restorative justice

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

an approach to justice and conflict that focuses on repairing the harm caused by wrongdoing through cooperative processes that bring together offenders, victims, and the broader community to acknowledge harm, understand its causes, and agree on steps toward repair and reintegration; restorative justice practices include victim-offender mediation, community conferencing, circle processes, and truth-telling dialogues; in contrast to retributive justice, which focuses on punishment proportional to offence, restorative justice asks what harm has been done, what needs have been created, and who has the obligation and opportunity to address those needs; restorative justice has been applied in criminal justice, schools, workplaces, and post-conflict transitional justice processes, with evidence of higher victim satisfaction, lower reoffending rates, and greater accountability than conventional punitive approaches