The restorative society Understanding the Journey to Belonging

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The restorative society? Understanding the
Journey to Belonging

• Dr Gabrielle Maxwell
• Victoria University of Wellington
• A video conference presentation,
• For the Institute of Restorative Justice, Brazil
• Wellington, November 2007.

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Introduction (1)

• We live in a world of heightened fearfulness
• Security precautions limit our freedom
• Personal and community safety is being identified
  with a fear of outsiders
• In many parts of the world, prison populations
  are rising
• These trends are at variance with human rights,
  social inclusion and a compassionate response to
  others

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Introduction (2)

• Our societies are becoming more multi-cultural,
  pluralistic and less likely to have a clear
  consensus on values - the state tends to focus on
  the bottom line.
• Restorative Justice (RJ) draws attention to
  fundamental issues of values the negative
  consequences of reliance on penalties custodial
  options for both the victims and those who
  offend.
• In NZ there is a growing emphasis on restorative
  approaches in many aspects of society (see
  Maxwell Liu 2007) that emphasise positive
  values new approaches
• In this paper I focus, however, on development of
  RJ in the justice system and the core aspects of
  best practice that enables the achievement of
  restorative goals.

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Outline

• The restorative justice model
• Core of a successful outcome
• Belonging - the goal of the journey
• Respect
• Fairness and equity
• Effective supportive relationships
• Responsibility and repair
• Empowerment
• Forgiveness, reintegration, healing
• Summary and Conclusion

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Part 1 The restorative justice model
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Core aims of restorative justice

• Repair harm
• Restore the balance of relationships
• Create the conditions that can lead to the
  reintegration of all within the social group
• This approach can lead to healing the hurts and
  enabling wrongdoing to be forgiven
• The focus is on processes and practices that
  build and restore rather than stigmatize and
  punish.

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Contrasting values between restorative and
criminal justice

• Crime belongs to the community decentralised
  rather than centralised system with judgements
  about fairness determined by community rather
  than state
• An emphasis on acknoweldgement of responsibility
  and repair of harm
• Essence of rj is on reintegration the building
  and rebuilding connections between people rather
  than labeling the guilty and excluding them.

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Contrasting processes

• Conventional cj emphasises formal and complex
  processes that are often unable to be understood
  by outsiders
• RJ is relatively informal and less public
  involving those most affected coming together
  with a facilitator to make decisions themselves
• In RJ, the process is flexible, the script
  spontaneous and the outcomes often novel.
  Emotion is at the centre of the process and those
  most affected by events are the key players.

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Contrasting outcomes

• Conventional CJ outcomes tend to be punitive and
  aim to denounce and deter. The key aim is to
  protect public safety and outcomes exclude
  restrict.
• Aims of RJ are to hold offenders accountable in
  meaningful ways and make amends to victims. The
  focus is on apologies, reparation and community
  work
• RJ focuses on restoring balance and harmony in
  the community and bringing the community together
  to protect itself.
• Reconciliation is more likely in RJ.

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Effectiveness of RJ

• Difficult to compare because different goals
• RJ more satisfying because participants can tell
  their stories
• Re-offending can be less likely victims
  offenders both report processes as fair
• But RJ depends on rebuilding communities of care
  and changes goals of the system.

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Part 2 Core ingredients of a successful
restorative outcomes
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Belonging and relationships

• Belonging is the goal of the human journey
• It means having a place in the social structure
• Having good relationships with others
• Being engaged in activities where one can
  experience success
• Experiencing a sense of personal wellbeing

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Key constructs

• Respect rather than shaming
• Fairness and equity in process, voice,
  participation and agreement
• Effective relationships that give support,
  affirmation and identity
• Responsibility and repair
• Empowerment
• Reintegration, forgiveness and healing

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Respect - the antithesis of shaming

• Being treated with respect is important for all
  at all times - involves equality of treatment,
  being greeted, listened to, spoken to with
  courtesy being able to stand tall
• Shame has been called the ugly
  emotion,dangerous game. It leads to
  aggression or retreat and the disengagement from
  the group.
• Shaming by others is effectively exclusion from
  belonging while respect affirms membership of the
  group.

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Fairness and equity

• Fairness is a basic determinant of human
  behaviour - seen even in very young children
• Distributive justice equal shares
• Procedural justice a fair process of making
  decision
• Victims and offenders may have different views
• Other CJ factors eg deterrence of others,
  mitigating and aggravating factors under law
• In RJ - personal beliefs and values and views on
  the type of outcome eg similar experience

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Effective relationships give support,
affirmation and identity

• Support and acceptance of family and friends
  enable an offender to take responsibility and to
  rebuild their life
• People who care about you hear everything and
  continue to accept you enables remorse, admission
  of responsibility and repair of harm
• Respect and support from professionals is also
  important- they signify society as a whole and
  their rejection can be reciprocated
• Continued support, acceptance and close
  relationships that also provide guidance are
  essential.

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Responsibility and repair

• Goods and money can be replaced but emotional
  harm requires the offender to listen
  respectfully, acknowledge what has happened and
  take responsibility for it.
• A lack of perceived genuineness can be a problem
• System problems in ensuring victim is aware of
  actions completed can undo the good
• For the offender, feeling able to repair harm is
  a critical step on the journey to belonging.

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Empowerment

• Being in control of ones life and destiny is a
  basic need for both victims and offenders.
• It increases chances that people take
  responsibility for their actions repair harm
• First step is participation in all aspects of
  process
• It is psychologically more difficult to offer to
  repair harm than to accept a penalty imposed by
  others.
• Participation means experiencing shame and guilt
  and accepting responsibility.
• But it is also more likely to lead to taking
  responsibility for ones own life and building a
  constructive future.

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Forgiveness, reintegration and healing

• For reintegration Specific needs must be
  identified and ways worked out of meeting them
  and providing ongoing support
• Forgiveness is complex - one must forgive oneself
  as well as others - it is a need for both
  offenders and victims - and it may not occur for
  many years - if ever.
• Healing can occur as acceptance by others becomes
  acceptance of oneself. It too may take a very
  long time
• Healing and forgiveness are the ultimate goals of
  the journey and will not always be reached.

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Summary and Conclusions
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Evidence on best practice identifies the
ingredients of successful outcomes

• The key is to understand the importance of
  relationships - the journey to belonging is the
  ultimate goal of humankind
• Key constructs are
• Being treated with respect and fairness
• Being able to participate and being empowered
• Taking responsibility for ones actions and
  repairing harm
• Being reintegrated into the social group

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Achieving best practice

• Building the skills of those facilitating
  conferences
• Respecting them and learning from their
  experience
• Rewarding them and respecting them and the value
  of their work

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Conclusion

• Justice is best served and outcomes are most
  constructive when all aspects of the justice
  process are fair, consistent and respectful of
  all the participants affected by the events and
  when it does all possible to assist those
  involved to rebuild their lives within the wider
  society without undue risk to others.