Restorative justice in the italian juvenile process

• Author: Luca Lupoli
• Profession: PhD student at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
• Pages: 55-67

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Restorative justice in the italian juvenile process

L L

PhD student at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

1. RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

1.1. Features of restorative justice

Restorative justice is a paradigm of criminal justice that, in the way it responds

to criminal conduct, stands as an alternative to the classical model of retributive

justice, although without excluding it. 1 In contrast to the latter, which focuses

on the just punishment of the offenders as a response to their violation of the

established order, the restorative model focuses, above all, on the needs of all of

the parties involved in the crime, taking into consideration not only the victim

and the offender, but also widening the circle of stakeholders to their parental,

environmental and social entourage.

According to a famous definition by the British jurist Tony F. Marshall,

Restorative Justice is a process whereby parties with a stake in a specific offence

collectively resolve how to deal with the aftermath of the offence and its implications

for the future. 2

From a normative perspective, definitions of restorative justice are provided

by supranational documents, such as the Directive 2012/29/UE, 3 according to

which it consists of

1 According to the philosopher of law Conrad G. Brunk, retribution and restoration are not placed

on opposite poles, but have several elements in common: the claim through reciprocity; the basic intuition,

of a moral nature, that the transgression has caused an imbalance; the idea that the victim must receive

something, and the offender must give something; the need for a proportional relationship between act

and response. On this subject, see: Brunk, C. G. (2001), «Restorative Justice and the Philosophical Theories

of Criminal Punishment». In Hadley, M. L. (Ed.), The Spiritual Roots of Restorative Justice (pp. 31-56). Albany:

State University of New York Press.

2 Marshall, T. F. (1999). Restorative Justice: An Overview. London, UK: Home Office. Research

Development and Statistics Directorate, p. 5.

3 Directive 2012/29/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012

establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime, and replacing

Council Framework Decision 2001/220/JHA.