Restorative justice in social work

The practice of Restorative justice offers an alternative approach for dealing with harm caused by crime. It uses a three-dimensional approach that includes the victim, the offender, and the community. Restorative justice programs are used as a method of improving victim and/or offender satisfaction, increasing offender compliance with restitution, and decreasing the recidivism of offenders as an alternative to traditional criminal justice methods of response (i.e., incarceration, probation, court-ordered restitution, etc.). Restorative justice practices in social work are often geared towards cultivating alternative spaces, which value personal responsibility and involvement.
Definition
Latimer, Dowden, and Muise (2005) define restorative justice as:
::A voluntary, community-based response to criminal behavior that attempts to bring together the victim, the offender, and the community, in an effort to address the harm caused by the criminal behavior. A violation of relationships requires a restoration process which incorporates voluntariness, truth telling, and a face-to-face encounter.
Models of restorative justice can be grouped into three categories: circles, conferences, and victim-offender mediations. The principles upheld in each remain relatively similar.
::Conferences are sometimes referred to as restorative conferences or family group conferences. They involve "extensive pre-conference preparation with the assistance of a facilitator and ultimately allows for family members of the victim and offender to meet in person to express their thoughts and feelings as a way to heal the pain of wrongdoing." In the process of coming together to restore relationships, the community is also provided with an opportunity to heal through the reintegration of victims and offenders.

The traditional justice system utilizes a one-dimensional adversarial approach with attention given primarily to the offender, They focus attention on the harm done by an injustice and repairing the hurt caused, as opposed to the focus being on punishing the perpetrator of the injustice.
Restorative justice methods
The three types of restorative justice practices specific to social work are victim-offender mediation (VOM), family group conferencing (FGC), and peacemaking circles.

Van Wormer and Bednar (2002) offer a bridge between restorative justice and the strengths perspective, which is a widely used social work approach that takes into consideration client capabilities and positive characteristics as a vehicle for change and coping. For example, an integrated theoretical understanding applied to battering males is termed “the restorative-strengths approach” and offers a new application for social work practice utilizing restorative justice practices.

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