Restorative Justice: 5 Benefits by Steve Shibes (vs. 5 harmful effects of Retributive Justice)

[emilynghiem]

5 Benefits of Restorative Justice

Steve Shibes has a series which includes 5 worst problems with Retributive Justice
and 5 benefits of Restorative Justice (both lists he admits were hard to limit to just 5 each).

I thought he did a superb job of describing both approaches in accessible terms,
when usually these require comparing detailed cases in order to see the difference.

Short List he presents include these 5 Benefits of Restorative Justice:
1. It makes JUSTICE the work of the Community
2. It considers the interests of both victims and offenders
3. It allows for proportional punishments
4. It favors restitution over retribution
5. It is forward thinking

NOTE: one thing that makes Restorative Justice harder than Retributive Justice
is that its very strength - where restitution and rehab are decided mutually between
victim, offender and the community affected, HELP cure the causes of the
criminal problems while RESTORING healthy relationships and contribution to society -
requires FREE WILL and VOLUNTARY participation, so it can't be simply dictated by law.

However, the advantage people want from Retributive Justice, where laws dictate a uniform sentence and process, also makes that approach difficult as well: If there are exceptions or flaws in the process, the legal system is too often abused - either to throw cases out on technicalities, by following the laws uniformly, or to impose disproportionate sentencing that costs time and money to contest, also by following the laws.

I thought Steve Shibes did a great job presenting both approaches.
But I liked his video on RESTORATIVE JUSTICE:
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better than his video on Retributive Justice:

What is your feedback on these two approaches to justice?

 

[grbb]

We already have that in civil court. In some cases it doesn't work. Robbery for example? You don't need restorative justice. You need only to exterminate robbers. You don't demand mosquitos return the blood it sucks. You just kill all mosquitos.

 

[JoeB131]

I like Steve Shives, but this is kind of an old one. He stopped doing the "Five Things" series a long time ago.

I think the question is, what is the intent. Some people just need to be locked up because they are awful people.

 

[grbb]

Say I am a president. Under redistributive justice I can just murder political opponents and "compensate".

 

[emilynghiem]

We already have that in civil court. In some cases it doesn't work. Robbery for example? You don't need restorative justice. You need only to exterminate robbers. You don't demand mosquitos return the blood it sucks. You just kill all mosquitos.

Dear grbb
This Retributive Justice works when all people under it agree to the terms.
But sick people without ability to follow laws can't consent if they are mentally incompetent with criminal disorders.
We end up punishing the sick.
If you are going to do that, you might as well lock up the sick BEFORE they commit crimes.

The success rate of Retributive Justice is dismal, with 70% or more recidivism rate.
By the time you train people to comply with laws so they COULD CONSENT not to break them,
you have RESTORATIVE JUSTICE where programs only have 10-15% recidivism rates.
The programs I looked at that either use Education or Counseling to help convicts
stay out of prison had an 85% success rate, and so did the peer counseling programs for families
to break the cycle of incarceration.

BTW If you want to answer all crime with "the death penalty" you need to ensure you
are really applying it to the guilty. It's so much easier to incarcerate the wrong people,
and in the system you propose, put them to death for crimes committed by others.

When you compare both the costs of both, and the effectiveness,
there is no question that Restorative Justice works better.

I agree that this does not work right off if people are so sick they need
serious treatment to cure their criminal disorders. However, after
the therapy is applied, and the person is able to comply and cooperate
with doctors and authorities, then Restorative Justice can work.

Punishing or killing off the sick never cured leprosy or AIDS.
Why would this be the solution to criminal illness?