How Restorative Justice may assist in Lowering Hate Crime in Australia Introduction Restorative justice (RJ) is used in community settings (e

Subject:WritingPrice:22.99 Bought3

Share With

How Restorative Justice may assist in Lowering Hate Crime in Australia

Introduction

Restorative justice (RJ) is used in community settings (e.g., community service, victim services, and restorative meetings) as a non-penal alternative to incarceration for crimes with victims or defendants who wish to reform. The restorative justice procedures gained popularity in the 70s (Zehr 2015). However, it has been implemented and made legal in Australia for almost 20 years (Jeffries et al. 2021). The key goal of RJ is the rethinking of how we view punishment of wrongdoing in a way to restore the damage caused by an offence where the offender and victim are listened to in order to help them work out ways of minimizing their suffering (Marshall 2014; Braithwaite 2002). Hate crime mainly involves violence motivated by prejudice based on the victim's race, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, or other characteristics (Smith 2012). Examples of hate crimes include abusing someone verbally or physically; currently, hate can occur digitally. Hence, this essay will contend the effectiveness of RJ application in healing the harm caused by an offence to victims in the first place and communities. Furthermore, this paper will discuss the field's viewpoints regarding RJ's efficacy. It will examine the growing body of research-based evidence regarding RJ processes and their effects on offenders and victims.

 

 

 

Background/ Literature Review

 

Restorative justice is generally understood as an approach in which all involved in an offence collaboratively work together to cope with the consequences (Braithwaite 2002). The concept of restorative justice in Australia gained prominence in 2001, starting with the juvenile justice system. With time, restorative justice has been expanded to accommodate adult offenders. There are a variety of restorative justice options available in Australia, including programs for young offenders in all Australian states and territories, programs for adult offenders in New South Wales and South Australia, programs for circle sentencing in New South Wales and Western Australia, and programs for mediation available in all jurisdictions, other than Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory (Joudo-Larsen 2014).

 

Hate crime harms people as it targets aspects of their identities as human beings. Hate crime mainly targets people with diverse characteristics, such as minority ethnic groups and religious or linguistic minorities (hatecrime.com.au). However, not all incidences involving hate crimes are reported. According to Vergani and Navarro (2020), victims of hate crimes may fail to report hate crimes due to internal factors involving normalizing the hate and lack of awareness, as well as external factors involving fear of consequences and lack of trust in law enforcement agencies. The lack of statistical data about the scope and severity of hate crimes harms the implementation of interventions to address hate crimes.

 

Discussion

The literature review has identified restorative justice as a process that provides perpetrators of hate crimes with an opportunity to take responsibility for the crime. The various options involved in attaining restorative justice align with the aim of restorative justice. Johnstone and Van Ness (2013) reiterate that the purpose of restorative justice is to encounter, repair, and transform. Restorative justice aims at providing the offender with an opportunity to face the consequences of their actions, to provide victims with justice, and to repair the damage caused. The encountering aspect of restorative justice is intended to hold offenders accountable for their actions. Since offenders have committed actions that have injured others, they need to take responsibility for their actions. In principle, the criminal justice system has tried to address the needs of offenders, particularly in providing them with a fair trial (Kirkwood 2022). The perpetrators must be held liable for their actions by being taken to court, where they would listen to the victims’ accounts about how the offenders’ actions caused them pain.  The repair aspect of the restorative justice system is aimed at making things suitable by providing justice to the victims. Throughout history, restorative justice has paid less attention to the needs of the victims. The victim was the state, not the injured person, and the purpose of the injured party in the criminal justice system was merely to present evidence concerning how the person broke the law. The criminal justice charge focused on the perpetrator’s action of breaking the law and not providing justice to the injured person. (Johnstone & Van Ness 2013). This explains why victims felt disappointed whenever they looked upon the law to provide them with a sense of justice. Victims get justice by receiving apologies and seeing the perpetrators punished for their hate crimes.

 

 

 

Restorative justice addresses aspects of justice that the criminal justice system has traditionally ignored. It seeks to repair the damage caused by the wrongdoing as far as the law allows. In this situation, restorative justice has a unique advantage. It gathers persons who have been impacted by an act of wrongdoing together to recognize the wrong that has been done, to define the needs it has produced, to identify the responsibilities that now exist, and to jointly decide how to best undo the damage and prevent a repeat (Johnstone & Van 'Ness 2013). Those are the issues most important to the parties involved and society at large.

 

Conclusion

 

The concept of restorative justice can be implemented to lower hate crime in Australia. The review identifies hate crimes as verbal abuse, physical abuse, arson, manslaughter, and murder due to bias against the victim due to their race, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, or other characteristics. The concept of restorative justice is important as it addresses aspects of justice that were largely ignored by the criminal justice system. Restorative justice allows offenders to be held liable for their actions. It also allows victims to get justice by apologising and seeing the victims of hate crimes punished. The third tenet of restorative justice involves restoration, which involves identifying ways of undoing the damage that has been caused. Victims of hate crime may fail to report the crime due to internalizing the abuse or external forces such as a lack of trust in the criminal justice. Restorative justice aims at encouraging victims to report hate crimes.

 

 

 

Notes:

More points to be discussed in the discussion section:

-              What are the current RJ practices for hate crime in Australia

-              Are they effective? enough? Do is RJ really work?

https://www.restorativejusticeinternational.com/rji-global-advisory-council-march-30-2021-video-meeting-on-hate-speech-hate-crime-restorative-justice/

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203578988-38/repairing-harms-hate-crime-mark-walters

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315093109-12/healing-harms-engendering-tolerance-promise-restorative-justice-hate-crime-mark-walters-carolyn-hoyle

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315264868/restorative-justice-theo-gavrielides

https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/informit.20220405065146

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4223856

https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/11/4/62

 

 

References

Braithwaite, J., 2002. Restorative justice & responsive regulation. Oxford University press on demand.

https://hatecrime.com.au/

Jeffries, S., Wood, W.R. and Russell, T., 2021. ‘Adult restorative justice and gendered violence: Practitioner and service provider viewpoints from Queensland, Australia’. Laws, 10(1): 13

Johnstone, G. and Van Ness, D.W., 2013. ‘The meaning of restorative justice’. In Handbook of restorative justice. 27-45. Willan

Joudo-Larsen, J., 2014. ‘Restorative justice in the Australian criminal justice system’.

Kirkwood, S., 2022., ‘A practice framework for restorative justice’. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 63:101688.

Marshall, C., 2014., ‘Restoring what? The practice, promise and perils of restorative justice in New Zealand’. Policy Quarterly, 10(2).

Shaw, G., 2007., ‘Restorative practices in Australian schools: Changing relationships, changing culture.’ Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 25(1): 127-135.

Smith, L., 2012., Hate Crime in Australia: An analysis of the views of police detainees. Faculty of Arts, Charles Sturt University.

Vergani, M. and Navarro, C., 2020., ‘Barriers to reporting hate crime and hate incidents in Victoria: A mixed-methods study.’

Walters, M., 2014., ‘Repairing the harms of hate crime: A restorative justice approach.’ In The Routledge International Handbook on Hate Crime. 400-410. Routledge.

Zehr, H., 2015., The little book of restorative justice: Revised and updated. Simon and Schuster.