How to deal with crime and delinquency has long been a debated issue in Canada and still is today while crime seems to be increasing.

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How to deal with crime and delinquency has long been a debated issue in Canada and still is today while crime seems to be increasing. Some argue for rehabilitating law breakers, while others argue to increase the severity of their punishment. Many Canadians, especially victims, are upset at how the current formal adversarial justice system operates because the tribunals are often seen as unresponsive to the needs of people in the conflict; conflicts are framed in legal language; and the process is confusing, time consuming, and costly (*Law, pg.1). In the adversarial justice system, victims also have very limited opportunity to say how they have been affected by crime, the system keeps victims and offenders apart while others speak for them, and the offender is not encouraged to accept responsibility. This justice process is also known as event based (Law, pg.15) and is mainly centered at finding the defendant guilty or not guilty and lacks focus on the underlying problems which cause the conflict.

An alternative to the adversarial justice system which I would argue is more productive at reducing crime is a restorative justice system. This system is particularly strong in the Canadian aboriginal community (Law,