What is restorative justice?

Question

Please put it in simplest terms! I looked it up and i really don't understand the definitions that websites give. Thanks!

Answer 1

Restorative justice is a term mostly linked to juvenile justice practices. It used in an attempt to get the young offender to take ownership of their actions and responsibility to make some form of amends in relation to offence that occurred.

A typical example of this is the youth justice conferece scheme used in QLD Autralia whereby a conveyner receives a referral either from police or the courts and a meeting is arranged with the young person (and parentguardian), the poice, and th victim. All persons are able to contirbute to this meeting with end goal being that some agreement is reached as what the child can do to make amends NB this agreement also includes the childs input. Typically a letter of apology is made and in some cases financial resitution can be part of te agreement. Failure to comply with this final agreement results in the child going to court for a court imposed sanction.

Answer 2

I think it's the premise of trying to return the victim of a crime to the same position they were in before the crime was committed.  For example, if a drunk driver smashes into your car, that drunk driver would have to pay to fix or replace your car and would also have to pay all your medical bills -- and if you suffered some type of permanent disability as the result of that accident, that drunk driver would have to compensate you for your loss.