Societas et Iurisprudentia (Mar 2015)
Restorative Justice – Definition and Models
Abstract
The study focuses on the current issues of criminal justice based primarily on the retributive justice model and presents the concept of restorative justice as an alternative which had an extensive expansion in the recent years. The first chapter briefly describes the current status of criminal justice and its main issues. The second chapter describes the definition, ideas, and main principles of restorative justice. The third chapter consists of four subheads, each dedicated to one of four most used restorative justice models – Victim-Offender Mediation, Family Group Conferencing, Circle Sentencing, and Community Reparative Boards. Restorative justice offers new options how to react to crime and seeks to reflect the needs of victims, offenders, and community.
