There are numerous amounts of reasons why restorative justice can be a better alternative than retributive justice. Restorative justice has already been used in many criminal justice systems as an approach that helps gives justice to both the offender and the victim of the crime. “Restorative justice, first used in New Zealand in the 1980’s, is an alternative to traditional detention and criminal justice punishments” (Zoukis). This alternative to justice has many benefits, including; lower recidivism, costs, and incarceration, and it also helps the criminal and the victim of the crime cope with the crime that was committed. Restorative justice helps the people of the criminal justice system ensure the true justice that has always been promised because of how beneficial it is for both the criminal and the victim of the crime. Research and statistics have already shown how much more beneficial and efficient restorative justice can be over retribution and incarceration. Restorative justice has been known to lower recidivism and incarceration rates, so instead of incarcerating every criminal in the United States we should be giving real justice and going through the steps taken with restorative justice to help the victim cope with the crime committed and also help the criminal understand and learn from the crime that they have committed. Therefore, restorative justice is beneficial due to cost, lowering incarceration, and giving real justice that the original criminal justice system wanted for both the victim and the criminal.

Statistics have shown that restorative justice has lowered recidivism and incarceration rates drastically. This alternative approach has begun expanding to other states in the United States and also other countries because of how effective it has been. Numerous offenders have already been through the program, approved it, and wanted to express how much it helped them and the victim of the crime. “A 2011 national victim-satisfaction survey revealed that 70 percent of respondents expressed approval of their overall experience, 74 percent stated that they felt better after participating in the process, and 80 percent said they would recommend it to others” (Newton). It was also explained in the article that restorative justice has been very beneficial for youth offenders and lowered the recidivism rates of youth offenses drastically. If we can at least help our youth offenders in the United States it would easily lower our incarceration rates because these youth offenders will not go to prison and will most likely not commit a crime again. The population of youth offenders has increased throughout the years, but if we could start using this alternative than the criminal justice system can actually help these offenders become better people instead of locking them up in prison for a certain amount of time. Once the United States begin helping our youth offenders stop committing crime, than the next step would be using restorative justice to help the adult offenders.

A majority of the prisons in the United States have had to release many prisoners due to higher incarceration rates and restorative justice has already proven to lower those rates by helping offenders so that they can get out of prison even sooner. “Nevertheless, low recidivism rates show restorative justice programs can be more effective than the traditional justice system. And advocates point to participants’ satisfaction with the process as another measure of its success” (Beitsch). By helping the prisoner cope with the crime they have committed and ensuring that the prisoner will not commit a crime again, it is a lot easier to release prisoners and ensure that recidivism rates will lower so that these people are not going to commit another crime and go right back to prison. For decades, it has been shown that punishing these criminals for the crime that they have committed does not help them get out of prison sooner or help them from committing a crime again, so if we can use this alternative of restorative justice to help the criminal and help lower incarceration rates and recidivism rates than why are more criminal justice systems throughout the United States not using it? Why continue to punish these criminals and not offer them help so that they can learn from their mistakes and not commit crimes again? By actually talking to the victim of the crime and going through the programs that restorative justice has to offer, it will actually help these criminals. By doing this it lowers the cost for the United States because recidivism and incarceration rates will drastically lower.

People that work for the criminal justice system always want to ensure that justice is served, by saying this they want to ensure that the criminal gets the punishment for the crime and that the victim also feels some sort of closure. Restorative justice tries to ensure this justice by using mediation between the criminal and the victim of the crime. By doing this it helps the criminal realize how the victim was affected by this crime and gives them realization that they should not commit a crime again. The mediation also helps the victims come face-to-face with the offender so that they can ask questions and understand why the crime was committed. By using restorative justice, it ensures that both the criminal and the victims get justice because they will both try and communicate and get some sort of closure. Instead of the criminal going to prison for however many years after the crime is committed, both the victim and the criminal can meet again on better terms so that they can both have a better understanding and get the closure that retributive justice never offers. “’There’s a huge divide between the community and the justice system,’ Nellis said, noting how badly that relationship has been damaged over the years. ‘This is an opportunity for the system to make up for previous errors, to become worthy of the community’s respect and trust’” (Koehler). By helping both the criminal and the victim of the crime, the criminal justice system is actually attempting to ensure the justice that is promised for not just the criminal or the victim; but both. 

For years restorative justice has been shown to have a positive effect on youth offenders, if that is the case then more people in the criminal justice system should be attempting to use restorative with our adult offenders. “Restorative processes give children and young people the insight and skills to deal creatively and positively with conflict” (Cook). Restorative justice not only helps the criminal and the victim communicate with each other, but it also helps the criminal have more insight and find a positive way to not only cope with the crime but other situations in life so that other crimes are not committed. The victim is also given more insight on why the crime was committed so that they can forgive and move on with their lives. Many victims of crime go down destructive paths because they do not know how to cope with the crime that was committed, so by using restorative justice the victim also learns how to cope with the situation and other situations in their life that may follow. The programs that restorative justice has to offer have many positive effects on both the criminal and the victim of the crime so that they both can heal from the crime and crime will not be committed again. Youth offenders are the first step to many different approaches with the criminal justice system because people always want to have hope in helping youth offenders so that they do not commit more serious crimes when they are older. By doing this, youth offenders can learn from their mistakes before it is too late to teach them and they are also still young enough to not completely mess up their lives by making one mistake. If youth offenders can use restorative justice to help cope with the crime committed and prevent them from committing other crimes, then it should also help with adult offenders, especially ones that have not committed serious crime. This approach gives both youth and adult offenders a different approach to attempt to help them with their coping process so that they are not tempted to commit another crime again.

There are many different views on how criminals should be punished for the crime they committed and there are also many different approaches that have been tried throughout the years and restorative justice has been one of the most successful and beneficial approaches that have been tried. That being said, different approaches work for different situations because with some crimes that have been committed, there is no way to restore or rehabilitate the criminal that was involved. Even though the retributive approach of justice has been beneficial for some victims and criminals, it has also been used for decades and throughout the years people have found better approaches that are successful with a majority of the criminals in the criminal justice system. If people have already found a better approach that has many more benefits than retributive justice, then we should be expanding the new approach and begin using it more with the criminals and victims across the United States. Although retribution has been shown to work throughout the years, it is about time that the United States criminal justice system takes this step and begins using an approach that has the benefits of lowering costs, incarceration rates, and helping the criminal, the victim, and also the community. 

The approach of restorative justice can be very beneficial and significant to the criminal justice system because it can help not only the criminal, but also the victim, the criminal justice system, and the community. There are many benefits of this approach and people need to see that there is a more beneficial way to punish criminals instead of locking them up in a prison. By using restorative justice our criminal justice system can make a huge change in the United States that many other countries have already begun doing. This approach actually gives the justice that the criminal justice system wants to ensure because, even though the punishment may not be matching the crime that was committed, justice is being given by giving closure to the criminal and the victim of the crime. It also helps give the community reassurance that recidivism will decrease drastically and people will actually be able to sleep better a night knowing that fewer crimes are being committed. Restorative justice also helps the criminal justice system by lowering the amount of crimes, lowering incarceration rates, and ensuring the justice that has always been promised. The United State criminal justice needs to begin using this approach throughout all of the states so that we can begin lowering our incarceration and recidivism rates. If this approach has already been proven to work in many other countries, why has the United States not began expanding it more? The United States has some of the highest crime rates, incarceration rates, and recidivism rates so if many other countries have already found a solution to that problem than why is the United States not doing so to? 

The restorative justice approach has many different benefits that it can ensure, but like many other approaches there can be changes that can be made to improve the approach even more so that it can be more beneficial. Restorative justice has been used not only in prisons, but also youth homes and many other facilities which goes to show that it does not only have to be used in prisons. There are many different programs that the restorative justice approach offers to both the criminals and the victims so that it is ensured all parties are helped in the process. One change that is very significant that should be changed about this approach is the fact that there are not a lot of rehabilitation programs offered. If this approach wants to help all parties of the crime, then it should have more types of rehabilitation programs so that the criminal can be given more therapy and rehab to help any problems that may have been the root to why the crime was committed. There should also be rehabilitation for the victims as well because even though the victim may have had closure during the restorative approach, they may have encountered other problems after the crime was committed that were not completely solved. Another change that should also happen is that fact that not many people know about this approach and because of that the United States has not expanded it as much as they have. If more people knew of the benefits that it gives the community, the criminal, the victim, and the criminal justice system than more people would want to get involved and begin using this approach in the criminal justice system. The last change that could be made is what type of criminals would qualify for this alternative because there are some criminal that have committed multiple violent crimes. If the United States were to expand this alternative to all of the states in the nation then there should be many requirements that should be followed in order to go through the programs because in many cases it reduces the criminal’s prison sentence. “The RJC has been concerned to set up a register of practitioners to provide safety, both for victims and for the agencies that might use restorative process in the criminal justice world. Such standards would ensure quality, would build confidence in a restorative process, both in the community and in criminal justice professionals and of course for the users” (Kershen). In situations where criminals have either committed multiple murders or sexual assaults, they should be required to follow many more requirements than other criminals that go through the program because of the safety for the victims and the community. Even though there are a few changes that could be made to the restorative justice approach, they can all be easily resolved so that the restorative approach can be even more beneficial than it already is.

Restorative justice has already been proven to be successful in many other countries and part of the United States, so if our criminal justice system were to see how much the outcomes of restorative justice outweighs the outcomes of retributive justice and many other approaches than the system would know to expand this approach across the entire nation. If the United States actually took this step, then we would no longer have the highest incarceration rates because restorative justice has been proven to lower incarceration rates and recidivism rates. This approach will also help our economy because we would not be incarcerating as many criminals because we would be helping them with these programs so that more criminals can be released for the right reasons. The huge benefit that our criminal justice system needs to see is the fact that this approach of restorative justice actually ensures justice by helping the criminal and the victim of the crime cope with the crime that was committed and it also helps our community by making it much safer. Restorative justice needs to be expanded across the United States so that the nation as a whole can be benefitted by helping the criminal justice system ensure justice and safety for our nation.
