Restorative justice program is a very special focus on the issues within the society involving crime. It provides a very different perspective under which offenders can be engaged to provide a better understanding on improving the overall environment under which the society can be well engaged.
Restorative justice programs that are put in place do not focus on punishment but are based on significant understanding on healing and rehabilitation where offenders can be well engaged in ensuring that they are effectively re integrated into the society. They provide a clear understanding under which elements need to be considered in improving the overall environment under which the society can understand the changes that have taken place in an individual who was considered as a threat to the wellbeing of the society. The restorative justice program that will form the basis under which this paper will be discussed will be community service (Crocker, 2016).
Community service a as form of restorative justice program has been highly engaged across all the states and form one of the major rehabilitation process that are implemented within the criminal justice system. Successful community service programs requires close relation between the criminal justice system and the community in order to provide better focus on important considerations that need to be put into focus in creating a crucial understanding between the offender who is being enrolled under community and the community environment under which they are engaged.
Community service has certain goals with form the basis under which individuals within community service are engaged. It helps in holding offenders accountable for the harm that they have caused the society. It is considered as a second chance where an individual can be able to be accepted back into the society when there is an understanding that they are changed and focus on creating a better environment where they can be positively engaged and help improve the overall wellbeing of the society (Van Ness, & Strong, 2015).
Another goal for community service is to provide communities with human resource who can help in certain capacities within the community as allocated. Improving the quality of life within a given community requires such programs where these individuals can help in making the environment clean. It also allows offenders to learn new skills, which can help in creating a better environment under which they can be effectively engaged and help streamline their lives based on the skills learned. Allow victim a voice to show clearly that an offender is indeed a changed person who can help play a crucial role in improving the wellbeing of members of the community.
Restorative justice programs are well engaged in various societies providing a very important chance to offender to improve on their position where they can be well integrated into the society. Restorative justice programs focus significantly on the rehabilitation aspect where they are able to engage in finding a solution to a given issue that is being addressed. Repairing harm that is caused by offenders is a key aspect that is being considered under the restorative justice programs since they aim to restore better relationships between offenders and their communities. Offenders are mainly incarcerated because they were found guilty of having committed a given crime or caused harm to another person. Restorative justice programs therefore seek to build the broken relationship where an offender and the victim can peacefully coexist.
The victims even though they may have found justice in the due process, it does not mean that they have forgotten about how they were affected by the criminal act of the offenders. There is need to ensure that there is development of positive relations between an offender and the victim through restorative justice programs that are in place. This helps in ensuring that the society is developed on positive elements, which define the overall environment under which offenders are engaged (Tsui, 2014).
These programs would positive engage juveniles considering the fact that they focus on rehabilitation. Juveniles require rehabilitation regarding the long life, which means that they will be positively engaged when they adopt restorative justice programs. Juveniles are easy to change and when they are engaged successfully they are able to change their ways and adopt positive development skills where they can be able to improve on their lives (González & Gonzales, 2012).
Social control involves focus on specific elements within a given social environment. It focuses on behavior, attitude and actions of individuals within a given social environment. Restorative justice thus seeks to maintain some level of balance within the community by ensuring that the society is based on positive aspects, which can help in defining the overall characteristics of the community. Therefore social control in important aspects in restorative justice since it helps outline the community elements, which need to be considered to have a well-engaged environment(González & Gonzales, 2012).
Offender’s community can be crucial in correcting than the formal system. This is mainly because the community based focus aims at understanding the underlying factors, which influence the lives of its members and thus can effectively help in streamlining the behavior and general engagement of its members. The formal system deals with many individuals whose backgrounds are not known hence the level of correcting is not specific and the chances of successful engagement are very low because they do not focus on the underlying issues.
