Home Building Blocks Restoring

RestoringRepairing harm and preventing future harm

When crime or conflict occurs, the harm it causes ripples out beyond the parties directly involved. It can negatively impact the parties’ relationships their friends, family, and colleagues. It may also damage the shared sense of trust and security in the broader community. A victim of a violent robbery may struggle to go outside, for example, or be present and productive at work. The stress he experiences in the aftermath of the crime may come out in his relationship with his spouse or children. He may notice himself going through life in a state of fear and hypervigilance, or blame himself for what happened. His friends and family may begin to feel less safe in the streets, or consider retaliating against the person who harmed him.

Justice workers know how difficult it is to address the diverse needs that arise from incidents of harm. These include the needs of the victim and the community as well as the needs of the person who caused the harm. How can perpetrators best be held accountable for their actions? How can bad situations be made right again? How can conflict or crime be prevented in the future?

Why is this a fundamental dispute resolution practice?

Restoring is necessary to address the harm caused by crime or conflict and prevent it from happening again. It begins with one or more parties taking responsibility for what happened and agreeing to meet with those they hurt. A restorative justice¹ process then makes it possible for parties and their supporters to share their perspectives and feelings about what happened. They have the opportunity to ask questions and express their needs. This process helps the perpetrator fully understand the implications of their actions and holds them accountable for putting things as right as possible. This may involve punishment, but more often it means showing remorse through practical actions that help the victim recover and make them feel safe again. For example, paying reparations or providing a service to the community.

What are the active ingredients of restoring?

Acknowledging the dignity of the other party

This is achieved by listening to the perspective, experiences and emotions of the other party.

Active accountability

Unlike more passive measures of accountability such as incarceration, restoring requires perpetrators to take active accountability ² for their actions by taking responsibility and engaging with those they have harmed.

Restitution and repair

Active accountability also requires that the perpetrator take steps to undo the damage they have caused to the victim and the community. Depending on the needs of the victim, this may mean explaining, apologizing, changing their behavior, paying restitution, or taking initiative to improve themselves themselves as individuals.

What are people actually doing to make this happen?

Parties

Parties who have caused harm are accepting responsibility for their role in a crime or conflict and authentically participating in a restorative process with the people they have harmed. They are listening, answering questions, and thickening their understanding of what happened. Following the restorative meeting, they are actively working to restore the harm they have caused in the community in a way that respects the victim’s wishes.

Parties

Victims

Victims are requesting to participate in a facilitated conversation with the person who harmed them. They are sharing their experiences of the crime or conflict and describing the ways it affected them. They are also listening, asking questions, and thickening their understanding of what happened.

Victims

Mediators and facilitators

Mediators and facilitators are creating safe spaces for restorative conversations or meetings to take place. They are taking all necessary steps to ensure that both parties are prepared to engage with one another. They are ensuring that during the conversation or meeting, all voices are heard and a restorative agreement is reached.

Mediators and facilitators

Police and probation officers

Police and probation officers are making parties to crime aware of the possibility of participating in a restorative justice process. They are making timely referrals to mediators and facilitators, and in some cases, participating in the process themselves. They are also following up with parties to ensure that the outcomes of a restorative process are complied with.

Police and probation officers

Judges and justice leaders

Judges and justice leaders are thinking creatively about how to make the existing criminal justice system more restorative for victims and perpetrators alike. They are empowering communities to take ownership of justice processes and making restorative, rather than purely retributive, responses to crime available.

Judges and justice leaders

Innovators

Innovators are working on creative ways to make restorative processes more accessible to their community.

Innovators

What indicators can be used to monitor this practice?

0%

Restorative justice
(accountability, restitution, reconciliation)

What makes restoring difficult?

Access barriers

High-quality restorative justice services and facilitators are not yet widely available. Where they are available, procedures are not always in place to consistently inform the parties involved – particularly victims – how to initiate them. The limited availability and accessibility of these services also makes it difficult for justice workers to trust that restorative justice is an effective responses to crime. This may discourage them from making referrals to restorative justice providers, and cause them to rely on the more retributive criminal justice responses.

More Resources

Tim Chapman, “Facilitating Restorative Justice Conferences in Northern Ireland” in Conferencing and Restorative Justice: Challenges, Developments and Debates (2012)
John Braithwaite, Accountability and Responsibility Through Restorative Justice in Rethinking Public Accountability (2006)

Justice Dashboard

Justice Dashboard

RestoringRepairing harm and preventing future harm

Why is this a fundamental dispute resolution practice?

What are the active ingredients of restoring?

Acknowledging the dignity of the other party

Active accountability

Restitution and repair

What are people actually doing to make this happen?

What indicators can be used to monitor this practice?

What makes restoring difficult?

Access barriers

More Resources

Justice Dashboard

Contact us

Follow us

Navigation