Source: (2004) Included in Restorative Justice Week 2004: Engaging Us All in the Dialogue. Ottawa: Correctional Service of Canada. Downloaded 28 January 2005.
Restorative justice is, of course, about justice. While people often think victims of crime want vengeance, most victims say they just want justice to be done. The question then is what is justice. More particularly, the question is how a victim of crime defines justice. Marjean Fichtenberg observes that justice is something that happens to the offender in our current criminal justice system. What about the victim in this system? Is the criminal justice system’s pursuit of “justiceâ€? a satisfactory approach to justice for the victim? In Fichtenberg’s assessment, the answer is negative. Restorative justice theory, in contrast, offers a set of values conducive to healing for the victim, offender, and society. In this approach, the victim’s needs are taken seriously and placed at the center of the process of responding to the crime. In actual terms, not all restorative justice processes adequately include and assist victims of crime. Yet truly restorative responses do support and aid victims in meaningful and practical ways. This is justice from a victim’s perspective.
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