The Beloved Community: A Study of the Restorative Justice Paradigm

Abstract

Restorative justice has become a worldwide phenomenon in the criminal justice system. Taking into consideration that criminal law seeks to protect fundamental legal assets, also the maintenance of legal peace, the alternative proposals of criminal reaction have shown that they are an attempt to resolve the conflict between the parties involved and the social issues generated by the crime. So, it is crucial to stimulate the development of alternatives to criminal basis and its traditional model of imposing sentences. Thus, restorative programs (such as victim-offender mediation, family conferences, circles and impact panels) are essential because they are ways of healing, assuming that human beings care. So, they are alternative ways to respond to crime that seek to make amends instead of punishment and restitution rather than retribution. Those interventions are being used by police, judges, prisons and probation officers. This paper does a qualitative a case study that aims to demonstrate that restorative justice fulfils its role of empowering participants, interests of people who have been harmed are met and offenders, when appropriate, have the option to make restitution. Also, demonstrates how restorative justice affects the criminal justice system as practices that complement rather than a substitutive way of existing interventions taking the view that one system reinforces another to mutual benefit