Often young offenders do not have constructive guidance or a good role model in the community. Sometimes they need treatment for a disorder, life skills development or mentoring with clear and achievable expectations, of heightened self-awareness and accountability. The victim and the community need to identify ways the offender can remedy hurt and harm caused. The offender needs to understand how his or her behavior affected others, and acknowledge that the behavior was indeed harmful. The offender needs to be transformed into a contributing citizen of the community with a system of limits and support.
Crime hurts the community.
The community needs to express pain and anger to the one or ones who caused the harm. However, we need to take one step further by helping in the healing process. We need to understand and address the causes of crime to prevent future occurrences. Restorative justice opens the opportunities for personal and community transformation. This transformation cannot be mapped, planned or put into a program or structure.