Restorative Justice

Abstract

Restorative justice is philosophy that places repairing the victim's harm as a primary goal in the justice process. It includes concepts of reparation, reconciliation, and transformation while offering a space for victim healing and forgiveness. Restorative justice requires that offenders acknowledge the impact their behavior has on victims, family members, and the community and mandates some form of amends. Various models of restorative justice exist with mixed evaluative results. Restorative justice continues to serve as an alternate sanction for juvenile and adult offenders and has increasingly become a more popular solution in educational settings.