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“Retributive Justice, Restorative Justice.”

Zehr, Howard
June 4, 2015

Source: (1985) New Perspectives on Crime and Justice (Issue #4). Akron, PA: Mennonite Central Committee Office of Criminal Justice, September, 16p.

An essay which claims that the current justice is not working for victims or for offenders. The current process actively discourages real offender accountability. Defining crime as an offense against the state fails to take into account the needs of crime victims. Restorative justice is discussed as a paradigm shift away from just deserts. The Biblical call for an “eye for an eye” is really a call for compensatory justice. Covenant law seeks very different outcomes and requires different processes. Restorative justice provides alternative values and an alternative vision, not just alternative sentences. The two paradigms of justice are compared.

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