Retribution and restoration as general orientations toward justice.

Source: (2012) European Journal of Personality. 26:255-275.

We proposed two distinct understandings of what justice means to victims and what its restoration entails
that are reflected in individual‐level justice orientations. Individuals with a retributive orientation conceptualize
justice as the unilateral imposition of just deserts against the offender. In contrast, individuals with a restorative
orientation conceptualize justice as achieving a renewed consensus about the shared values violated by the offence.
Three studies showed differential relations between these two justice orientations and various individual‐level values/
ideologies and predicted unique variance in preferences for concrete justice‐restoring interventions, judicial
processes and abstract justice restoration goals. The pattern of results lends validity to the understanding of justice
as two distinct conceptualizations, a distinction that provides much needed explanation for divergent preferences for
injustice responses. (authors’ abstract)