Question

Briefly explain the main principles behind restorative justice

Answer 1

Restorative justice is an approach to justice that personalizes the crime by having the victims and the offenders mediate a restitution agreement to the satisfaction of each, as well as involving the community. This contrasts to more punitive approaches where the main aim is retributive justice or to satisfy abstract legal principles.

Answer 2

Restorative Justice is a point of view (or an approach for how to deal with justice) in which you deal with a crime by organizing a meeting with the victim and the offender with the objective of sharing their experiences and discussing about what happened, why, and who got harmed by the situation.

For example, someone who has crashed a car into a kid's bike might go to a meeting with the kid's parents and they will talk about it to decide who needs to be repaired and how.

The idea is that people, when reasoned with, are more likely to wanna solve the situation and studies show that they tend to be less inclined to repeat something they have done wrong after going through this process. It also helps to educate people a bit more on how to live in society.