Restorative justice involves crime against an individual as well as the community while retributive justice involves crime that focuses primarily on the individual criminal.
With restorative justice, a criminal has the opportunity to become an appropriate member of society again. With the help of rehabilitation and restorative facilities, the criminal may truly realize the harm and danger he caused during his acts of crime and learn from his behavior and mistakes to understand his wrong doings and accept his punishment.
Retributive justice makes the criminal receive punishment without the criminal knowing what he did was wrong towards society. The criminal may think the crime was part of his normal day without being able to learn about his errors. This misconception can cause the criminal to form a hatred towards authority because he feels like the punishment is due to personal reasons and not his criminal activity.
This individual can be sentenced for x amount of years and return to society not one bit changed and may repeat acts of criminal behavior. But a criminal going through restorative justice can learn and realize the effects they have caused on the victim and their family. This method also allows the criminal to resolve issues with the victim and come to a conclusion with the situation. Both parties may come to a mutual understanding bringing the victim to accept what has happened in the past and the criminal to learn from his mistakes and be able to become a rational member of society.
While many people believe that restorative justice is too easy on offenders, and that they require more punishment, I believe that you should ask yourself, is it better for a person to not commit a crime because they understand what they're doing, and do not want to cause their community harm, or because they are afraid of what might happen if they get caught?
Sources:
http://www.cscsb.org/restorative_justice/retribution_vs_restoration.html
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