Balanced and Restorative Justice - 1013 Words

The Balanced and Restorative Justice (BARJ) approach introduced first in 1993 through a grant to Florida Atlantic University (FAU) began as a national initiative of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). It seeks to serve juvenile offenders with a perspective to achieve restoration or a guaranteed favorable return to reverse their once delinquent behavior. It serves juvenile offenders providing them with a rehabilitation role instead of retribution role. BARJ addresses the risk and protective factors and/or special needs of juvenile offenders by instructing them to be accountable for their actions; they must develop a level of competency, so they can be more responsible and realize the destructibility of their†¦show more content†¦Juvenile justice professionals’ views often seek to consider the offender’s community because proper placement and the community’s supervisory role need to be a part of the treatment process as well. The victim’s role is somewhat simple, but exclusive at the same time because they come face to face with the offenders to work through their emotions and the crime that inflicted upon them by the offender. During the face-to-face meeting, victims have the option to forgive and reconcile with their offender so the healing process can begin and regain normalcy in their lives. The community seeks to improve involvement with juveniles by providing a shared responsibility for the m through support and supervision, providing employment, and education. The framework to address any potential complications with implementation of BARJ is to ask questions, do the research by looking into where it is currently in use, perform a series of tests or comprehensive assessments and record the results, and if implemented ask for feedback. Feedback will help identify any needs for improvements. For example, in one case study, four 15-year-old boys broke into school buildings and caused considerable damage and a restorative justice conference took place at the scene of the damage. All four boys were from reputable homes and were very intelligent, but reluctantly they beginShow MoreRelatedCriminal Law, Questions and Answers 1284 Words   |  5 Pages1 Introduction Restorative justice as a whole is not gaining support in South Africa as the majority of our country is in favour of the punitive system in order to combat the high levels of crime. However, there are several areas of criminal law that has received increasing support for restorative justice as opposed to our current system, such as when dealing with youth offenders. Despite the harsh criticism of restorative justice, it has received judicial recognition in a number of cases recentlyRead MoreJuvenile Justice754 Words   |  3 PagesJuvenile justice has traditionally followed a punitive model when faced with young transgressors. Most juvenile justice departments have then also followed this model, creating a system that is in effect not only separate from the community, but also from the family unit. Many juvenile offenders are then physically removed both from their communities and their families to be incarcerated into punitive institutions. According to the Balanced and Restorativ e Justice model, however, accountability isRead MoreRestorative Justice1645 Words   |  7 PagesRestorative Justice Restorative Justice is an alternative to the traditional system. Even though restorative justice will never replace the traditional system, it has a balanced focus on the person harmed, the person causing the harm and the affected community, rather than just the crime through the eyes of the law. Restorative Justice is always voluntary for the victims, and the offenders have to be willing to cooperate and they have to want to do this. Restorative Justice is a forward-lookingRead MoreRestorative Justice: Reconciliation of Society, the Victim and the Offender1335 Words   |  6 Pagescharacteristic of restorative justice- to reconcile society, the victim and the offender- but also to rehabilitate the offender so that he is no longer an â€Å"enemy† of the criminal justice system. This form of justice is gaining support in South Africa; however there are limitations to this form of justice which also in turn limit its success in the future. Restorative justice alone is defin itely not a method of justice which we can adopt but it may be possible that this form of justice can help if itRead MoreJuvenile Justice And Juvenile Delinquency1675 Words   |  7 PagesJuvenile Justice has been a work in progress from the beginning of the program because of the evolving mentality of the generations. The purpose of Juvenile Justice was to correct the behavior of the juvenile delinquents and rehabilitation through a probationary period monitored by an individual who paid for bail and periodically reported behavior changes to courts. (Mulligan 2009) We do justice to the youth offenders by understanding the history of Juvenile Justice restorative programs, the alternativesRead MoreRestorative Justice Is A System Of Criminal Justice1948 Words   |  8 PagesRestorative justice is a system of criminal justice that focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community at large. Understanding the definition may be really har d to understand, however when we put it in a different form that many can understand it comes down to repair, encounter and transformation. Our book describes restorative justice in three parts as accountability, community protection and competency development (Sieh, 2006). AccountabilityRead MoreRestorative Justice Policy Proposal for Juvenile Justice System2875 Words   |  12 Pagesofficers, judges, prosecutors as well as other juvenile professionals are advocating for a juvenile justice system which is greatly based on restorative justice. These groups of people have been frustrated by the policy uncertainty between retribution and treatment as well as unrealistic and unclear public expectations. As a primary mission, the balanced approach or policy allows juvenile justice systems together with its agencies to improve in their capacity of protecting the community and ensuringRead MoreCurrent Situation Regarding Prisons and Punishment1775 Words   |  7 Pagesdeemed equivalent to the committed offense. This theory is described in the Bible as ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot’. (Exodus 21:24) Finally, restorative justice is the theory of punishment endorsed by the Catholic Church. Consedi ne (1999) explains that restorative justice â€Å"moves from punishment to reconciliation, from vengeance against offenders to healing for victims, from alienation and harshness to community and wholeness, from negativity and destructivenessRead MoreOriginal Writing : My Head Forever Essay1711 Words   |  7 PagesMinnesota would be severing 3-4 years in prison and the main guy was sentenced to 8 years in prison. We found out all of them were meth heads and had been on meth that night. There was no kind of restorative justice processed used. I don’t believe the harm was dealt with according to the values of restorative justice. We never got asked if Andrew or I wanted to talk or write letters to the men. To be honest I’m not use if I would have wanted to, even if I got the choice. The city I once felt so safe inRead MoreThe Canadian Criminal Justice System Is Often Represented1756 Words   |  8 PagesThe Canadian criminal justice system is often represented by the balanced scales of justice. These scales symbolize the need for the law to be viewed objectively in order to ensure a fair determination of innocence (Griffiths, 2011). Ideally, the criminal justice system should incorporate the values of the scales of justice to control crime and impose penalties on those who violate the law. However, despite justice being supposedly impartial, there is an overwhelming representation of Aboriginal