Introduction
Restoration is a process whereby the different parties that have a stake in a particular offence collectively resolve the best way to deal with the offence’s aftermath and the implication that it might have in the future. The purpose of restoration is to essentially restore into the community a group of offenders and victims who have resolved their conflicts.
As a crime prevention response or tactic, restoration strives to understand crime in its social context. It challenges the legal authorities to examine the root causes of violence and crime so that such cycles can be broken. The restoration approach towards crime prevention is essentially based on the assumption that crime has its roots or origins in the society’s social conditions. It recognizes the fact that even offenders have faced harm at some point of their life. Therefore, it is paramount that communities take some responsibility in remedying the social conditions that contribute to criminal activities and also toil to promote healing. One of the central premises of this process is that the offenders, victims and the affected community all play an active role in the restorative process.
The restoration process is concerned with curing the victim’s wounds and basically restoring the law abidance virtue into the offenders. It seeks to repair the harm that has already been done to the various interpersonal relationships in the community. Restoration seeks to involve all the stakeholders in the given offence or crime and providing them with an opportunity with the mitigation or the response process to the harm emanating from the offence.
It is argued that the best way to prevent a criminal from reoffending is by reintegrating him into the community. Doing this strengthens the entire community and promotes changes that can actively prevent the occurrence of similar crimes in the foreseeable future.
References
Maiese, Michelle. (2013). "Restorative Justice." Beyond Intractability. Eds. Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess. Conflict Information Consortium, University of Colorado, Boulder.
Howard Zehr and H. Mika. 2010. "Fundamental Concepts of Restorative Justice." Contemporary Justice Review: Issues in Criminal, Social, and Restorative Justice, Volume 1, Issue 1, pp. 47-56.
