Justiça restaurativa no Brasil: uma possibilidade

Abstract

The Restorative Justice arises as an answer to the crescent criminality and to the dissatisfaction towards the current model of justice. It resulted from the commune justice of the Middle Ages and, more recently, from the Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP), instituted in the 70’s in the United States. This group of practices named restorative began to attract more and more adepts and nowadays it is recommended by the United Nations (UN) in its Resolution 12 of 2002. The Restorative Justice is an alternative character, and brings a new possibility to the democratization of the traditional Penal Justice, which has a retributive character, and brings a new possibility to the democratization of the criminal justice. In Brazil, the concept and the principles of Restorative Justice are gradually being spread. However, it is still a theme very far from the reality of Brazilian justice. The formation of professionals and the establishment of programs that adopt restorative practices are still insignificant, and does not agree with the United Nations recommendation. Therefore, this study aspires to elucidate some aspects related to this matter, like, for instance, its paradigms, the main difference between Retributive and Restorative Justice, the situations in which we can apply the restorative practices, how to adapt them to the Brazilian reality and, at last, a brief analysis of the restorative experiences in Porto Alegre/RS, São Caetano/SP and Brasília/DF.