always useful to bear in mind when restoration, healing and peacemaking is being sought – as distinct from say, “retribution”.
To summarize restorative justice as a way of addressing wrongdoing, we might put it in a series of “threes:”
3 assumptions underlie restorative justice:
When people and relationships are harmed, needs are created;
The needs created by harms lead to obligations;
The obligation is to heal and “put right” the harms; this is a just response.
3 principles of restorative justice reflect these assumptions: A just response…
- acknowledges and repairs the harm caused by, and revealed by, wrongdoing (restoration);
- encourages appropriate responsibility for addressing needs and repairing the harm (accountability);
- involves those impacted, including the community, in the resolution (engagement).
3 underlying values provide the foundation:
- Respect
- Responsibility
- Relationship
3 questions are central to restorative justice:
- Who has been hurt?
- What are their needs?
- Who has the obligation to address the needs, to put right the harms, to restore relationships? (As opposed to: What rules were broken? Who did it? What do they deserve?)
3 stakeholder groups should be considered and/or involved:
- Those who have been harmed, and their families
- those who have caused harm, and their families
Community
3 aspirations guide restorative justice: the desire to live in right relationship…
- With one another;
- with the creation;
- with the Creator.
For more detail, go here.
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