FROM RESTORATIVE JUSTICE TOWARDS A PROMOTIONAL AND RELATIONAL COMMUNITY

The aim of the this paper is to present the relational and restorative community model based on the works on ecological responsability of professor Gaetano De Leo (1996) and the findings of the European project Freedom Wings, collection and dissemination of good practice in transnational collaboration in the field of restorative justice. The model is based on the process of conflict managment through out the active partecipation of the community to repair the injury caused by the crime. The crime is first a relational act and then a transgression of a rule which provides a sanction. It can be considered rather as a behavior that produces pain in those who are victims and generates "conflict" because it evades the social expectations of the community, impacting on the perception of vulnerability and insecurity of individual and society. (Zani, Polmonari, 1996; Patrizi, 2003). At the citizen is recognized an active role in conflict management and more generally in the government of the community in which he/she lives, making him/her feel part of the system (Wright, 2010). The community can/must therefore be promoting lifestyles and relationships oriented to peace, well-being of the person and the community (Lent & Brown, 2008). It has been a purpose of Freedom Wings, consistent with principles of sustainability and solidarity of Europe 2020, to build an international network (with the involvement of Italy, Cyprus and Greece) to promote a debate of a community model based on the promotion of social cohesion through strategies to restore balance relational threatened by the commission of an offense. We will be presenting the findings of the multiagency and interprofessionals focus groups (experts within the juvenile and ordinary justice of the 3 countries) on the topics of restorative approaches and community justice. The main areas of the research were: characteristics of restorative justice, practices centered on the relationship and reciprocal commitment between subjects/systems involved, roles and functions of professionals involved in the restorative approaches, problems detected, perspectives of a "relational community."