IndexDefinitionsComparisons between the two typesBiblical PerspectiveKenya Justice SystemJustice Preference SystemDefinitionsJustice is the maintenance or administration of what is right, especially by making adjustments impartial of conflicting claims or the assignment of rights deserved rewards or punishments (Sandel, 2008). It may also be defined as the legal or philosophical theory by which equity is administered. As with most philosophically driven disciplines, the concept of justice is relative as it differs in each culture. The three theories of justice include distributive justice, punitive justice, and restorative justice. Distributive justice is defined as the perceived fairness in how rewards and costs are shared by group members (Stevenson, 2014). For example, when workers do the same job but receive different wages, group members may believe that distributive justice has not occurred; as this justice system deals with the nature of social justice and the allocation of goods. A society in which no inequalities in outcomes occur would be considered a society guided by the principles of distributive justice. The concept includes the available quantities of goods, the process by which goods are to be distributed, and the subsequent allocation of goods to members of society. To determine whether distributive justice has taken place, individuals often turn to the distributive norms of their group. A norm is the standard of behavior required, desired, or designated as normal within a particular group. If rewards and costs are assigned according to the distributive norms designated by the group, distributive justice has occurred. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay This justice system hasn't really worked in states that have attempted to use it, like Tanzania. This is because it encourages laziness, when lazy people are confident that they will benefit from what others have worked for. Hard working people are demoralized as they feel that they are working not only for themselves but also for the lazy people in society. On the other hand, it works quite well in the Bible; Psalms 82:3 “do justice to the weak and the orphans.” Also, in the New Testament, deacons were appointed to share things brought to church with widows, orphans, and other needy people among them in the church. Another example is when people were told during the harvest not to harvest but to leave some on the farms for the needy and foreigners. Restorative justice is an approach to justice in which the response to a crime is to arrange mediation between the victim and the offender, and sometimes also with representatives of a wider community (Zehr, 2002). The goal is to negotiate a solution that satisfies all participants. This may include making restitution from the offender to the victim or taking steps to prevent the offender from causing future harm. It is intended to convince the offender to take responsibility for their actions, to understand the harm they have caused, to give them the opportunity to redeem themselves, and to discourage them from causing further harm. For victims, the goal is to give them an active role in the process. It also gives closure to victims. As they talk about how they were hurt or affected, they feel relieved instead of repressing it and becoming bitter. Cases are not actually taken to court, they can be resolved locally by district officers or the court canappoint people to deal with issues such as land disputes and other internal matters. In other cases, people holding positions such as the Secretary-General of the United Nations can intervene as mediators. The mediator must be on neutral ground. On the other hand, retributive justice is a theory of justice according to which the best response to a crime is a punishment proportional to the crime, inflicted because the perpetrator deserves the punishment (Rawls, 2013). In determining these penalties, the prevention of future crimes, deterrence or rehabilitation of the offender is not taken into account. The theory holds that when an offender breaks the law, justice requires that he or she suffer in return. Punishment is different from revenge because retributive justice is directed only at wrongs, has inherent limitations, is not personal, involves no pleasure in the suffering of others, and employs procedural standards. In this type of justice system, the offender is usually brought to court. Comparisons between the two types Restorative and punitive justice have similarities in that both justice systems have the same goal (bringing justice), but they also have differences in that they are not administered in the same way and both would not work in all situations . We find that restorative justice aims to restore broken relationships and reunite the victim and the offender, while on the other hand, punitive justice aims to punish the offender for whatever he or she has done. Once reunited, they may be able to live together as they did before the conflict. But when the offender is punished, for example sent to prison, when he returns, he is never truly fully accepted into the community and may be seen as an outcast. Another disparity is that in restorative justice both parties actively participate, as they are brought together and talking about what happened. An example is the Rwandan genocide, where Gacaca courts existed. The perpetrators confessed to the victims what they did and the victims spoke out about how they were affected; on the other hand, in punitive justice the State represents the community, the two sides never meet (Gunn, 2011). Finally, restorative justice brings about the sense of positive peace as the root cause of the problem is addressed and there is also truth involved which brings healing, whereas retributive justice leads to negative peace. An example is the case of post-election violence, the suspects were brought to the International Criminal Court, the situation has calmed down but every time there are elections, the temperature rises again and, in some regions, conflict breaks out. Biblical PerspectiveThe Bible has a number of justice narratives, on distributive, restorative and punitive justice. In all of these narratives, we find that those who have used restorative justice end up well, and therefore the Bible supports restorative justice. Examples of retributive justice used in the Bible are Leviticus 24:17-19 “If anyone takes the life of a human being, he must be put to death. Whoever takes the life of someone's animal must return life for life; fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he hurt the other, so he too will be hurt." This is what the Lord said to Moses as an instruction to the Israelites. This was basically to warn them against harming their neighbor because whatever they did to them would be done to them too. This can also be used as a punishment measure, meaning that you are only punished for what you have done and are not punished more than the crime you committed. In Deuteronomy 19:18-20 “The judges must make a thorough investigation, and if thewitness turns out to be a den, giving false testimony against his brother, then do to him what he intended to do to his brother. You must eliminate the evil between you. The rest of the people will know and be afraid, and such an evil thing will never happen among you again." This was more or less a warning to the Israelites because if they saw or heard what was being done to the law breakers, they would not dare to do the same because they knew they would be punished and with that there would be order. . Finally, another bearing on retributive justice in the Bible is the story of Noah. God told Noah to build an ark because there would be floods that would wash everything away. While he was doing this, he told the people that there would be floods but they didn't believe him, instead they made fun of the old man. God sent the flood to wipe everything out because of the way people had turned against Him and there was sin everywhere. In this narrative, people were punished by God for their wrong actions, which was retributive justice. Regarding restorative justice in the Bible, God's justice is retributive in that it is never prejudicial, arbitrary, or impulsive and is always morally attuned to human actions. and deserts. However, it does not focus on imposing punishment on wrongdoers, but on restoring right relationships. (John 8:1-11) there is the story of the woman who, caught in adultery, was brought to Jesus by the Pharisees and wanted to stone her since in the law of Moses it was commanded that anyone caught in that act was stoned. But Jesus told them that anyone who had not sinned should take a stone and throw it at him. Little by little everyone began to leave one by one and Jesus remained with the woman; He told her to abandon her sinful ways, in this we see mercy, the woman was not punished, but rather returned to God. Another narrative in the Bible of restorative justice is the parable of the prodigal son. (Luke 15:11–32). The youngest son asked for his inheritance, collected all his possessions and left for a distant country and squandered all his wealth in profligate living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine throughout the country and he began to find himself in need. After coming to his senses, he wondered how many of his father's hired hands had food to eat and he was starving; he decided to return home. He wanted to be his father's servant because he had sinned against him but when his father saw him coming; he was full of compassion for him and ran towards him. He apologized to his father but his father told his servants to go and get him a robe and he put it on him and a fattened cow was slaughtered so that they could celebrate. In this we see that his father, instead of punishing him, brought him back to the family and restored the relationship he had before with him. Finally on restorative justice, 2 Corinthians 5:18: “All this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.” Although man has been a sinful creature since Genesis, God has been merciful to us and sent us Jesus in the New Testament to reconcile us with him. Unlike the New Testament where people had to offer sacrifices for forgiveness, we now have a personal relationship with God where when we sin we repent and ask for forgiveness and are reconciled to Him. Kenya's justice system Kenya's justice system is more punitive other than restorative justice. This is because on any given day, for example when a thief is caught trying to steal, the first thing that crosses the minds of the people who caught him is mob justice. Most of the time they don't even think of taking him to the police station. What if things weren't.