From the standpoint of everyday experience, this paper reveals how the rules and procedures used within the Criminal Justice System in Korea to assess juvenile crime disproportionately favors higher income individuals. Specifically, it identifies the importance of how people are represented and classified within the criminal justice system in the application of restorative justice programming. Drawing on a methodology of Institutional Ethnography, texts related to the implementation of restorative justice within the Korean Criminal Justice System were reviewed, and interviews were conducted with key individual(s) charged with implementing restorative justice practices. Findings from this research show a clash between the Korean cultural ethics of “jeong,” which stresses the need for restoration and peace in the face of all criminal actions, and the selective application of restorative justice in the modern Korean context. In particular, the rules and procedures used in the classification of juvenile offenders limits what types of individuals and communities are allowed to benefit from these programs. This is problematic, as delinquents receiving the benefit of restorative justice programing will only be limited to those classified as being 'compatible' with existing programming under the Criminal Justice System's rules and procedures, significantly disadvantaging lower income juveniles.