Restorative justice

In a recent Chadwell Liberal Focus we read about the Liberals commitment to reducing knife Crime. The Green Party to believes the introduction of ID cards would be an expensive unproductive and futile scheme. We are the only party to be championing the need for more local Police Stations - which could see the return in operation of our Chadwell Heath Police Station on Wangey Road. The benefits of this would be numerous we should see an increase in locally reported crimes - culminating from convenience of a short trip. Moreover local Safer Neighbourhood teams would be equipped with the ability to exchange intelligence and introduce effective collaborative policing efforts.

Further more we would introduce a wider array of skills sets for Police Officers by recruiting from other employment spheres and would introduce more Police and Community Support Officers.

view more on our website:

http://www.greenparty.org.uk/policies/crime.html

CJ110 Given that crime should be seen as partly caused by social factors, it cannot be adequately addressed solely in terms of criminal justice and policing policy. A Green approach to crime reduction therefore places significant focus on the social causes of crime. As well as social crime prevention, this includes a broader range of social policies which will lessen the social pressures, such as poverty, inequality or addiction to illegal drugs, to commit crime.

CJ111 The lives and liberties of individuals, groups and society as a whole must be protected within a law-based system which strives for justice, including social and economic justice, and fairness. We therefore believe that it is necessary for society to define certain forms of harmful behaviour as crimes, but that the list of crimes should be kept as short as possible.

CJ112 Criminal justice cannot be successfully imposed from above, but needs as far as possible to be a product of a living, democratic community. The basic institutions of Green justice should be community-based and relatively informal in nature. They should provide maximum potential for public participation.

CJ113 The Green approach to dealing with offenders however differs markedly from current practice. We believe retributive sentencing to be ineffective in reducing crime.
CJ114 We will introduce the principle of "restorative justice", which while denouncing the crime, deals constructively with both the victim and the offender. The primary aim will be to restore and, if necessary, improve the position of the victim and the community; the offender will be required to make amends.

CJ115 Restorative justice recognises the need not only to ensure that the amount and nature of reparation be appropriate to the harm suffered, but also that it is within the capacity of the offender to make it. This means that any shortfall will have to be met by the community.