User:Fflores09/Restorative practices

Lead
Restorative practices (or RP) is a social science field concerned with improving and repairing relationships and social connections among people. Whereas a zero tolerance social mediation system prioritizes punishment, RP privileges the repair of harm and dialogue among actors. In fact, the purpose of RP is to build healthy communities, increase social capital, decrease crime and antisocial behavior, mend harm and restore relationships. It ties together research in a variety of social science fields, including education, psychology, social work, criminology, sociology, organizational development and leadership. RP has been growing in popularity since the early 2000s and varying approaches exist.

Overview
In education, restorative practices, such as circles and groups, provide opportunities for students to share their feelings, build relationships and solve problems, and when there is wrongdoing, to play an active role in addressing the wrong and making things right. Schools that implement restorative practices (RP) have been found to provide safe school environments through building quality relationships and a supportive community. Further, urban educators who carry out RP have observed a decrease in disciplinary issues and absenteeism, a heightened sense of community, as well as an increase in school safety and instructional time.

For example, in criminal justice, restorative circles and restorative conferences allow victims, offenders and their respective family members and friends to come together to explore how everyone has been affected by an offense and, when possible, to decide how to repair the harm and meet their own needs. In England's Criminal Justice System (CJS), prisons use RP to stimulate positive social interactions and decrease tension when situational challenges arise. Introduced in the 1990s in some of Europe's CJS, RP has improved relationships between the prisons' residents and their relatives through restorative family interventions.

In social work, family group decision-making (FGDM) or family group conferencing (FGC) processes empower extended families to meet privately, without professionals in the room, to make a plan to protect children in their own families from further violence and neglect or to avoid residential placement outside their own homes.

History
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Eventually modern restorative justice broadened to include communities of care as well, with victims' and offenders' families and friends participating in collaborative processes called conferences and circles. Conferencing addresses power imbalances between the victim and offender by including additional supporters. In the 2010s, federal and local governments in the US, as well as community organizations, requested schools  decrease suspension rates. To provide an alternative to disciplinary measures like suspension, large urban school districts, like New York City Public Schools and the Los Angeles Unified School District, started implementing RP.

Family Group Conference
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Restorative Conferences
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Circles
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Difference between restorative justice and restorative practice
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Other terminology
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RP experiences in education
There has been an accumulation of RP experiences in schools. Research on these seems to validate that RP has led to a decrease in disciplinary measures and slight diminishment in racial exclusionary gaps. One goal of RP has been to close the racial disciplinary gap since students of color, especially African American children, are suspended more frequently than white students. According to a 2018 US Office of Civil Rights study of the 2015-16 school year, Black boys made up approximately one twelfth (8%) of enrolled students but one fourth (25%) of suspended students.

In a 2020 survey of fifth and eighth graders, students found RP's restorative circles (RC) as a valuable method of expression, of sharing perspectives about problems. Students use RP as a way to express their thoughts and feelings, and encourage intercommunication. Schools have used classroom conferencing to address disruption that has had an effect on learning. In such a situation, RP has helped teachers and students discuss behavioral expectations from one another. In New Zealand, schools have experienced best restorative outcomes when all parties actively participate and understand how the problem originated, what should be done, and how the parties can reach a shared commitment that the issue not repeat itself.

RP experiences in prison
RP has served to attend concerns of legitimacy, fairness, and accountability. Restorative conversations and circles, and family interventions, have played a positive role in building relationships between residents, officers, and families. In one England's prisons, residents and officers made use of a restorative circle (see below) to resolve a kitchen issue. Since the residents left the kitchen untidy on repeated occasions, the officers punitively closed the kitchen for a couple of days. However, the closing of the kitchen created bitterness among the residents, one of whom proposed to carry out a restorative circle to establish a kitchen code of conduct. Initially hesitant to participate, the officers eventually helped mediate the residents' agreement; the officers' presence provided a sense of security to the prisoners.

Criticism
RP interventions among elementary-aged school children seem to be more impactful than among early teens or teenaged children. The effectiveness of interventions across grade levels must be examined. Additionally, RP expectations may be unrealistic. Out of numerous RP components, schools may only implement RP circles yet await a shift in school climate. In prison systems, RP is viewed as a soft option and counter to prison values by some officers.