The Role of Forgiveness In Restorative Justice

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The Role of Forgiveness in Restorative Justice
The criminal justice system does not only seek to punish the offenders, but it also seeks to avoid cases of recidivism by ensuring that the offender who successfully goes through the same is restored back to the society. However, restorative justice only applies to minor offenses, like property offenses, whereby they can be righted by returning the stolen property (Tullis Par. 25). Restorative justice is the system that focuses on rehabilitating the offender through reconciliation by the victims and the community at large as it views the offender, the victims, and the community as the primary stakeholders to justice (Zehr and Mika 41). Traditionally, restorative justice does not apply to serious crimes, like murder, because of the animosity that usually exists between the offender and the victims.
The case of Connor Macbride, whereby restorative justice applied successfully for a murder case, is an isolated case. The victims were willing to go through with restorative justice, even though it hurt them that the offender had murdered their daughter, Ann Grosmaires. Since restorative justice could not work in Florida, a pre-plea conference helped to get the families together with the prosecutor, who feared that taking the path of restorative justice for the crime would ruin his reputation, as the people would think he was soft. However, after meeting with the families, Jack Campbell, the prosecutor, saw how determined the victims were to help the offender and decided to help them while still ensuring that he would not come across as a soft prosecutor to the public.

A decision of twenty years plus ten years was the best Jack Campbell would offer. Considering that Connor risked life imprisonment, restorative justice had worked.
In that case, forgiveness contributed a lot in making the process a success. Connor would undergo imprisonment, which meant he would serve for his mistakes and after serving twenty years, he would get another chance, which means he would be restored to the society. If the Grosamires had not forgiven him, the process would not have worked. Going by this case, therefore, forgiveness plays a vital role in restorative justice.

Works Cited
Tullis, Paul. “Can Forgiveness Play a Role in Criminal Justice?” The New York Times, 4 Jan. 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/01/06/magazine/can-forgiveness-play-a-role-in-criminal-justice.html?pagewanted=all. Accessed 2 Feb. 2018.
Zehr, Howard, and Harry Mika. “Fundamental concepts of restorative justice.” Restorative justice: Critical issues (2003): 40-43.