International Journal on Criminology Volume 4, Number 2, Winter 2016 | Page 132

International Journal on Criminology - Winter 2016, Volume 4, Number 2
Restorative Justice: Acknowledged Benefits versus
Emerging Issues
Catherine Rossi A and Robert Cario B
Restorative justice refers to a series of programs or models for
the management of persons focused on restoration, and may involve
programs or models designed to be integrated into traditional mechanisms
of criminal and penal justice, or, on the contrary, to operate in parallel
with or even opposed to these mechanisms. Because restorative justice
as a paradigm has become much too large and fragmented, the scientific
community and the general public find it difficult to discern its precise
shape and are less and less able to determine its component programs or
models and evaluate their impact. On the basis ofBased on a systematic
review of the literature, this article will seek to reflect generally on the
question of the benefits of restorative justice, by focusing particularly on
the issues that seem to have been most studied in the scientific literature,
namely, the links between restorative justice and the sense of justice, wellbeing,
healing, recidivism, forgiveness, and others. This reflection will
reveal that while there are numerous consensual benefits of restorative
justice which that have been clearly proven, the careful observation of
practices and their effects may well prove, on the contrary, that some socalled
benefits need to be nuanced, and even directly challenged. As part
of the discussion, a few avenues for reflection are proposed.
Keywords: Restorative justice; Impacts; Healing; Recidivism; Forgiveness
Restorative justice is a paradigm that refers generally to a set of programs
or models for the management of persons: programs that may or may not
be integrated into traditional mechanisms of criminal and penal justice. The
main objective of these programs (or models) is to observe the consequences of
a conflict or crime from the angle of the restoration it requires, whether material,
psychological, moral, or even entirely symbolic. In restorative justice, restoration is
defined in a uniquely subjective way by the person who requests it: thus, any person
who commits or experiences an event, or even feels that it concerns him/her (for
example, the family or the community of persons directly involved) may be in a
position to define their own notion of restoration.
A
Professor, Criminology Program, School of Social Work, Université Laval, QC, Canada.
B
Professor Emeritus of Criminology, Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, Chair of the French
Institute for Restorative Justice (IJJR).
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