Restorative justice is a response to criticism that today’s criminal justice system completely ignores the needs and the role of the victim. It introduces the idea that victims should have the opportunity to express their needs and participate in the resolution of their conflict. It requires the offenders to take responsibility for their behaviour and to fully understand the impact of their crime on the victim and the community. Restorative justice emphasizes the importance of involving all the stakeholders in the process of resolving the case and
their respectful treatment. It gives priority to unanimous solutions, rather than regulated ones, and strives for constructive sanctions. A great advantage of restorative justice is the flexibility of the process to concrete circumstances of the case. Restorative justice is also unique in that it encourages community participation. Despite the fact that restorative justice is gaining importance, there are still disagreements about how to define it, which can lead to misunderstandings about this approach.
One of the most researched fields of socially undesirable behaviour is reoffending. Over the past two decades, we have witnessed an increase in the number of studies examining the impact of restorative justice on reducing this phenomenon. Although it is still too early for definitive conclusions, a number of studies show that restorative procedures have had a positive impact on recidivism. However, these researches are also riddled with disagreements, in particular on what counts as a re-offense and when must the following period for offenders begin. Other constraints may affect the results of the research, such as the self-selection bias in the assignment of offenders to the experimental or control group. Nevertheless, there is an underlying case to be made for restorative justice based on the results of studies that show a statistically significant impact for both victims and offenders.
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