Restorative Justice

Persuasive Essay # 104204

Child, Youth Issues
Criminology > Criminal Justice and Corrections

Restorative Justice

This paper describes the concept of restorative justice and applies it to the situation of children soldiers.

1,480 words () | 4 sources | MLA | 2008 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that restorative justice is an organized system designed to promote interpersonal reconciliation, to provide alternatives to more punitive justice systems and, hopefully, to do more lasting good than punishment alone. The author points out that restorative justice in the United States includes victim impact statements and often community service, where the criminal attempts to pay back the community as a whole for the harm he or she has done. The paper then looks at how a system of restorative justice could be used in societies with child soldiers. The paper concludes that, while restorative justice is not a one size fits all solution to criminal actions, it may be the only way to put back together a society wracked by a damaging domestic war.

From the Paper:

"Recruitment of children can provide opportunities for children to observe how violence can trump reason. Recent studies of the civil war in Sri Lanka (Human Rights Watch Summary), describe the forceful recruitment of children by the LTTE, Tamil Tiger, rebel movement. Children can see how their unarmed parents are unable to resist the armed and brutal rebels. One can imagine the lesson the children would learn is that being armed would have enabled their parents to protect them; that violence will always win over reason."

Sample of Sources Used:

Brett, Rachel and Irma SpechtYoung Soldiers: Why They Choose to Fight, Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2004.
Fox, Mary-Jane, "Girl Soldiers: Human Security and Gendered Insecurity," Security Dialogue, Vol. 25, 465-479, 2004.
Human Rights Watch, fifteenth report on the recruitment and use of child soldiers
Prison Fellowship International "Restorative Justice on Line," www.restorativejustice.org/intro.