The criticism of the retributive model targets the model's exclusive focus on sanctions, instead of its potential to focus on the educational function of social therapy that could be included in punishment. An approach to probation, beginning with the social construction of ethical values in the process of reintegration of the offender, answers the needed synthesis between the model based on human rights-especially through repositioning the values of dignity in the continuation of autonomy-and the responsibility of the person who committed the criminal act. Rethinking criminal philosophy based on a model founded on the social construction of autonomy and responsibility is a continuation of the humanistic social model, which is based on the form of justice centred on human rights, as well as the restorative paradigm, namely in supporting the restoration of the social equilibrium disrupted by crimes committed. We see restorative justice as based on a series of constitutive values of an ethical nature, amongst which the dignity of the individual-both the criminal and the victim-need to be seen as respect towards the autonomy of the individual in the context of the social reconstruction of the responsibility of the person who committed the criminal act(s). Restorative justice targets the restoration of the social balance disrupted by the crime(s). This balance can be best re-established through assuming the responsibility of all parties implicated-not only the criminal. The model we propose targets a paradigm of constructionist restorative justice as part of the construction of an appreciative ethics centred on values, in order to replace the retributive model and the utilitarian model found in contemporary penal philosophy.
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