Mental Health of the Offender and Justice to the Victim: An Effective Bridge through the Idea of Restorative Justice

One of the basic tenets of criminal law jurisprudence is perhaps traceable to the utilitarian aspect of punishment serving the purpose of a better society. The shift of the retributive approach to the reformative approach in penology over the last few centuries is witnessed through a lot of changes reflecting this very purpose. Balancing of the purposes of punishment and justice to the victims would be possible only through a holistic understanding of the root causes of crimes and an evolutionary approach to the ways and means of sanction which the society imposes on the offender. Restorative justice is one such evolution in criminal law jurisprudence which strives to seek this balance and seeks to implore the purpose of victimology in tandem with justice to the offender as well. Forensic psychiatry is pushing through boundaries over the last few decades as never seen before. The aspect of mental health of offender and relation with crime and punishment is inherently linked to victim justice. The various models of Restorative justice specially Victim-offender-Mediation ( VOM) presents a unique mechanism and opportunity for the victim to understand the offender’s perspective and psychological nuances and vice-versa. This mechanism can explore new facets of victimology in the backdrop of forensic psychiatry and help in securing justice to both the the victim and the offender. This paper tries to understand and analyze restorative justice from this very perspective and tries to develop a model which can synergize the purpose of restorative justice and forensic psychiatry. It will study the present working mechanisms in India vis-à-vis restorative justice and the scope of inclusion of the aspects of offender’s mental health in these mechanisms.