Hello, I need this assignment to be done by today or tomorrow before 12 am sharp. Citations, need to be done in Mcgill citation as this is for law 1002b course uni first year. I really need this as I

Law Reflection 1

Stephen J. Tasson

31st January 2025

LAWS1002B

Restorative justice (RJ) is one of the critical aspects in the legal system of Canadian laws, where the victim and the offender are brought together in a formal meeting where they discuss how the offender’s action has impacted the victim, and the offender takes responsibilities for their action and apologizes. RJ not only makes them interact about the incident but also aims to ensure this does not happen again in future.1 In Daly’s article it primarily addresses the limits of restorative justice in six important points.2 In the documentary, “A Different kind of Justice,” demonstrates how restorative justice was applied here in real life crimes and pinpointed out the strengths and weaknesses through RJ.3 In this paper, I will analyze and demonstrate an understanding of the limitations of restorative justice from Daly’s article. Secondly, I will discuss what I understood from the documentary. “A Different Kind of Justice,” and how it connects to the limitations of restorative justice. Lastly, I will address if my RJ was challenged / affirmed based on what I have learned so far.4

In Daly’s article she expressed in her first limit that there are many misconceptions and misleading's towards the definition of restorative justice and lack the of agreement of the decision gave her an idea that it does not have one but many identities and referents which can be theoretical, empirical and can create policy confusion.5 The second limit deals with the penalty not fact- finding phase of the criminal process. In this limit, it is not essential if a crime has occurred not, it assumes that the person has already committed a crime and what could be done about it to make it right, since they have pleaded guilty now.6

Unlike traditional criminal justice systems, where there are two parties and the offender is tried to be proven guilty, for something they have or have not committed. Furthermore, the third limit says, it is easier to gain fairness than restorativeness in a Rj process. Studies discovered high levels of perceived fairness or procedural fairness in the sense of process and outcome and 80% of the participants came across questions if they were treated right or well and they agreed upon it, but as there is less evidence of, “ restorativeness,” when compared to high levels of procedural justice, so restoration does not occur frequently.7

In restorative justice’s limit four, it is said that it’s quite difficult to achieve sincere forgiveness from the victim. It is because, most of the times offenders are apologetic but they are not sincere about it, and the victims doubt their apology. For example, The SAJJ project is one of the primary examples of that where the apology process was observed in core details. When the youth were questioned about why they were apologetic, 27% of them said it was because they could get out of prison quickly, but never really felt sorry for what they caused the victims. Moreover, some offenders felt pushed into it and 39% of them said they wanted to make their own family at ease and happy. Later, when the offenders were asked about why they were apologetic, 61% of them said they were feeling guilty for what they have caused. Furthermore, in this way many victims had different opinions as well about if the offenders were not sincere about the apology and most of them agreed that they said sorry to set themselves free from jail, but only 27 % victim believed the offenders being apologetic. Limit 5 expresses that it can help victims try to overcome what they went through the occurrence of crime, but it mainly depends on how much they had to distress because of it.8 Lastly, as observed in the nirvana story for the 6th limit of restorative justice, people should not always expect the outcomes they want to see rather they should expect modest outcomes.9 The 6th limit will only be utilized if the victim is willing to forgive and if the offender understands what sin he has committed and is genuinely guilty about his deeds (Considine 1995: 162).10 In the next stanza we will demonstrate a core understanding of the documentary, “A Different Kind of Justice” and critically connect it as a practical application of Rj principles to the points made by Daly in her article.

On the night of November 2008, a burglary took place in the house of Margaret Fox Late, specifically her laptop was stolen which had last few memories of her daughter Jessica, who had passed away three weeks ago. That night she came home and went to the kitchen, and a handbag of hers was on the floor where things were scattered and there was a lot of damage to the front door, where it was clearly visible that someone had broken into their home. During the heist, only two things were stolen, a laptop and camera where the victim had memories of her demised daughter.

A few days later, Ian the man who was responsible for the heist was arrested.11 Later in the podcast she mentions that her daughter had passed away a few months after the heist and now it was a precious memory to her. A few days later after Jessica’s cremation, Margaret’s husband received a call from the police, who were unaware of the sad news and explained restorative justice meeting to him. They offered the victim and the offender face-to-face communication which was needed for Ian’s future improvement.

The first meeting was challenging as Margaret was agitated, but this meeting helped her release the stress, she suppressed in. By speaking heart to heart with each other, the offender understood how what emotional pain he caused, and it helped him not to commit crime again.12 On the other hand, it is a good thing that both could talk about it but there was some bias in this situation. Firstly, the offender played the victim at time because of heroin influence, in the end it was still a crime. Secondly another bias was, since Margaret believes in him that he will stay out of trouble is putting pressure on him. Truthfully, yes it can be overwhelming, but if it is acknowledged as a motivation, then life might turn out to be positive for him again.13

In the documentary, “A Different Kind of Justice,” it was a real-life story which critically aligned with the limitations of restorative justice. The limitations that it aligned with are 3,4 and 6. This documentary portrayed how restorative justice tried healing Margaret for the crime and emotional damage Ian has caused. Margaret’s situation aligns with limit 3 because later on she receives fairness through restorative justice process. Secondly, it connects with limit 4 because, even after Ian understood and apologized for the harm he caused, his apology wasn’t sincere enough as he was doing it because of the circumstances he was stuck to. Lastly, it connected with limit 6 because Margaret was expecting and believing in Ian blindly, that he would not commit crimes again which is unrealistic and does not modest at all because of how the victim forgave the offender and wished well for him and clearly by the end of the document it was understood that both Ian and Margaret share a special bond like a son and a mother would do. The documentary highlighted beautifully how restorative justice does not have to align with the limitations word by word, but it was fair to both of the parties. In the next stanza we will discuss how my RJ was challenged and affirmed based on what I heard and studied so far.My position was challenged and affirmed based on what I heard and studied. I felt more challenged in limit 6 because in its victim had unrealistic expectations and the apologies made by offenders were not that sincere. But by the documentary, “A Different Kind of Justice,” it gave a clear hope that unrealistic things can happen as well, but it should not be expected in every kind of situation because obviously every situation has its own agenda.

Ultimately in this paper I have demonstrated the six limitations of restorative justice and the documentary, “A Different Kind of Justice,” and have critically connected them to the limitations they aligned with. On the other hand, where the documentary and Daly’s article showed us, that restorative justice can heal and bring justice to victims but can also give a chance for offender to apologize, but not every time victims get the perfect apology which is reality to be honest, but it we have to be real about what we have gained from the process.

Citations

1. Kathleen Daly, “The Limits of Restorative Justice,” in Stephen Tasson et al, 1st ed, Introduction to Legal Studies: Process and Power (Concord: Captus Press, 2018) 154.

2. Stephen Tasson, “From Punishment to “Treatment,”: What does Reformative Justice Restore, Bright Space, Week 4, LAWS1200B, Carleton University, 2025, Slide.

3. Stephen Tasson, “Response/ Reflection #1”, Brightspace, Week 3, Carleton university, 2025.

4. Finch, R. (Producer). (2013, January 11). A Different Kind of Justice [Radio broadcast]. Something Else Production. BBC4.

1 Kathleen Daly, “The Limits of Restorative Justice,” in Stephen Tasson et al, 1st ed, Introduction to Legal Studies: Process and Power (Concord: Captus Press, 2018) 154.

2 Ibid

3 Stephen Tasson, “From Punishment to “Treatment,”: What does Reformative Justice Restore, Bright Space, Week 4, LAWS1200B, Carleton University, 2025, Slide 4.

4 Stephen Tasson, “Response/ Reflection #1”, Brightspace, Week 3, Carleton university, 2025.

5 Supra note 1 at 154

6 Supra note 1 at 155

7 Supra note 1 at 157

8 Supra note 1 at 159

9 Supra note 1 at 160

10 Ibid

11 Finch, R. (Producer). (2013, January 11). A Different Kind of Justice [Radio broadcast]. Something Else Production. BBC4.

12 Ibid

13 Ibid