Criminology 2231

Final Exam review

1. Using the framework of ‘’Healthy Communities’’ explain the reason for restorative justice lens in
dealing with crime and criminality

Restorative Justice is an alternative to long prison sentences which only further people into crime and
criminality when they come out of jail because they are automatically seen as a threat and usually
cannot get employment and have to go back to crime to support themselves, this is just one big loop of
poverty and criminality which does nothing to help society, the community and the offenders as the
correction system is supposed to do but instead it just pushes people and their communities further
down.

Restorative justice on the other hand unlike prison has four important aspects, one of which helps the
offender re-integrate back into society. Restorative justice also makes amends to the victim and the
community who take part in the entire process which unlike the criminal justice system very rarely have
juries and only have a single judge who often do not live in the area where the crime had taken place
and would not have to face the repercussions of their decisions. To be eligible for restorative justice the
offender must admit guilt, and repair what they have done to the community and victim(S) while the
current criminal justice system does very little to help the victim and does more to help the offender
when released from prison and put back into society which still ultimately fails. The offender can make
amends to the victim and community usually by volunteering in their community, work but will vary on
the severity of the crime. Another reason restorative justice works better than our current justice
system is because it takes economic, social status, and situational factors into account. Unfortaunely
today in Canada is it always the rich and powerful who never face a day in court while the poor have a
higher chance of getting caught doing something illegal and get the harshest sentence.