Restorative Justice

History

The system of restorative justice is often understood from the context of the Native Americans' cultural practice of healing and réintégration, also termed peacemaking. The Native American peacemaking process serves as a venue to bring together victims, offenders, and the community, to solve what is viewed as a community problem. Within the history of Native American culture, réintégration of offenders is viewed as fundamental to maintaining the harmony and balance of a community. Instead of focusing on what happened, they often focus on why it happened, that is, why the social harm occurred in the first place. This process of réintégration focuses on active problem [Page 711]solving through (a) showing individuals the harm that their actions caused and (b) teaching offenders a constructive way of dealing with their situations and emotions.

The basic concepts of Native American justice include relationships, reciprocity, solidarity of the community, and the process of justice, as opposed to the dominant system of justice in the United States, which focuses on hierarchy and punitive judgment. Native American justice also focuses on preventive tactics. Whereas the U.S. criminal justice system responds to criminality after the fact, the Native American justice system focuses on prevention and the importance of a community raising a child. This focus on prevention allows the community to have a large impact on an individual and his or her behavior. Native Americans also believe in separating the individual from the crime; that is, while a criminal act is disrespectful, the individual is not. In contrast to the punitive function of the current criminal justice system, the separation between the crime and the individual results in a focus on rehabilitation and community réintégration.

The Native American cultures' focus on peacemaking has existed as long as the culture itself. They practice spirituality, community culture, and réintégration. While Native American cultures have a court system, the court system functions to repair the community harm and not necessarily to harshly punish the individual who has committed the harm. This allows all individuals involved (victim, offender, relatives, and community) to maintain dignity and integrity and to accept responsibility for the situation. As a result, the social stigma and negative consequences that result from a punitive system are avoided. When a Native American individual completes the process of restoration, his or her dignity and worthiness are considered restored, all individuals involved are active in the process, and the community is viewed as being restored to its harmonious nature.

These Native American components of réintégration and peacemaking were first utilized in the U.S. correctional system in 1972. The Minnesota Department of Corrections began using victim-offender meetings as an experimental component of state restitution programs. In the 1980s, numerous programs focused on community-based mediation programs for juvenile courts. Two decades later, hundreds of restorative programs were placed within juvenile and adult courts and corrections, each focusing on victim reparation, offender responsibility, and community réintégration.

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