Comparing Justice Systems Research Assignment Paper

Comparing Justice Systems
Your Name
Your Institution of Affiliation
March 30, 2017
In the story of Dave and Elaine as presented in the article Victim Offender Reconciliation – A New Approach to Justice, it was stated how the criminal justice of today is mostly oriented towards “imposing sanctions” rather than helping each other achieve “closure and resolution”. In the story, Elaine was a worker in a mall, and as she leaves the premises, a boy named Dave took her wallet and rode with his motorbike away from the premises. However, as purchases were made using Elaine’s card, Dave was arrested and sent to court. During the process, it was stated that instead of sending Dave to prison (since he was found guilty), the judge offered a different approach to criminal justice which is the “Victim Offender Reconciliation Program”. During the process both Dave and Elaine talked to each other and learned about the problems of each other and why factors caused Dave to act in such a way. In the end, both of them agreed to just have Dave pay for the cost of what he did, including the money, work-hours, and replacements fees that Elaine lost. Basically, the article described this type of approach to justice as an alternative justice which “would [otherwise] have left them both feeling alienated, excluded, and angry” CITATION Roand \l 1033 (Roads to Justice, n.d.). According to Pratt (2000), the VORP was proposed as a response to the traditional justice system with which the orientation is to punish offenders rather than rehabilitate and integrate them with the real world. In my own experience, this type of approach very much similar with Portugal’s decrimi...