Restorative Justice Measures Research Articles

Restorative justice for adult offenders in South Australia: judicial perspectives and insights

ABSTRACT Restorative justice seeks to address harms arising from criminal conduct, with a focus that extends beyond punishment. While Australia has embraced restorative justice practices for young and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander offenders, programs for adult offenders have been comparatively slow to progress. Despite the reliance on judicial officers as the primary referral mechanism, there is limited research examining their views of restorative justice, particularly in the context of adult offenders. This paper presents the findings from a survey and interviews with judicial officers in one Australian jurisdiction: South Australia. There was clear support for restorative justice measures for adult offenders for a broad range of offences. Some concerns were raised with respect to victims’ safety, and the additional time and resources that restorative justice expends. Overall, the study found that the judicial officers who participated would welcome the introduction of a restorative justice program for adult offenders. With this support, and the potential benefits of restorative justice for victims, offenders, and the community, South Australia should consider extending its restorative justice offerings to adult offenders.

Revitalizing Justice: Empowering Juvenile Sexual Offenders through a Restorative Approach in Indonesia

Sexual offense is a serious crime which could pose significant negative impacts on personal level and community. When committed by minors, sexual offense becomes a much more complicated problem and raises many different intricacies. Despite being a popular topic within the legal sphere, restorative justice in Indonesia still has research gap, particularly on the focus of applying restorative justice measures for juvenile sexual offenders. The purpose of this research is to address this research gap and analyze the potentials of using the restorative justice approach to deal with sexual offense cases committed by minors, with the focus of impacts, recovery, and preventing future recidivism. Using the normative legal research method his research dives into the Indonesian legal system to uncover the legal problems that may hinder or discourage people from using this approach, despite the potentials benefits it possesses. Through the statutory approach, this research finds the links within the relevant laws and regulations that may or may not support the use of restorative justice approach to deal with juvenile sexual offenders. The analysis of this finds that the restorative justice approach is indeed beneficial and can help Indonesia in dealing with this issue by not only focusing on delivering justice and recovery the victims, but also holding offenders responsible without sacrificing their youth development and their future.

The phenomenon of cancel culture through the social media: pedagogical implications for teacher education

ABSTRACT This paper suggests that the phenomenon of ‘cancel culture’ has significant pedagogical implications for teacher education. In particular, the analysis problematises the phenomenon of cancel culture, focusing on how issues relating to race, racism and structural injustice are framed in social media. It is argued that for teacher education programs wrestling with how to guide teachers to deal with cancel culture, it is not enough to emphasise critical thinking, media literacy, debate and free speech. It is also important to avoid reproducing social media’s framing of cancel culture as an individualised and psychologised phenomenon, and urge teachers to pay attention to structural issues of race, racism and injustice. It is suggested that despite the political or other risks involved, teacher education programs can make a valuable contribution to public debates by engaging cancel culture in ways that nurture vigilance and restorative justice measures.

THE RIGHT TO SPECIAL PROTECTION FOR CHILDREN FACING THE LAW IN TERNATE CITY

This research examines the intersection of children's rights and the provision of special protections for minors involved in legal proceedings, specifically focusing on children who are offenders. The study is motivated by the heightened vulnerability of children to human rights violations when they engage with the criminal justice system. Employing an empirical juridical or sociological legal research method, this work scrutinizes both the relevant legal frameworks and their real-world application. Through a combined sociological juridical and statutory approach, the research evaluates all regulations pertinent to the legal issues at hand. Data were analyzed using descriptive and qualitative methods, alongside deductive and inductive reasoning to reach conclusions. The findings reveal that the enforcement of special protection rights for child offenders by both law enforcement agencies and the Ternate City Regional Government falls short of expectations. Despite some cases being addressed through restorative justice measures, there remains significant room for improvement. Efforts by the Ternate City Regional Government to meet the rights of child offenders and advance its status as a Child-Friendly City—including the provision of facilities and services tailored to the needs of child offenders such as specialized detention cells, recreational activities, social advocacy, and access to education, health care, and religious services—are hindered by both internal and external challenges. These include the absence of a Regional Regulation on Child Protection to serve as a legal foundation at the regional level, a lack of rehabilitation facilities for children with substance abuse issues, and a general lack of public awareness and understanding regarding the principles of restorative justice, which prioritize the best interests of the child.

The concept of transitional justice: genesis and features

Transitional justice is a set of measures related to systemic or large-scale human rights violations designed to compensate victims of violations and to facilitate or facilitate the transformation of political systems, conflicts and other conditions that may be the cause of violations. Different methods and components of transitional justice usually combine restorative justice measures (truth and reconciliation commissions) and a parallel system of punitive justice (mainly for those most responsible for the most serious crimes and their direct perpetrators). In addition, transitional justice measures are aimed at reforming society’s institutions by restoring the rule of law and ensuring the functioning of the judiciary in the long run. At the same time, their goal is to ensure that crimes committed during the previous period do not go unpunished. Transitional justice is based on the responsibility and compensation of victims. It recognizes their dignity as citizens and as human beings. Ignoring mass abuses is a simple way out, but it destroys the values on which any decent society can be built. Transitional justice raises the most difficult questions of law and policy imaginable. Putting victims and their dignity first signals the path to new commitments to ensure the safety of ordinary citizens in their own countries - from abuse of power and effectively protected from harm by others. The historical development of transitional justice is nonlinear, and its conceptual definitions are descriptive and inexhaustible. In this context, countries in conflict or already in conflict have the opportunity to choose the most appropriate measures and mechanisms to achieve the ultimate goal of transitional justice in that country - justice for victims of conflict and the restoration of peaceful life. At the same time, it must be borne in mind that transitional justice cannot be the embodiment of the justice of the victors, so the parties to the conflict must participate in the national dialogue, and the winners and losers must be held accountable. First of all, it should be noted that transitional justice is only one of the approaches that can be used to build peace, along with the deployment of peacekeeping peacekeeping forces and other measures. It is the combination of these measures that will guarantee the long-term restoration of peace and non-return to the conflict. In addition, such measures may take place with the involvement of various actors, such as: the actual state in which the conflict took place (or is taking place); the international community or both. Key words: human rights and freedoms, transitional justice, armed conflict, post-conflict period.

Why Do Organizations Respond Differently When Accused of Historic Crimes?

This paper contributes to the growing literature on corporate historic crimes by challenging the ways of thinking about moral evaluation that have hitherto informed research on this topic. We do so by examining managers’ responses to the ongoing campaign for corporate reparations for slavery. In recent years, social movements such as BLM have called upon the firms that historically profited from African slavery to apologize and pay reparations. We show that these firms have responded in strikingly different ways when confronted by activists who produced irrefutable evidence that they had once profited from slavery. Some of these firms apologising profusely and announced they would spend on restorative justice measures, while other firms facing essentially similar accusations refused to apologize or even comment on the accusation. We explain this difference in response with the Social Intuitionist Model (SIM) of moral reasoning. We find that while part of the observed difference in firm responses can be easily explained by looking at their current business models, firm responses were also strongly influenced by political ideology, a factor largely ignored by the extant literature on historic corporate responsibility. In the model we develop to explain firm responses to accusations of immoral behaviour in the past, a key factor is the nature of the moral universe inhabited by the firm’s managers and stakeholders. When a firm’s core stakeholders and managers inhabit the “moral universe” associated with the present-day Anglo-American left, the firm is much more likely to apologise for its historical connections to racial slavery than if its core stakeholders and managers inhabit the moral universe associated with political conservativism. We identify important implications for business ethics researchers and practitioners.

Application of Carbon Sink in Restorative Justice Measures for Ecological Responsibility

Application of Carbon Sink in Restorative Justice Measures for Ecological Responsibility

The impact of school’s security and restorative justice measures on school violence

Scholars have spent considerable time assessing the utility of school policies and practices designed to make schools safer, many focusing on exploring the relationship between security measures and school violence (Peguero et al., 2018). However, to date, there has been a lack of research examining the simultaneous effects of both school security mechanisms and school restorative justice measures on school violence. To help fill this gap in the literature, the current study examined the relationship between school security measures, restorative justice policies, and incidents of school violence using data from the 2018 School Survey on Crime and Safety. Findings indicated that security measures and school demographic characteristics had greater effects on school violence than did restorative justice measures; however, there were differences noted between models that examined violent incidents indicated by school personnel and violent incidents reported to police. In light of these findings, implications designed to curb school violence are discussed within.

Trust in Colombia’s Justicia Especial Para La Paz: Experimental Evidence

Research on the determinants of institutional trust in courts that are part of transitional justice frameworks is scarce. This article relies on experimental evidence to explore whether features of the case and the ruling play a role in citizens’ attitudes towards the Justicia Especial para la Paz, Colombia’s transitional justice tribunal. I evaluate whether the profile of the accused and whether or not he is sentenced to the most lenient of restorative justice measures have an effect on trust. I find that support for the decision is lower for restorative sentences than for more punitive sentences, and that whether or not the acussed was a former guerrilla combatant or a member of the military does not influence evaluations. This research contributes to our understanding of how citizens in countries dealing with the aftermath of violence perceive the institutions devised to adjudicate on the atrocities of conflict.

La dimension psychologique de la justice restaurative

Absolutely unprecedented until recently, the space for dialogue provided by restorative justice measures fills a significant gap in our criminal justice system, in total complementarity. While the criminal trial and the enforcement of sentences deal with the sanction and its individualisation in a more or less relevant way, it remains that the repercussions of the crime are only exceptionally considered. Otherwise, people affected by the crime, directly or indirectly, very often continue to suffer from it. This secure space, run by impartial professionals specially trained for this purpose, appears very promising because, finally, the questions of the “why” and “how” of the crime can be asked. In this sense, the scientific evaluative studies clearly show that this release of speech is likely to lead participants towards a horizon of appeasement. It is this device, still little known, that Paul Mbanzoulou and Robert Cario evoke in this interview.

“Hasta que la dignidad se haga costumbre”: Performatividad, subalternidad y restauración en los casos de doña Jacinta, Teresa y Alberta

A partir de los casos de doña Jacinta Francisco Marcial, Teresa González y Alberta Alcántara, tres mujeres otomíes acusadas de secuestrar a seis agentes federales, se analizan los actos performativos por los cuales la Procuraduría General de la República se vio obligada en 2017 a implementar medidas de justicia restaurativa mediante una disculpa pública. Se indaga sobre las condiciones enunciativas y el complejo de visualidad implementado por el Estado mexicano, particularmente acerca de cómo refuerzan o cuestionan las posiciones subalternas de las mujeres indígenas. Finalmente, el ensayo reflexiona sobre las condiciones para avanzar hacia un Estado restituidor desde una perspectiva decolonial.

Exposure to Violence and Attitudes Towards Transitional Justice

Transitional justice has emerged to address victims' needs as a means of restoring relations broken by violence. Yet we know little about victims' attitudes towards different transitional justice mechanisms. Why do some victims prioritize retributive justice while others favor other forms of dealing with the violent past? What determines victims' attitudes towards transitional justice policies? To address these questions, we offer a new theoretical framework that draws upon recent insights from the field of evolutionary psychology and links both war exposure and postwar environments to transitional justice preferences. We argue that both past experiences of wartime violence and present‐day social interdependence with perpetrators impact transitional justice preferences, but in divergent ways (resulting in greater support for retributive vs. restorative justice measures, respectively). To test our framework, we rely upon a 2013 representative survey of 1,007 respondents focusing on general population attitudes towards transitional justice in Bosnia two decades after the implementation of the Dayton Accords. Specifically, we examine the impact of displacement, return to prewar homes, loss of property, loss of a loved one, physical injury, imprisonment, and torture on attitudes towards transitional justice. On the whole, our findings confirm our two main hypotheses: Exposure to direct violence and losses is associated with more support for retributive justice measures, while greater present‐day interdependence with perpetrators is associated with more support for restorative justice measures. While acknowledging the legacy of wartime violence, we highlight the importance of the postwar context and institutional mechanisms that support victims in reconstructing their lives.

Spanish

Jurisdiction administrative dispute, due to the influence of the Inter-American Court of human rights, has in recent years adopted measures of reparation of the damage in itself considered as opposed to the consequence damage, especially when there has been a breach to the human rights of the plaintiffs; in several judgments of the Council of State ordering the adoption of restorative justice measures to repair in natura to the victims. However, the Court confuses sometimes damage event with the damage result and in our environment, only progress in the objective of the event damage repair when there has been an infringement of the right to health, being budding construction of objective criteria of compensation or repair when other conventional or constitutional rights are violated.

Being (almost) invisible: Victims of crime in the Italian juvenile criminal justice system

From 2008 to 2013 the author has been a Special Judge in the Juvenile Criminal Court of the Emilia Romagna Region. From that privileged perspective, it was possible to observe the dynamics of how victims of underage offenders were considered before the law, no differences if they are adults or minors, too. The reflections presented will first consider EU and UN provision on victims of crime; then, the normative framework supporting the Italian criminal juvenile justice system will be considered by an examining of the difficulties victims meet in that peculiar context. The implementation of juvenile criminal law shows the paradox victims of crime have to cope with. The Juvenile Criminal Court in Bologna recently started to promote a wide use of restorative justice measures as an attempt to correct the unfair consequences in the application of law, with judicial discretion interpreted as an instrument to favour victims? harm recognition and to protect their dignity as persons.

Realities of Victim Participation: The civil party system in practice at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC)

Victims of the Khmer Rouge play a unique role at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) since they have broad participatory rights. However, as the initial trial progressed, a number of changes were made to the framework of victim participation to deal with emerging problems. Although these amendments seemed to curtail some rights, they were also meant to strengthen victim participation and ensure a more efficient trial process. This led to the introduction of restorative justice measures, a lead co-lawyer system and a single submission for reparations. The reasons they were introduced and how they have been implemented so far in the first year of the second trial are the focus here. Subsequently, the impact of the lack of resources and attention given to victim support at the ECCC, from its inception, and the crucial contribution of civil society organizations in filling this gap and carrying out myriad activities at all stages of the participation process are examined. With the well-publicized controversies at the ECCC such as alleged political interference, the participation of victims has the potential to be the lasting legacy of the Court, but any success in this area owes a great debt to Cambodian civil society.

Judges who drive under the influence of alcohol: ethical implications and the role of restorative justice measures to balance judicial duty and societal expectations

Judges across the US have been charged or convicted of driving while intoxicated, yet many judges are allowed to continue to practice despite their criminal act(s). The issue becomes not only a societal issue, but also an ethical and professional one which impacts the individual criminal justice practitioner and criminal justice agencies. Duty to judicial and social expectations informs an argument regarding ethical theories: deontology and utilitarianism. Solutions include an examination of restorative justice measures such as: a balance of service to the community such as participating in victim-offender mediation and victim-offender panels as the offender, and completing community service where the victim chooses the judges number of hours and location of the service. While some may believe these jurists should suffer punitive punishments such as loss of judgeships, long-term treatment, and extensive probation coupled with individual psychiatric therapy, consideration of all factors with restoration in mind, might be more appropriate for these judicial offenders.

The Exclusion–Inclusion Spectrum in State and Community Response to Sex Offenders in Anglo-American and European Jurisdictions

Continental European and Anglo-American jurisdictions differ with regard to criminal justice and community responses to sex offenders on an exclusion-inclusion spectrum ranging from community protection measures on one end to therapeutic programs in the middle and restorative justice measures on the other end. In the United States, populist pressure has resulted in a community protection approach exemplified by sex offender registration, community notification, and civil commitment of violent sexual predators. Although the United Kingdom and Canada have followed, albeit more cautiously, the American trend to adopt exclusionist community protection measures, these countries have significant community-based restorative justice initiatives, such as Circles of Support and Accountability. Although sex offender crises have recently occurred in continental Europe, a long-standing tradition of the medicalization of deviance, along with the existence of social structural buffers against the influence of victim-driven populist penal movements, has thus far limited the spread of formal community protection responses.

Victim Consultation And Reparation: Preliminary Lessons From Pilot Youth Offending Teams

Jim Dignan outlines some important policy and practice issues associated with the introduction of restorative justice measures delivered by the pilot Youth Offending Teams (YOTs). In particular, he examines possible tensions between the roles and responsibilities of courts and YOTs; and between the demands of sensitive victim consultation and 'fast-track' justice.