“Is Restorative Justice Greek to Me?”: Exploring its Applicability in Greek Youth Detention Centres

Nikolaos Stamatakis

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Justice systems around the world are constantly working to balance reform/rehabilitation/re-entry and punishment in response to juvenile delinquency. In recent years, there has been a strong emphasis on the notion of restorative justice as an alternative approach to criminal justice, yet there continues to be a dearth of information on the interrelation between restorative justice, religion and imprisonment, especially among youth. The present research seeks to explore the applicability and possible future implementation of restorative justice programmes for late adolescent and young adult male offenders (18-21 years old) held in the Special Detention Institutions of Greece. It also aims to identify any links between restorative justice and religion in youth custodial settings among the large migrant population hosted in these institutions. A self-administered quantitative study was distributed to achieve this aim. The data analysis provided no statistically significant relationships between the inmates' willingness to meet with their actual/surrogate victims and ask for forgiveness/restore relationships with them. Equally insignificant was found the inmates' eagerness to get involved in restorative mediation with their capacity to acknowledge the harm that their illegal actions inflicted on others, and to make amends.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)264-289
Number of pages26
JournalEuropean Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice
Volume29
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Keywords

  • Greece
  • Migrants
  • Religion
  • Restorative justice
  • Youth prisons

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Sociology and Political Science
  • Political Science and International Relations
  • Law

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