Talk:Restorative justice
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| Retributive Justice: | Restorative Justice: |
| Crime is violation of state (e.g., Texas vs. Lee)
but consideration of harm caused to another is important in retributive justice |
One person harms another - direct responsibility |
| Focus on blame | Focus on problem-solving |
| Adversarial relationship (lawyers fight it out) | Dialog and negotiation (victim & offender)
adversarial relationship is certainly possible in restorative justice as well; it is not a magic solution that automatically resolves conflict |
| Pain/punishment | Restitution/restoration |
| Interpersonal conflicts are obscured - Individual vs. State | Interpersonal conflicts recognized and valued - solutions sought
|
| One social injury replaced by another
Although, retributive punishment is not a social injury in the point of view of retributive justice |
Focus on repair of social injury |
| Competitive lawyers and points of view
|
Discovery and social interests served
|
| Victim mostly ignored and sidelined
|
Victim rights affirmed |
| Offender passive (does the time)
Not always, punishment can be constructive (as long as it is still punishment) |
Offender to take responsibility & make restitution |
| Offender merely has to take punishment | Offender usually learns impact of their crime and how to make right
|
| Purely legal | Whole context must be considered |
| Debt to state is abstract | Debt is to victim with state facilitating |
| Stigma of crime is often not removable
|
Stigma often removed through restoration of justice and peace
|
| No repentance or forgiveness | Possibility of both |
| Depends on a representative | Direct involvement
|
| Fear and ignorance
|
Courage and knowledge |
| Punitive model is broken | Evaluate and replace with alternative sentencing |
| All of society pays for prisons and associated costs - lousy return on the dollar | Society pays for treatment and resolution - better return on the dollar
the "return on the dollar" is often not to society, but to the victim |
