Trends and Issues Update

              Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority 1
Examining restorative justice
By Phillip Stevenson
        
Criminal Justice Information Authority
Vol. 2, No. 5 June 2001
Trends & Issues
UPDATE
The Juvenile Justice Reform
Provisions of 1998 (Public Act
90-590) took effect January
1999. Among the many changes to the
Illinois Juvenile Court Act, a purpose
and policy statement was added
encouraging juvenile justice profes-sionals
to respond to juvenile crime in
a way that includes the victim and
community as well as the offender.1
The language used in the act’s
purpose and policy statement, “…to
promote a juvenile justice system
capable of dealing with the problem of
juvenile delinquency, a system that will
protect the community, impose ac-countability
for violations of law and
equip juvenile offenders with compe-tencies
to live responsibly and produc-tively,”
embraces the fundamental
principles of balanced and restorative
justice. The restorative justice philoso-phy
is a new way of thinking about
juvenile justice which will require many
criminal justice professionals to
reevaluate how they do their jobs. This
Trends and Issues Update presents an
overview of the restorative justice
philosophy and describes programs that
are consistent with the philosophy.
Justice philosophies
The two dominant justice philosophies,
retribution and rehabilitation, are
offender-centered. Retributive justice
attempts to prevent crime by punishing
offenders. Rehabilitative justice
attempts to prevent crime by treating
offenders. In contrast, restorative
justice is victim centered. Repairing
harm to the victim caused by the
offense is a primary goal of the
restorative justice process. But unlike
offender-centered responses to crime
that often minimize victim participation,
offenders are actively involved in the
restorative justice process. Restorative
Table 1
Retributive and restorative justice
questions and answers
Adapted from Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz and Howard Zehr (1998) “Victim Offender
Conferencing in Pennsylvania’s Juvenile Justice System.”
Retributive justice Restorative justice
How is crime defined? A legal infraction. A violation of
relationships between
people.
What is most relevant? Legal variables. Overall context.
Who are the actors? State and offender. Victim and offender
primarily, along with
state and community.
Describe the process. Adversarial and
technical.
Focuses on guilt.
Encourages offenders
to deny responsibility.
Participatory,
maximizing
information, dialogue,
and mutual agreement.
Focuses on victim needs
and offender
obligations.
Fosters empathy and
encourages offender to
take responsibility.
What are the
outcomes?
Offender is punished.
Harm caused by
offender is balanced by
harm done to offender.
Identification of victim
needs, offender
obligations, healing,
and problem-solving.
Harm caused by
offender is balanced by
offender working to
correct mistakes.