CRIMINOLOGY

Criminology

Criminology

What are the historical and theoretical underpinnings of restorative justice and can it provide an effective alternative form of social control?

Restorative Justice

The Restorative Justice (regenerative or restorative justice or justice) is an approach to consider the crime primarily in terms of injuries. This results in the requirement on the author to remedy the grave consequences of his conduct. To this end, lies an active involvement of the victim, the same agent and the civil community in finding solutions that help to meet all needs arising as a result of the crime (Atkinson, 2006, p. 505-532). Restorative justice (restorative justice) is a common international term for an alternative form of dispute resolution. In various forms and with varying degrees of success in restorative justice is non- communities (such as tribal societies) and in countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand practice. One of her most important scientific protagonists is the Australian criminologist John Braithwaite. The American sociologist and conflict researcher Howard Zehr known as the grandfather of restorative justice. Restorative justice is a response to crimes that the victim involving the offender and the community in the search for solutions. The solutions are on the restoration of positive social relations, especially in reparation, reconciliation and confidence-building to create (Atkinson, 2006, p. 505-532).

Historical and Theoretical Underpinning

The first traces of restorative justice been assigned to the first peoples of North America. There is a restorative justice in several historical texts: the Torah says restitution to victims by criminals, the Code of Ur-Nammu requires redress for acts of violence, and the Code of Hammurabi prescribed restitution as a sanction for property offenses, the Law of the Twelve Tables ordered the thief to pay double the stolen property (Atkinson, 2006, p. 505-532). It seems that this view of crime as a violation of the individual have been gradually pushed out to its virtual disappearance in the eleventh century in favor of a vision of the crime as a violation of the king or the state. It reappears in the twentieth century in communities across Canada, the United States, Britain and Australia where restorative justice programs put in place (Gray, 2005, p. 940). In 1974, a juvenile probation officer convinced the judge to perform mediation victim / criminal for a case of vandalism in Kitchener Canada (Gray, 2005, p. 940).

Restorative Justice now practiced in the international schools, in restorative practices (IPGRI) in Canada, the United States, Australia, Central and South America, Hungary, and the University of St. Augustine Canterbury in Taunton. A 2004 study by the University " Minnesota School of Social Work "in thirty U.S. states found that mention restorative justice in their statutes of State (Gray, 2005, p. 940). Thematized in the late '80s, the first born of Restorative Justice Practices, i.e. experimental models have emerged in North America in a natural way and only after thorough. They also intercept a debate complex and varied, that, since the 70s, was wearing a comparison of different critical voices of American criminal law theory and practice ...