Psichologinio pasipriešinimo atkuriamajam teisingumui problema

Abstract

Restorative justice is a process within which a penitent offender takes the responsibility for his/her deed, the damage inflicted on the victim and is encouraged to reimburse the victim for the material and moral damage. The idea of restorative justice is becoming more and more relevant in the modern legal and criminological discourse. Restorative justice is believed to alter the current model of law, which is directed towards the punishment of an offender. Restorative punishment is considered to be favourable for the victim of a crime (as it stimulates the offender to compensate the latter), for the offender (as it makes him/her better understand the damage made to the victim and, thus, stimulates his/her improvement and allows his/her integration into society), and for the society (as it restores public relations violated by an offence more effectively). Therefore, the definition of restorative justice is associated with the hopes regarding the humanization of penal justice and, together, of all society. However, regardless their long existence, popularity and wide support, in real life the ideas of restorative justice make their way very slowly and painfully. The law of even the most progressive societies is still oriented towards punishment, and the ideas of restorative justice, although supported, have not yet occupied a sufficiently important place in the legal system. The article deals with an analysis of the psychological reasons for resistance to restorative punishment in legal practice. The following statements are grounded with reference to an overview of psychological research: 1. the ideas of restorative justice confront with the spontaneous orientation to reparation (revenge); 2. this orientation, in its turn, is a result of an improper evaluation of the emotional impact of revenge on the victim’s psychological state; 3. in the implementation of restorative justice, the structure of real emotional reactions of the victim and other people to the committed crime is understood inadequately. The author of the article concludes that the most important precondition for a wider implementation of restorative justice is the identification and overcoming of resistance to it. An integration of the elements of restorative justice into the context of the actual criminal law may be suggested as well.