Restorative Justice for Juvenile Justice:

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Restorative Justice for Juvenile
Justice Stakeholders, Principles, Outcomes
Presented by Gordon Bazemore, Ph.D., Project
Director, Balanced and Restorative Justice
Project, Community Justice Institute, Florida
Atlantic University, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
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WHAT IS JUSTICE? -Justice as Punishment/Retributi
on? -Justice as Treatment? -Justice as
Accountability and Responsibility!
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Crime Is More Than Lawbreaking

• Crime HARMS
• Victims,
• Communities,
• and Offenders.

It also damages relationships.
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If crime is harm,
Justice should be healing.
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THREE BASICS OF RESTORATIVE JUSTICE -3
Stakeholders -3 Principles -3 Outcomes
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Restorative Justice Stakeholders Balancing Needs
Victim and family/support group Offender and
family/support group Community
Juvenile Justice System
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VICTIM NEEDS WHAT VICTIMS REALLY WANT a less
formal process where their views count more
information about processing and outcome of their
case
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VICTIMS WANT to participate in their cases to
be treated respectfully and fairly material and
emotional restoration especially an apology
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Victims frequently want longer time for
offenders because we havent given them anything
else. Or because we dont ask, we dont know what
they want. So the system gives them door Number
One or Two, when what they really want is behind
Door Number 3 or 4. Mary Achilles
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RJ FOR THE PERSON HARMED

• A CHOICE IN HOW THEY WANT TO PROCEED
• AN OPPORTUNITY TO SPEAK OUT ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED
  TO THEM
• AN OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE A VOICE IN HOW TO RIGHT
  ANY WRONGS DONE TO THEM
• A WAY TO FEEL SOME POWER OR SAFETY OR REASSURANCE

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OFFENDER NEEDS Young offenders need The
opportunity to take responsibility for the harm
caused by their behavior take action to repair
the harm have a voice in the decisionmaking
process
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OFFENDERS NEED Opportunities and support for
reintegration to their communities To build a
range of assets, skills and pro-social
relationships.
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FOR THE PERSONDOING HARM

• A CHANCE TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS
• AN OPPORTUNITY TO RIGHT THEIR WRONGS
• A CHANCE TO BE PART OF THE SOLUTION, NOT JUST THE
  PROBLEM
• THE POSSIBILITY TO LEARN FROM WHAT HAPPENED
• AN OPPORTUNITY TO DEVELOP EMPATHY AND UNDERSTAND
  IMPACT OF THEIR BEHAVIOR
• AN OPPORTUNITY TO GET ASSISTANCE TO ALTER OR
  CHANGE HARMFUL BEHAVIOR

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COMMUNITY NEEDS (Formal justice system
procedures) deprive people of opportunities to
practice skills of apology and forgiveness, or
reconciliation, restitution, and reparation . . .
The modern state appears to have deprived civil
society of opportunities to learn important
political and social skills.

David Moore
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FOR THE COMMUNITY

• A MEANS TO HANDLE PROBLEMS THAT OTHERWISE ARENT
  DEALT WITHTOOLS, SKILLS, CONFIDENCE TO INTERVENE
• ACKNOWLEDGES HARM DONE TO THE COMMUNITY
• THE PERSON WHO COMMITTED HARM IS HELD ACCOUNTABLE
  FOR ACTIONS TAKEN
• EVERYONE IS KEY TO PARTICIPATING IN THE SOLUTION

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Three Principles of Restorative Justice?
Repairing Harm Stakeholder Involvement Community
and Government Role Transformation
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Principle 1 - REPAIR
Justice requires that we work to heal victims,
communities, and offenders who have been injured
by crime.
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Repairing Harm

• Two Primary Objectives
• 1. Making Amends Meeting Victim Needs Creating
  a New Image for Offender Enhancing Reciprocity
• 2. Building Relationships Reconnecting with
  Prosocial Adults and Peers

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Core Practices Restorative Obligations or
Sanctions
Possible Obligations Required in an RJ Conference
or Reparative Court Order

• Apologize to Victims and Others
• Make restitution to victims
• Provide restorative community service
• Participate in victim awareness activities
• Other

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Reconnecting
Crime weakens relationships
Offender
Victim
Community
Victim
Community
Offender
Restorative justice reconnects
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Principle 2 - Involvement
Victims, communities and offenders should have
opportunities for active involvement in the
justice process as early and as fully as possible.
THREE RJ PRINCIPLES
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Stakeholder Involvement

• Three Primary Objectives
• -Respectful Disapproval Condemn offenders
  action while supporting the offender.
• -Healing Dialogue Needs-driven victim,
  offender, supporter discourse is more important
  than agreement.

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Stakeholder Involvement

• Three Primary Objectives, continued
• -Common Ground Build on Points of Mutual
  Interest between V-O, V-C, O-Ccollective healing

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Finding Common Ground
Offender
Victim
Community
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Core Practices Restorative Conferencing Models
Nonadversarial Stakeholder Decisionmaking

• Family Group Conferencing
• Reparative or Accountability Boards
• Sentencing and Peacemaking Circles
• Victim Offender Dialogue (Mediation)
• Community Conferencing
• Merchant Accountability Boards

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ELEMENTS of a RESTORATIVE CONFERENCE

• VOLUNTARY
• HAVE TO ADMIT HARM
• WILLING TO PROBLEM SOLVE
• ANY PARTY CAN STOP AT ANY TIME
• CONDUCTED BY A TRAINED FACILITATOR

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Facilitator
Supporter
Offender
Victim
Supporter
RGC Participants
Community Member
School Administrator/ Law Enforcement
Human services And/or probation
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Principle 3 Changing Community/ System
Roles Relationships
We must re-think the relative role and
responsibilities of the government and the
community. Government is responsible for
preserving order. The community is responsible
for establishing peace.
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Community The Justice System
Changing The Relationship
Justice system operates separately from the
community Justice system provides more
information to the community about its
activities. Justice system provides information
to the community about its activities and asks
for information from the community. Justice
system asks for guidance from the community,
recognizes a need for community help, and places
more activities in the community. Justice system
follows community leadership.
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Community/System Role Transformation

• Three Primary Objectives
• -Build Social Capital Relationships and
  networks of trust and reciprocityconnections
• -Create Sense of Collective Ownership of Problem
  or Conflict
• -Develop Problem Solving SkillsConflict
  resolution, informal social control, support
  members of safe communities dont mind own
  business

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THREE GOALS A BALANCED MISSION
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Offender
Community Protection
Community
Victim
Competency Development
Accountability
Justice System
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Restorative Accountability
NOT taking the punishment or obeying the
rules. Taking responsibility for, action to
making amends to victim and victimized community
Victim, youth, family and community in active
roles in this process.
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Restorative Accountability
OUTCOMES of ACCOUNTABITY AGREEMENT
Restitution
Community service Apologies
Address victim and community
concerns
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Competency Development
NOT absence of negative behavior (e.g.,
crime, drug use) or completion of treatment or
remedial program. But, capacity to do something
well that others value..
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Competency Development
COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENT OUTCOMES
demonstrated improvements in educational,
vocational, social, civic, and other competencies
that increase youth capacity to function as
capable, productive adults.
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Community Safety
NOT building more locked facilities or
creating and enforcing rules. But increase in
capacity of community groups to prevent crime,
resolve conflict, exercise guardianship, reduce
community fear, define tolerance limits and
exercise informal social control.
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Community Safety Goals
COMMUNITY SAFETY OUTCOMES
demonstrated improvements in -Recidivism
reduction -Skills of guardianship -Collective
Efficacy, Informal Social Control -Mutual
support for youth and families -Skills of
conflict resolution and reparation
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Why it Works
Grounded Community Theory Neighborhood
Accountability Boards

• We arent getting paid to do this.
• We can exercise the authority that parents have
  lost.
• We live in their community.
• We give them input into the contract.
• We are a group of adult neighbors who care about
  them.
• They hear about the harm from real human beings
  
  
  us and the
  victims.
• We follow up.

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So we make mistakes can you say you (the
current system) dont make mistakes? If you dont
think you do, walk through our community, every
family will have something to teach youBy
getting involved, by all of us taking
responsibility, it is not that we wont make
mistakes But we would be doing it together, as a
community instead of having it done for us. We
need to find peace within our livesin our
communities. We need to make real differences in
the way people act and the way we treat
othersOnly if we empower them and support them
can they break out of this trap

Rose Couch, Community Justice
Coordinator, Whitehorse, Yukon