Restorative justice in South Africa: An attitude survey among legal professionals

English: The search for alternative reactions to crime and resurrection of traditional indigenous justice practices has led to experimentation with restorative justice globally. Traditional indigenous African approaches to justice have many principles and values in common with restorative justice which makes it uniquely suited to the African and more specifically the South African context. However, restorative justice is not currently utilised to its fullest potential extent in South Africa. A possible explanation for the limited application was investigated by exploring the perceptions and opinions legal professionals hold about restorative justice. In order to obtain an in-depth understanding of the opinions held by South African legal professionals, a qualitative research methodology was employed. Twenty-five participants (5 individuals from each of the 5 subgroups, namely; judges, magistrates, prosecutors, advocates and lawyers) were approached to respond to 10 questions which simply required a yes or no answer with a short motivation. Thematic analysis was used to identify emerging themes from the data, which revealed a generally positive disposition by South African legal professionals towards restorative justice. Some cautionary conditions for application of restorative justice in the current justice system however, were highlighted.