Beyond restorative justice : understanding justice from an African perspective

Wielenga, Cori; Batley, Mike; Murambadoro, Ruth

doi:10.31920/2050-4950/2020/9n1a3

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 19 publications

(23 reference statements)

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“…on board, as the Finnish government has managed to do, in order to greatly reduce crime and recidivism by means of simple, yet effective, Finnish safeguards. From an African restorative justice perspective (Murambadoro, Wielenga, and Batley 2020), this should not be difficult to motivate. This is a practice which prioritises reconciliation and holistic community healing over punishment, and applies conflict resolution tools to disputes between members of the same community.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gentle Justice Reduces Recidivism and Incarceration: Can South Africa Benefit from the Finnish Experience?

Lötter

2023

Phronimon

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This is a study of how Finland, a Western democracy which has considerably reduced its rate of recidivism, could help South Africa achieve more effective crime control, despite vested interests (such as the prison-industrial-complex, which profits from the perpetuation of crime). This contribution also considers Braithwaite’s seminal distinction between stigmatising and integrative shaming cultures and how Finland, even though it has a stigmatising shaming culture, has achieved a recidivism rate of around 31% (with deincarceration at 53/100 000). This is much better than South Africa’s unacceptably high 86–94% (259/100 000). By using a conflict transformation theoretical lens, it is argued that this great accomplishment in Finland manifests as a result of a meaningful acknowledgement of offenders’ and ex-offenders’ basic human needs, thereby removing this primary source of human conflict. In conclusion, Finland’s criminal justice system is a good blueprint that South Africa’s Department of Correctional Services should seriously consider emulating.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gentle Justice Reduces Recidivism and Incarceration: Can South Africa Benefit from the Finnish Experience?

Lötter

2023

Phronimon

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“…A second mechanism is restorative justice, which has a good track record in lowering recidivism in the legal domain (Kennedy et al, 2019) and in improving psychological outcomes among crime victims (Goodmark, 2015;Lloyd & Borrill, 2020). Its success may in part stem from its reliance on the structure of moral criticism in its best form, where acknowledgement of the violation, norm affirmation, and reconciliation replace damaging penaltiespractices that overlap with a number of indigenous justice systems (Chartrand & Horn, 2016;Wielenga et al, 2020). It should be noted that restorative justice still imposes costs on the perpetrator, such as facing the victim, addressing the violation and the damage that violation caused, experiencing guilt, and sometimes providing compensation.…”

Section: Alternative Regulation Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What are norms, and how is norm compliance regulated?

Malle¹

2023

Motivation and Morality: A Multidisciplinary Approach.

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Most great apes lived in hierarchical groups, often engaging in fierce battles for position (Boehm, 1999). Even though a few exceptions, like the bonobos, exist today, the main line of our ancestors lived by power and domination. Sometime in the past 2 million years, a remarkable change occurred: The homo evolution moved toward social group living that substantially increased cooperation, joint action, teaching, and learning (Boehm, 2000;Tomasello & Vaish, 2013). Perhaps precursors to empathy helped (de Waal & Preston, 2017), but empathy is reactive and local (Bloom, 2016) and can conflict with fairness and justice (Decety & Cowell, 2015). By itself, empathy does not provide a social organization that can sustain a group's success in the most uncertain and harshest environments. Norms do.Norms are guides to action. They constrain an individual's options in a given context to act in ways that benefit the group, and groups that have a well-functioning norm system function well as groups (Bicchieri, 2006;Chudek & Henrich, 2011;Wilson, 2002). Norms provide organization and regulation of group members' actions that can sustain a group's success even in the face of serious threats-through ice ages, natural catastrophes, and wars.

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African Customary Dispute Resolution vs Alternative Dispute Resolution for Juvenile Crime in Ghana

Hassan

2022

JLSD

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Juvenile delinquency is a challenge for most African states, and Ghana is no exception. Recidivism, stigmatisation and victim dissatisfaction indicate that Ghana’s formal criminal justice system, with all its merits, has posed severe challenges to the administration of juvenile justice. This article examines the practice of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), which utilises restorative conflict resolution processes in place of prosecution and sentencing in juvenile justice systems of various jurisdictions. Through processes such as victim-offender mediation, ADR invites full participation and consensus between victims, offenders and persons indirectly affected by the crime committed and seeks full and direct accountability. Some inadequacies of ADR principles and practices render it less relevant to the African context. The resultant lacuna can be filled with indigenous dispute resolution practices to combat crime and its repercussions, constituting the African Dispute Resolution (AfDR). The reliance on Ubuntu in South Africa's Child Justice Act and traditional justice system mechanisms in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda to deal with the aftermath of genocides and wars are contemporary examples of AfDR. Ghana would need to rely on AfDR to complement its formal criminal justice system to alleviate juvenile delinquency.

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Beyond restorative justice : understanding justice from an African perspective

Cited by 3 publications

References 19 publications

Gentle Justice Reduces Recidivism and Incarceration: Can South Africa Benefit from the Finnish Experience?

Gentle Justice Reduces Recidivism and Incarceration: Can South Africa Benefit from the Finnish Experience?

What are norms, and how is norm compliance regulated?

African Customary Dispute Resolution vs Alternative Dispute Resolution for Juvenile Crime in Ghana

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