The Need for Overhauling the Justice System

Discuss about the Restorative Justice for Prevalent Judicial System.

There needs to be complete overhauling of the justice system and more emphasis should be given to the parties and their rights, rather than evidence and the process that was undertaken to find those evidences (Braithwaite, John). The current justice system is far from perfect and the judiciary and the legislature need to find ways to deliver better justice by taking into consideration the victims, who are the injured party (Bazemore, Gordon and Mara). The research shall put emphasis on different ways to restore the losses the victims face and also make sure that the offenders are made to face the trial and pay for the harm they have caused. Restorative justice is an important segment and a new addition to the already existing fields of victimology and criminology. The entire concept of imposing justice is to ensure that the justice is restored and the justice also improves and repairs the ones who have been wronged. The concept of ensuring justice is to restore the faith in the society and also make sure that the parties be allowed to continue their safe existence in the society without any hardships. The ones who have been wronged are allowed to continue to live in the society and also the affected members be made to be part of the system that ensures that the wrong party is made to be allowed to be reprimanded. The wrong party shall also be made to respond to the crime. In cases of restorative justice, the moot point becomes imparting justice and the process also ensures that the legal professionals as well as the ones who are responsible for restoring justice. The justice system becomes an integral part of the justice delivery system. The justice delivery system coming under the restorative justice delivery system is important because it does not believe in face to face solving crimes but believes in restoring the system of psychological and material injuries that are attached with injuries and crimes that are already present in the society. The restorative approach of maintaining the sanctity in the society is the ultimate outcome of the restorative system.

• The objective of the research is to find the different restorative outcomes in the society and how the offenders should not be discarded and made to feel detached and therefore they should be incorporated in the society.
• To find the outcome of a meeting between the offenders and the victims so that the issues are resolved and the members of the affected parties can find their ways through the justice system.
• The research shall aim to analyse the current justice system and identify the defects in the prevalent judicial system. It is pertinent to find how the restorative justice system will help in restoring the justice in the legal system. 

In the opinion of Joshua and Ayombani (2018 pp. 258), it is always believed that the justice delivery system is not equipped to deal with the restorative programmes and therefore there is a need for complete overhauling and also there is also a need for finding out better solutions that help in restoring the faith of the victims in the legal system (Zehr). Restorative justice has to be understood as an ideology that has to be understood as a method of repairing the harm that has been inflicted on the people and the victims have to be given a chance to heal from the pain that has been inflicted on them since time immemorial (Van Ness and Karen). There shall be arrangement of victims and offenders and the only way to address this issue is to arrange a compromise where the issues are put forward by both the parties (Maruna and Shadd pp. 290). In the opinion of Peterson-Badali et al  pp. 307 it can be said that, “Examining implementation of risk assessment in case management for youth in the justice system.” 

The Importance of Restorative Justice

It is worth mentioning that research approach can be described as an efficient methodology of collecting data. The most common types of research approaches include deductive and inductive research approach. The research approach has to be selected on the basis of the research variables. For conducting a research which requires the formulation of innovative and new research theories and models the inductive research approach is chosen. However, for the purpose of conducting this research the deductive approach is chosen.  This approach helps in generalizing specific information to generalized information. The inductive research approach is generally chosen for the purpose of conducting a research as helps in saving a lot of time as well as the monetary constraints due to the previous models and theories of the research.  Therefore, it can be inferred that the deductive approach will helps in saving time and also is an economic benefit to the person undertaking the research.  

It is worthwhile to mention that having a good understanding of the research topic and having a clear idea of it is essential for choosing the correct research approach.  Proper understanding of the research approach helps in gathering knowledge about the research variables. It can be stated that selecting the most appropriate research approach helps to emphasize on the research area. Generally three types of research methods are used for the purpose of conducting researches. They are:

• Explanatory
• Exploratory
• Descriptive

Explanatory research helps in recognizing the relationship between the different research variables

Exploratory research helps in identifying the background of the research which is associated with the research topic.

Descriptive research method helps in facilitating in gaining proper explanation about the research variables. It can be stated that this research will use the descriptive method for gaining the actual purpose of the research. It will also help in gathering relevant information for the purpose of formulating the research objectives and research questions effectively.

Data collection can be considered to be one of the most important and essential activities in the whole purpose of the research. Data collection methods can be categorized into two categories. They are:

• Primary
• Secondary

It is worth mentioning that this research will be conducted by using the secondary data collection method. Barnes et al, pp. 115 held that the primary data is associated with the first hand and bias free data. Primary data can have major contribution in the quality of the research outcome. It can be mentioned that in case of collecting primary data the researcher mainly collects information through quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection. Quantitative data technique is mostly related with the collection of objective data which is accurate and authentic in nature (Maxwell, Gabrielle and Allison pp. 60).

Secondary data is associated with descriptive information regarding the research topic. It can be stated that secondary data collection methods are quite useful in preparing the section of literature section of the research. However, this research study will focus on gathering secondary information for the purpose of conducting the literature review.     

Conclusion

The basic concept behind imbibing the concept of restorative justice is to ensure that there is restorative justice in the society and the community does not suffer at the hands of the offenders. There needs to be amends to the existing justice system and the offenders should be made to restore the justice and repair the harm that has been caused by them to the society. There has to be agreements to that affect so that the legislature ensures that the traditional justice system and the restorative justice system work in consonance and there is restoration of community values. The restitution shall not be fully effectuated till the offender is to compensate the victims for the losses that have been caused to the victims as a result of the crime. The offenders have to be made accountable for the all the wrongs they have committed and the restoration has to be done with the orders and directions of the court.

References

Bazemore, Gordon, and Mara Schiff. Restorative community justice: Repairing harm and transforming communities. Routledge, 2015.

Braithwaite, John Bradford. “Restorative justice and responsive regulation: the question of evidence.” (2016).

Van Ness, Daniel W., and Karen Heetderks Strong. Restoring justice: An introduction to restorative justice. Routledge, 2014.

Zehr, Howard. The little book of restorative justice: revised and updated. Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., 2015.

Maxwell, Gabrielle M., and Allison Morris. “Juvenile justice in New Zealand: A new paradigm.” Restorative Justice. Routledge, 2017. 53-71.

Maruna, Shadd. “Desistance and restorative justice: it’s now or never.” (2016): 289-301.

Peterson-Badali, Michele, Tracey Skilling, and Zohrah Haqanee. “Examining implementation of risk assessment in case management for youth in the justice system.” Criminal Justice and Behavior 42.3 (2015): 304-320.

Joshua, Samson Ayobami. “Achieving Quick, Fair and Effective Administration of Criminal Justice in Ondo State Under OSACJL 2015: The Role of The Police.” KIU Journal of Social Sciences 4.2 (2018): 255-260.

Barnes, Geoffrey C., et al. “Are restorative justice conferences more fair than criminal courts? Comparing levels of observed procedural justice in the reintegrative shaming experiments (RISE).” Criminal Justice Policy Review 26.2 (2015): 103-130.