Comprehensive Restorative Justice: An Overview of the Relationships Among Restorative Justice, Quality of Life, and Offender Rehabilitation

Source: (2003) Offender Programs Report. 6(5):67-68, to 75.

This article examines the natural linkages between restorative justice, quality of life, and offender rehabilitation in an attempt to provide an understanding of the connections and strengthen collaboration between community and criminal justice professionals in offender rehabilitation. It is believed that quality of life (QOL) is the foundation to the offender rehabilitation process and the essential link between restorative justice and truly effective rehabilitation. QOL can be used to engage offenders in the treatment process so they can see the potential personal benefits of therapy. This article divides the concept of restorative justice, called comprehensive restorative justice, into intrapersonal and interpersonal stages with each having essential restorative elements that must be obtained before a true or comprehensive restorative justice can be realized. The restorative processes of both must be thoroughly evaluated and effective communication between professionals must be present before the victim and offender ever meet in a supervised setting as part of the comprehensive restorative justice. For offenders, intrapersonal restorative justice must occur before the interpersonal state. Intrapersonal restorative justice refers to corrections in psychological processes and includes understanding, modifying, or eliminating the cognitive and affective factors that produce criminal behavior. Once the intrapersonal restorative justice or justice to oneself is restored, than personal relationships with others or interpersonal restorative justice can occur that includes understanding others and working with them. Comprehensive restorative justice is the highest level and perhaps the ultimate goal of rehabilitation. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org.