The Importance Of Restorative Justice In Schools

Although the literature to support college campus based restorative justice practices is limited, recent studies have shown schools and post-secondary institutions across the country are beginning to realize that it can be effective for handling student misconduct and school policy violations (Kara & MacAlister, 2010). Traditional systems of justice have been found to be cumbersome, ineffective, and even re-victimizing for those harmed (Teasley, 2014). Zero tolerance policies have had multiple negative effects on student behaviors and are said to increase future disciplinary offenses (Gonzalez, 2012; Skiba et al., 2003). There is an increasing interest in implementing restorative justice programs, rather than traditional punitive approaches,
The underlying principles for restorative justice hold students who harm accountable for their actions, provide those harmed with a safe place to share how the incident impacted them, give students, faculty and residence hall staff a voice in helping the offender make things right with the victim, develop an effective alternative to the traditional system of judicial affairs, and create a culture of belonging and caring where community standards are relied upon for setting and correcting behavior (Zehr, 2002). Restorative justice processes allow participants (victim-offender) to be more satisfied, recidivism rate lower because offenders feel a greater sense of ownership of the problem and participation in its solution and feel less likely to recommit an offense (Waltman-Spreha, 2013). As a result, it can give the campus a stronger sense of community development in the restorative process.
Very little literature on examining how restorative practices have been reflective or effective based on race or gender. We know
Students living in campus housing believed restorative practices are good techniques for developing residential community relationships and resolving conflicts. Again, positive perceptions for restorative justice programs were dependent on educating and training residents within university housing. In order to create a restorative community, student residents, staff, and directors must be involved in the training process. Findings suggest that residents exposed to restorative concepts during held workshops were more likely than non-attenders to listen to the perspectives of others regarding conflict situations. The results indicated that a number of the residents within the university housing shared and utilized restorative justice practices with others following participation in a restorative educational workshop (McDowell, Crocker, Evett & Cornelison, 2014). Restorative justice can be complementary to the student judicial and residence life