In my last blog post I summarized Dorothy Vaandering’s concern that without an understanding of the term “justice,” restorative justice may be a compass without a needle. It is important not to lose the justice dimension in restorative approaches, she suggests, but we must not allow our understandings to be unduly limited by concepts such as fairness and a narrow adversarial focus that are associated with criminal justice.
Drawing upon Freire and Buber, she bases her understanding of justice on what it means to be human: “one in which justice is identified as honoring the inherent worth of all and enacted through relationships.” These two terms together – honor and relationships – provide a needle to guide restorative justice proponents and practitioners.
Analyzing the characterization of criminal justice included in The Little Book of Restorative Justice, she observes that what is at stake are these two concepts. The justice system tends to turn those who have caused harm into objects to be acted upon. By omission, those who have been harmed are assumed to have no significant needs. Restorative justice, on the other hand, recognizes that harm is done by and to human beings.
Injustice occurs when people are turned into objects through relationships. Justice occurs when people are honored through relationships.
So for Vaandering, what is needed in restorative justice is a concerned effort to remind us all of the following:
- Justice is a call to recognize that all humans are worthy and to be honored.
- Injustice occurs when people are objectified.
- The term restorative justice becomes meaningful when it refers to restoring people to being honored as human.
- Am I measuring (i.e. judging, objectifying)?
- Am I honoring?
- What message am I sending?
With this “lens,” restorative justice is not something from the outside, as a solution for others. It is a way of being for all of us.