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(printed in Mediation
in Practice, April 2003
,pp 4-9)
In broad terms
Restorative Justice
constitutes an innovative
approach to offending and
inappropriate behaviour
which puts repairing harm
done to relationships and
people over and above the
need for assigning blame
and dispensing punishment.
A restorative approach in
a school shifts the
emphasis from managing
behaviour to focussing on
the building, nurturing
and repairing of
relationships. Schools
need relationship
management policies, which
consider everyone’s
needs and responsibilities
towards each other, rather
than behaviour management
policies. Behaviour
management policies tend
to focus only on the
behaviour of young people
and the imposition of
sanctions has the
potential to harm the
crucial adult/student
relationships on which
good teaching and learning
depend.
Traditionally the
response to conflicts
between students or to
unacceptable behaviour has
been:
- What happened?
- Who is to blame?
- What is the
appropriate response
to deter and
possibly punish
those at fault, so
they will not do the
same thing again?
This approach does not
take into account the
needs of those who have
been harmed or distressed
by the wrongdoing, nor the
desirability of repairing
relationships between
people who are still
likely to be seeing each
other regularly in their
community and at school.
As John Braithwaite has
said, if we punish too
readily we make a young
person angry and resentful
rather than thoughtful
The punitive approach
is based on the assumption
that punishment will and
can change behaviour and
act as a deterrent.
Punishment certainly does
teach young people
something, but not
necessarily what the
adults want them to learn.
When an adult punishes a
young person for doing
something the adult does
not approve of, the
message is that this is
what one does when others
behave in ways we do not
like. Hence many conflicts
in the playground are
merely reproductions of
the behaviour learnt from
adults. Ironically the
adults are likely to
respond once again by
modelling exactly what it
is they are trying to
prevent! As for the belief
that punishment will act
as a deterrent one only
has to ask teachers if a
single punitive response
does the trick in all
cases.
Furthermore by
threatening young people
with consequences to
themselves if they
‘misbehave’ rather
than alerting them to the
consequences for the
people they may affect, we
bring them up to be self-centred.
Avoiding negative
consequences for
themselves becomes more
important than ensuring
others’ well-being. A
commonplace belief is that
the consequence of harmful
or unacceptable behaviour
is that you get caught and
punished if you are
unlucky, and if you are
lucky you get away with
it. This is a prevalent
attitude in adults for
example, with regards to
drink driving and
speeding.
The case against
punitive sanctions is
strong – not only do
they not achieve the
intended outcomes, they
fail to teach acceptable
behaviour, they do not
encourage young people to
be accountable for their
actions and they do not
address the underlying
needs behind the
inappropriate behaviour.
Finally punitive sanctions
tend to be reserved only
for the unacceptable
behaviour of young people
and yet adults can also
behave in unacceptable and
harmful ways towards young
people. Lack of respect,
failure to listen to young
people’s views,
sarcastic and hurtful
remarks, bullying and
humiliation are not
uncommon in schools. It is
rare for teachers to be
made accountable for these
inappropriate behaviours
and young people consider
this unjust.
A restorative approach
to conflict or wrongdoing
consists in asking four
key questions:
- Who has been affected
by what has happened?
- What can be done to
make things better for all
concerned?
- How can we ensure
that everyone involved
gets a chance to tell
their side of
the story and hear
everyone’ else’s
perspective?
- What can be
learnt so something
like this can be
avoided in the future?
This approach is based
on the notion that people
need to take
responsibility for the
impact of their behaviour
on other people and that
the consequence of harmful
(ie
upsetting/distressing/disruptive/destructive)
behaviour is that
relationships are damaged
and people get
disconnected. Recent
research in the States is
emphasising just how
important connectedness is
to young people and how it
can be a major factor in
preventing destructive and
anti-social behaviour.
Restorative responses are
focussed on healing the
disconnections between
people wherever possible
when they do happen.
An important
restorative belief is that
the people best placed to
resolve a conflict or a
problem are the people
involved, and that imposed
solutions are less
effective, less educative
and possibly less likely
to be honoured. In order
to engage in a restorative
approach to conflict and
challenging behaviour
people need certain
attitudes and skills:
- a willingness to
listen to others’
perspectives on a
situation and suspend
the notion that there
is only one way of
looking at something.
- an ability to listen
to the feelings and
needs behind others’
words, especially if
these words are
offensive, hurtful or
accusatory.
- an ability to be in
touch with one’s own
feelings and needs so
that these can be
expressed in a way
that gets heard and
understood by others.
- a commitment to
giving everyone a
voice and to
respecting the
contributions made
even though this is a
time consuming
process.
- a belief that
hearing all sides is a
worthwhile and
ultimately a time
saving approach as
people gradually learn
these processes for
themselves.
Harm
Thinking about harm can
be a useful starting point
when considering different
ways of dealing with
challenging behaviour and
conflict. Most people can
relate to being harmed,
and to causing harm at
some point in their lives,
when harm is defined as
‘an adverse affect on
another person or people,
involving emotional or
mental distress and/or
physical or material
damage’.
If people are asked to
consider what they need
when they have been harmed
the answers tend to be
similar:
- someone to listen
to my story.
- time to calm down.
- a chance to ask
– why me? what did
I do to deserve
that?
- the person
concerned to
understand and
acknowledge the
impact their
behaviour has had on
me.
- a sincere
spontaneous apology.
- things put right,
if possible
- reassurance it
won’t happen again
If people are asked
what they need when they
themselves have caused
harm to someone else,
whether on purpose or by
accident, answers usually
include:
- time to think
- someone to listen
to my story
- a chance to
explain to myself
and the other person
why I did it
- an opportunity to
apologise
- a chance to make
amends
- reassurance that
the matter is dealt
with and I can move
on
- hope that there is
no resentment left.
More traditional,
punitive, approaches to
wrongdoing rarely create a
situation where the needs
expressed above can be
met. When a young person
behaves in a way that is
challenging for a member
of staff, for example,
there is likely to be harm
experienced on both sides
unless both people feel
heard and understood.
There is a possibility
that the relationship
between the two will be
adversely affected and
that will affect the way
they work together in the
future.<
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