Crawford County Pennsylvania Restorative Justice Circle
We are creating a new way for neighbors to resolve disputes, disagreements, injuries, hurts and harms amongst ourselves.
Restorative justice seeks to examine the harmful impact of a crime and then determines what can be done to repair that harm while holding the person who caused it accountable for his or her actions. Accountability for the offender means accepting responsibility and acting to repair the harm done.
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Restorative Justice Framework
Restorative justice is a response to wrongdoing that prioritizes repairing harm and recognizes that maintaining positive relationships with others is a core human need. It seeks to address the root causes of crime, even to the point of transforming unjust systems and structures.
Developed by the Prison Fellowship Initiative, working with a broad network of global affiliates, three core elements of restorative justice emerged. They are the interconnected concepts of Encounter, Repair and Transform. Each element is discrete and essential. Together they represent a journey toward wellbeing and wholeness that victims, offenders and community members can experience. Encounter leads to repair, and repair leads to transformation. These steps equip practitioners to actualize restorative justice in real ways.
- Before offenders can participate, they must take responsibility for their wrong and want to make amends.
- All stakeholders impacted by the wrongdoing—victims, offenders, and community members—have a voice in the justice process.
- Meetings that are encounters occur in safe spaces, foster vulnerability, and include free sharing without judgment.
- The victim’s need for healing. Victims heal through the encounter and its outcomes.
- The offender’s need to make amends, as offenders must atone for wrongdoing and work to regain good standing in community. Encounters empower offenders to make amends directly to victims and potentially community members.
- The community’s need for relational health and safety. Family, friends, and others support victims and offenders as they heal and reintegrate into community.
- Once identified, these systemic issues can be faced, dealt with, and potentially changed to foster more just systems and healthier, safer communities.
We can work it out…
and get more meaningful and helpful resolutions for ourselves and each other…
Words about Restorative Justice
“Restorative Justice is respect. Respect for all, even those who are different from us; even those who seem to be our enemies. Respect reminds us of our interconnectedness, but also of our differences. Respect insists we balance concerns for all parties. If we pursue justice as respect, we will do justice restoratively.”
Howard Zehr
“But when it comes to human beings, the only type of cause that matters is the final cause, the purpose. What a person had in mind. Once you understand what people really want, you can’t hate them anymore. You can fear them but you can’t hate them, because you can always find the same desire in your own heart.”
Orson Scott Card
Join us…
Together we can create better outcomes and a new way to live… Building resilience and relationship, rather than retraumatizing…