Restorative Justice: No Consistency with Consequences or Clearly Established Rules
Implementing the principles of restorative justice in our culture has given us “cancel culture” and “forced apologies”. Restorative justice is being implemented in Ottawa County Schools and in schools across the country, and now there is a push to implement the same principles into the criminal justice system.
As citizens, we are told that restorative justice practices focus on restoration rather than punishments, will give the victim a greater voice in the punishment process, will involve the community, and has a goal of reducing recidivism. While this certainly sounds good, we need to recognize proven methods of shaping behavior, what has already happened in our society as a result of the implementation of restorative justice practices, and where restorative justice is leading.
Five restorative justice principles according to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School article About Restorative Justice are:
Crime is a violation of people and relationships
Victims and the community are central to the justice process
A primary focus of a restorative justice process is to assist victims and address needs
The secondary focus is restoring the community to the degree possible
All human beings have dignity and worth
As toddlers, we are taught to behave by our parents. Consistency with consequences for breaking clearly established rules results in well-behaved toddlers. As toddlers grow into school-age children, adolescents, and teenagers, schools and parents together typically influence us on how to behave. Again, clear consequences for actions, clearly defined rules, and consistency in accountability are key factors in forming desirable behaviors. Upon graduating from high school, it is primarily the legal and criminal justice system that holds us accountable for our actions. Once again, understanding consequences for committing crimes is a major deterrent.
Therefore, there are three historically proven elements for shaping behavior.
Clearly defined rules/clearly defined crimes
Clearly defined punishments
Consistency in punishments/Accountability/Actually implementing the punishment
Restorative justice is simply a technique to control behavior. But rather than sticking with the three historically proven elements for shaping behavior, crimes are actively redefined, the victim and community (i.e. mob rule) determine punishments, and there is no consistency in following through with punishments. This ultimately results in a society that has an unclear code of conduct, chaos, and confusion.
Here’s an example of how a simple restorative justice idea is being implemented in our culture.
The Michigan Department of Education Student Project put together a series of training videos to teach school districts how to handle various issues relating to LGBTQ students. At the beginning of each of the MDE LGBTQ Student Project video training sessions, they presented a set of group agreements for participants to follow. Referring to verbal communication, the ground rules stated “be conscious of intent vs. impact – no matter your intent, you are responsible for the impact.”
What they are saying is that the intention of the person communicating is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is how the communication is interpreted by the receiver. For example, if I said, “A person with a penis is a boy,” and my intent was to state a scientific fact, but someone was offended by my statement, then my intent does not matter. The only thing that matters is how the communication was interpreted by the receiver. The community (mob) gets to determine my punishment. As a punishment, I may be forced to apologize, or kicked out of the session.
This ground rule is rooted in the ideals of restorative justice. It is impossible to predict if you will violate the rule because you cannot necessarily predict when someone will be offended, and there is no clear punishment. Yet, if you do violate the rule, the mob will determine your fate. Although this was merely a video training session, they are conditioning participants to accept restorative justice ideals. In addition, they are redefining societal norms.
Stick with me. In my next article, I will explain how restorative justice practices seek to redefine crimes, allow the community (mob) to determine punishments, and remove consistency for punishments of crimes.