4. Restorative Justice

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this lecture, we think about restorative justice, focusing in particular on: (i) understanding restorative justice as where a criminal meets their victim, which can be face-to-face or other correspondence, or where a group of criminals meet a victim of the crime type that they have all committed; (ii) restorative justice as an alternative to imprisonment, which can reduce recidivism; (iii) Stern’s view that non-prison penalties have a more positive impact on both the criminal and the victim; (iv) the ethos of restorative justice in providing an identity to both the criminal from the victim’s perspective, and vice versa; (v) the role that restorative justice plays in public protection, by ensuring that the offender is rehabilitated and is no longer a threat to the public.

Course

In this course, Professor Ciarán O’Keeffe (Buckinghamshire New University) explores how the judicial system deals with offenders, from both a punishment arm and a rehabilitation arm. In the first lecture, we think about dealing with offenders from a punitive perspective by exploring the four custodial aims: deterrent, incapacitation, retribution, and rehabilitation. In the second lecture, we think about behaviour modification as the first form of rehabilitation, understanding it as an application of operant conditioning. Next, we think about anger management as another form of rehabilitation, including the three stages of cognitive behavioural techniques application, and Ainsworth’s three stages of an anger management programme. In the fourth and final lecture, we think about restorative justice as the last form of rehabilitation, discussing its benefits for both the offender and the victim.

Lecturer

Professor Ciarán O’Keeffe is associate professor of education and research and head of the School of Human and Social Sciences at Buckinghamshire New University. Professor O’Keeffe’s research interests include investigative psychology and parapsychology, and has made numerous television and radio appearances alongside an array of celebrities. Some of Professor O’Keeffe’s recent publications include 'Things That Go Bump In The Literature: An Environmental Appraisal of 'Haunted Houses'' (2020) and 'Restorative Justice and Recidivism: Investigating the impact of victim-preference for level of engagement' (2014).