Restorative Justice

Restorative justice refers to a principle which requires a process of resolving conflicts with the maximum
involvement of the victim, the offender and the community. It seeks to obtain reparation for the victim;
reconciliation of the offender, the offended and the community; and reassurance to the offender that he/she
can be reintegrated into society. It also enhances public safety by activating the offender, the victim and
the community in prevention strategies.
It embraces a wide range of human emotions – healing, mediation, compassion, forgiveness, mercy, and
reconciliation. (Par q, Sec 4 of RA 9344)
Restorative Justice:
*Provides opportunities for victims, offenders, and communities affected by a crime to
communicate (directly or indirectly) about the causes, circumstances, and impact of that
crime, and to address their related needs.
*Is based on an understanding that crime is a violation of people and relationships and is
based on principles of respect, compassion and inclusivity.
*Encourages meaningful engagement and accountability and provides an opportunity for
healing, reparation and reintegration.
*Uses processes, including conferences, dialogues and circles, and is guided by skilled
facilitators.
*Is a flexible process and can take different forms depending on the community, program,
case, participants, or circumstances.
*Uses processes that may take place at all stages of the criminal justice system and can be
used with adults and youth.
*Is used in every province and territory and is supported by legislation and federal, provincial
and territorial government programs and policies.

Justification of introducing restorative justice:

The current Philippine criminal justice system, after considering the duties and functions of its different pillars,
reveals its defects and they are the following:
a. The victims of a crime may not pursue a criminal case against the perpetrator because of lack of support
from the government especially the person arrested for the commission of a crime or the accused persons
have numerous rights compared to the victims of a crime;
b. The suspects who are actually fall guys may be convicted because they have no money to spend especially
in hiring experienced and skilled lawyers to defend them;
c. The criminal cases may be dismissed because of insufficiency of evidence or technicality even if the
accused confessed that he was the one who committed the crime;
d. The accused may be convicted of a charge and a penalty is imposed by the court but the victim or the
society as a whole is not yet contented of the suffering that the accused may undergo;
e. The trial of a case may take a very period of time notwithstanding the presence of the Speedy Trial
Act;
f. Even if a perpetrator is imprisoned or has undergone a community – based treatment, he may not be
reformed or rehabilitated; and
*In fact, correction is known as the weakest pillar of the Criminal Justice System because of its failure to reform
and rehabilitate offenders.
g. The persons who were imprisoned by reason of the crime they committed may not be effectively
reintegrated in the community.
This is because they may always be called ex – convicts and most employers do not hire persons with a
criminal record.
As a result of these defects, the victims of a crime may again be victimized by the system to suffer
financially and emotionally especially if the perpetrator is not directed by the court to pay anything to
them. Because of this, the restorative justice was introduced. It is the purpose of restorative justice to
settle the issue between the offender and the offended party

with their active participation. The members of the community must also give their active participation for the
offended and the offender to be as much as possible satisfied with the penalty imposed.
It may be true that the restorative justice may be abused by the offender by just paying the offended party
with a certain amount of money but consider the fact that human beings cannot really establish a perfect
criminal justice system. It is still believed that the restorative justice will lessen the numerous problems
encountered in our present criminal justice system.
In fact, it may be concluded that the abolition of Republic Act 7659 or the Death Penalty Law has
deepened our understanding of the character and dynamics of the Philippine criminal justice system,
particularly its punitive and retributive orientation. (Tradio, 1996; Pangda, 2007 &
www.restorativejustice.org/university.../philippines)
After the abolition of the Death penalty law, Republic Act 9285 was enacted to further strengthen the
restorative justice. Said law is an act to institutionalize the use of an alternative dispute resolution system in
the Philippines and to establish the office for alternative dispute resolution, and for other purposes. (Title of
RA 9285)
One of the justifications of penalty is retribution. What are the distinctions between retributive justice and
restorative justice? The following are the distinctions between retributive justice and restorative
justice:
Retributive justice is an approach focused on determining the following:
*What law was broken;
*Who broke it; and
*How shall offenders be punished?
Restorative justice, on the other hand, is an approach focused on determining the following:
*What is the harm resulted from the crime;
*What needs to be done to repair the harm; and
*Who is responsible for repairing the harm?
Retributive justice considers a crime as an act against the State, while restorative justice considers a crime as
an act against the victim and the community;
In retributive justice, the control of crimes lies to the criminal justice system, while in restorative justice, the
control of crimes lies to the community;
In retributive justice, the community is represented by the State, while in restorative justice, the community is
the facilitator in the restorative process;
Retributive justice focuses on the past by determining the person to be blamed for the crime committed, while
restorative justice focuses on the future to determine the matters to be considered so that the crime will
not be repeated;
Retributive justice focuses on the offender’s past behavior, while restorative justice focuses on the
consequences of offender’s behavior;
Retributive justice emphasizes the adversarial relationship, while restorative justice emphasizes dialogue
and negotiations;
Retributive justice considers crime as an individual act with individual responsibility, while restorative justice considers
crime as both individual and social responsibility; and
Retributive justice is based on the principle of lex talliones, while restorative justice is based on
forgiveness and reconciliation.
Take Note: “Lex talliones” is a law of equal and direct retribution. In the words of the Hebrew scriptures, Le
talliones means "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, an arm for an arm, a life for a life." The earliest
written code of laws was the Code of Hammurabi, the most famous of the Old Babylonian, or Amorite,
kings of Mesopotamia. Hammurabi's code of laws is almost entirely based on the principle of equal and direct
retribution; it betrays the origin of law in retributive violence. Since the lex taliones is often the earliest
form that law takes, from it we can conclude that the basic function of law is revenge and retribution.
Unlike direct retribution, however, the law is administered by the State or by individuals that cannot be
victims of revenge in return. (en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Lex_Talionis_Fraternitas)

It must be stressed further, however, that lex talliones is the law of proportionality. Hence, if a property
worth 100 gold coins is stolen, the victim cannot claim 200 gold coins in return.

The fundamental principles of Restorative Justice:

The fundamental principles of Restorative Justice are the following:
Justice requires that all must work to restore those who have been injured like the victims, the
community, and even the offenders;
Those most directly involved and affected by crime should have the opportunity to participate fully in the
response if they wish; and
The government is responsible for preserving a just public order and the community establishes peace.
Restorative justice emphasizes the importance of elevating the role of the victims and
the community members through more active involvement in the justice process, holding
offenders directly accountable to the people they have violated and providing a range of
opportunities for dialogue, negotiations, and problem solving, which can lead to a greater
sense of community safety, social harmony and peace for all.

1. Three (3) Fundamental Principles of Restorative Justice

Crime is more than law breaking:

therefore, victims, offenders and the affected communities should have opportunities
for active involvement in the justice process as early and fully as possible;

justice therefore, requires that all stakeholders should work to heal victims, offenders,
and the communities who have been affected;
therefore, we must rethink the relative roles and responsibilities of the government and
the community. In broad terms, in promoting justice, government is responsible for
preserving just order, and the community for establishing just peace.

2. The Basic Elements of Restorative Justice

Encounter: Create opportunities for victims, offenders and the community members who want
to meet and discuss the crime and its aftermath;

Amends: Expect offenders to take steps to repair harm they have caused to their victims;

Reintegration: Seek to restore victims and offenders as a whole and help them become
contributing members of society; and

Inclusion: Provide opportunities for parties with a stake in a specific crime to participate in the
resolution.

3. The Goals of Restorative Justice

Exert effort to appropriately respond to the victim’s harm;

Accordingly hold offenders accountable;

Reduce the re victimization;

Improve active involvement and cooperation of victims; and

Protect and empower victims.

4. The Benefits of Restorative Justice

It views criminal acts more comprehensively: rather than defining crime only as lawbreaking, it
recognizes that offenders harm victims, communities and even themselves;

It involves more parties: rather than giving key roles only to government and the offender it
includes victims and communities as well;

It measures success differently: rather than measuring how much punishment has been
inflicted, it measures how much harm has been repaired or prevented;

It recognizes the importance of community involvement and initiative in responding to and

reducing crime, rather than leaving the problem of crime to the government alone.

5. The Objectives of Restorative Justice

To proactively involve the community to support and assist in the rehabilitation of victims and
offenders;

To attend to the needs of the victims, survivors and other persons impacted by the crime as
vital participating stakeholders in the criminal justice system, rather than mere objects or
passive recipients of service or intervention that may be unwanted, inappropriate or
ineffective;

To reintegrate offenders to the social mainstream and to encourage them to assume active
responsibility for the injuries inflicted on the victims and the community;

To ultimately heal the effects of the crime or wrongdoing suffered by the respective
stakeholders; and

To prevent further commission of crime and delinquency.

6. Comparison of Retributive and Restorative Justice

RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

State and Community

Crime is an act against the State; Crime is an act against an
a violation of law; an abstract individual person and/or the
idea. community
Control of crime lies in the
criminal justice system Control lies in the community

Community is peripheral as
represented by the State through Community as a facilitator in the
the court, prosecution and restorative process
defense attorney
Offender and Victim
Direct participation by the
Reliance on justice professionals
stakeholders
 Victims are peripheral to the Victims are central to the process
process of resolving a crime
Focus on establishing guilt and Focus on problem solving
the law violated by looking at the regarding liabilities/obligations by
past (Did he/she do it?) looking to the future (What should
be done?)
Response to address
Response to address offender’s harmful consequences of
past offender’s behaviour; emphasis
on the future
Relationship
Emphasis on adversarial Emphasis on dialogue and
relationship (win-loss) negotiation (win-win)
Accountability
Crime is an individual act with Crime has both individual and
individual responsibility social dimensions of responsibility
Accountability is defined as
Offender accountability is defined
assuming responsibility and
as taking punishment.
taking action to repair the harm.
Punishment alone is not effective
Punishment is effective; threat of
in changing behaviour and is
punishment deters crime;
disruptive to community harmony
punishment changes behaviour.
and good relationships.

The provisions of the Holy Bible which may be bases of restorative justice:
The following are the provisions of the Holy Bible which may be bases of restorative justice:
Jesus specifically rejects “an eye for an eye” and tells that if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him
the other one as well. (Matthew 5:38 – 39)
Jesus called on followers to love their neighbors and enemies too. (Matthew 5:43 – 44)
Jesus called for unlimited love and said our forgiveness should be beyond calculation by forgiving others until
seventy times seven. (Matthew 18:21 –
22) (Other sources: Philippine Bible Society, 1987; Bloomsbury, 2007; Reyes, 2008; Diamante, 2010; Personal
interview with Rev. Gloria Mapangdol, October 2, 2010; Classroom Discussion of Corpuz, 2010