Tina M. Banks
September 11, 2014
Intro to Corrections
Martin Gosses

Restoring the Victim and Their Community

Restorative Justice is a theory that stresses repairing harm that is caused by criminals and their behavior. Restorative justice is seeing a crime as more than just breaking the law; it also recognizes that crime affects families along with communities and relationships. With restorative justice it is important to bring the victim and their offender together in order for the
Victim to receive closure by discussing the crime and the aftermath of what the victim went through and what they are going through now. The victims need acknowledgement, to feel safe and to be emotionally repaired, so that they can begin the healing process. It is also important for the community to help get to the cause of the conflict and solve the problem before it becomes criminal. To insure success with restorative justice it is important to bring everyone together in order to resolve the conflict and also understand what the problem is that caused to offender to respond how they did. It is also important not to lose sight of the victim, also to not ignore how they were affected by the crime. In other words, it is important for the offender to recognize how they have affected the victim. The people who should help them, recognize what the offender caused, is the victims themselves. The community needs to develop some type of restorative process. In order for this to work criminal justice officials must involve the community in making certain decisions about providing the programs for this process to happen. Some benefits of restorative justice are first off seeing the crime as more than just breaking the law.
It recognizes that the offender doesn’t just