Source: (2001) In, Brian Williams (ed.), Reparation And Victim-Focused Social Work (pp 34-44). London, UK: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
For hundreds of years, in almost all modern societies, the word “justice” has evoked the concepts of crime and punishment. At the turn of the millennium, however, many streams of thoughts have converged to challenge the validity of this close association and the effectiveness of punishments as indisputable solution to the societal problem of crime.
The presentation, will begin with a discussion centering on transition from punishment to restoration through community justice forum and examine how these two philosophies differ. Many people, both in the criminal justice system and in society at large, believe that the present criminal justice system does not meet the needs of the community, victims and offenders. According to a growing number of scholars and practitioners many societies are searching for alternatives to the conventional “punishment-oriented” justice system. There is a need to redefine terms such as crime, punishment and justice to better reflect the needs of the community, victims and offenders.
The presentation will focus on the selection of cases that can be referred for Community Justice Forum and its 5 key steps:
1) the incident itself where the offender must admit responsibility,
2) the voluntariness of the process; all partie must agree to participate,
3) the forum itself; where the participants sit and the order they speak, as well as how the emotions are expressed throughout the forum,
4) the resolution; when an agreement is reached along with the monitoring of the agreement and lastly the closure; how it is done and why this is an important step within the process.
Additionally, the presentation will highlight that, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police views Community Justice Forum as an intricate part of its organization’s community policing philosophy and along with other governmental partners took a lead role implementing Community Justice Forum in many communities across Canada.
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