Victimalization and Restorative Justice: Moral Backgrounds and Political Consequences (From Restorative Justice and the Law, P 19-30, 2002, Lode Walgrave, ed. -- See NCJ-199537)

• NCJ Number: 199539
• Author(s): Hans Boutellier
• Date Published: 2002
• Length: 12 pages
• Sale Source: Willan Publishing
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter examines what has happened in western societies to create fertile soil for the restorative justice movement, as well as what this analysis reveals about consequences for the future of restorative justice.

Abstract

In this discussion, "restorative justice" is defined as "every action that is primarily oriented towards doing justice by restoring the harm that has been caused by a crime" (Bazemore and Walgrave, 1999b). In this view, "harm" transcends the victim and includes the environment, the community, society as a whole, and even the offender. Restorative justice defines crime as a moral act for which the offender, as a moral subject, is responsible and accountable. In constructing the moral framework for assessing behavior, cruelty, suffering, and humiliation perpetrated against individuals have become the vices of liberal society. The individual victim has thus become the main character of our time. The author proposes the use of the word "victimalization" to describe the essence of today's morality; "victimalization" involves "the processes by which -- on an individual level -- suffering is defined as victimization, and -- on a cultural level -- morality is defined as agreement on victimization" (Boutellier, 2000). There is a sense in western society that the current institutions of criminal justice do not adequately define nor respond to the cruelty, suffering, and humiliation of victims, such that the harm is repaired and offenders are held appropriately accountable for the harm they have done. Consequently, restorative justice has emerged as an attempt to cope with the problems of crime, victimization, and norm-violation in a new moral and cultural context. The viability of restorative justice under such expectations will depend on its legitimation as a peacemaking procedure in an era of high crime rates and safety problems. This is likely to happen only if restorative justice develops in close cooperation with the criminal justice authorities. This cooperation can be fueled by the criminal justice system's motivation to find new answers and procedures that can mitigate the pressure on its institutions. The only way that restorative justice can be viewed as a legitimate option for addressing society's current view of victimization is for it to be viewed as a relevant device for addressing the problems of traditional criminal justice institutions.