ABSTRACT

Professional attitudes toward the judicial reforms implemented from 1991 to 1995 in Russia generally fall into some points of view. Restorative justice is based on a completely different understanding of crime. A crime is first and foremost an act of violence affecting people and their relationships. Those who suffered from a crime as well as those who perpetrated it should participate in the judicial process. Reconciliation meetings have had socializing, rehabilitating, and psychotherapeutic effects. Such meetings helped restore an eleven-year-old mugging victim's sense of personal security; the boy had suffered great anxiety before the meeting. After expressing their emotions and feelings, many victims were no longer angry; their hatred had become a desire to participate in improving the lot of the offender. As far as many charitable foundations are concerned, the role of society and the public in administering criminal justice is restricted primarily to human rights organizations and their networks.