ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to test whether Howard Zehr’s call for a “change of lenses” (1980) can be used in restorative justice by assessing its strengths and weaknesses in a top-down hierarchical criminal justice system. We used the Chilean justice system as a case study for this purpose. Restorative justice in Chile appears in the form of criminal mediation but has not been institutionalized or regulated normatively. However, criminal mediation has been applied for more than ten years in an incipient manner. Innovative pilot projects have been developed but have not been diffused enough to be validated by legal operators and/or citizens. This chapter is based on original research of a descriptive exploratory design with qualitative methods. Secondary sources were also combined with field data using a sample drawn from legal operators in Chile. The research confirms that criminal mediation is the most appropriate mechanism for restorative justice to be implemented in Chile, because community development culture is weak, and due to the legal tendencies of its criminal justice system, restorative justice is hindered. We argue that the effective establishment of normative legislation is needed for criminal mediation to reach its true potential.
