Under the victim-offender conferencing, there are several restorative justice programs (Cohen, 2016) . They offer mediation between offenders and the victims, victim-offender reconciliation and victim-offender dialogue. The programs facilitate a face to face meeting, which is facilitated by third parties. These programs are based on voluntary. The main objective of mediation is to discuss the harm caused by a crime or a violation of the rights of a person. Mediation aims to enable the offender and the victim to reach an agreement and make a decision to make things right. The negotiations take the form of apologies, personal services to the victims, service to the community, among others. Family group, conferencing-these restorative justice programs, brings together the family members or the community affected by a crime. The discussions are held on the harm caused to the victims and how the harm can be resolved (Strang & Braithwaite, 2017) .
In Family group conferencing, the individuals affected by the crime are brought together to discuss the harm caused and how to resolve the damage. The parties present in the conference address the crime and the negative impacts it had on the victims. The facilitator in the conferences is specialists with knowledge on dispute resolution such as police officers. The multiple restorative justice programs constitute of programs that offer a combination of various restorative justice programs and practices. They include the programs that provide community justice boards and the victim-offender conferencing (Marshall, 2020) .
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In the restitution programs, the juveniles are required to give restitution to their victims, conduct service to the community or offer other services to the victims. These programs are commonly used as a form of diversion in either the traditional court systems or pre-court systems they can also be based on the juvenile systems. The teen's court involves the teens in the process of decision making in the courts. The teens play a part in determining the wrong done by other juveniles. These programs are essential in bringing justice to the youths and aims to restore justice. The teen courts are more often juvenile justice diversion programs.
Restorative justice programs also involve mediation and arbitration programs. The use of the arbitration process is a form of diversion. Arbitration takes place in a court-like setting. The youths sit in the presence of an arbitrator; they answer questions regarding the crime. The arbitrator can arrive at a variety of alternatives (Marshall, 2020) . The action taken could be subjecting the offender to community service work, restitution, counseling or a combination of the punishments. Mediation programs act as alternatives to other formal proceedings. In these programs, the third party is the mediator; they bring the parties involved in conflict together and give them an opportunity to come together and resolve their disputes (Braithwaite, 2020) . The use of mediation and arbitration programs is used as alternatives to traditional court sentencing. The primary focus is identifying the crime committed and arrives at an agreement about the consequences of the actions done.
The diversion and cautioning programs are commonly non-mainstream restorative justice programs. These programs are diversionary in nature and incorporate various elements of restorative justice (Strang & Braithwaite, 2017) . They are cautioning programs to take several forms such as written or verbal apologies, family involvement and face to face meetings among others. Cautionary programs divert youths from the formal juvenile systems facilitated by a police officer.
The circle sentencing programs take a holistic approach in addressing the harm done to a victim. The plan focuses on addressing the harm as well as other violations through bringing together the offenders, victims and their family, their friends and the members of the broader community. A mediator or a facilitator facilitates the process (Wachtel, 2016) . The parties meet in a circle to discuss the violations; the members of the circle are given an opportunity to give their solutions in addressing the crime. The ultimate solution or sentencing is reached by all members of the circle. The community members and family members can commit to helping the victims in moving on. Disputes in schools can also be solved through the use of these circles. The students and the other parties, such as teachers, meet in a circle to discuss harms caused and generate the best solutions moving forward (Braithwaite, 2020) .
Restorative justice programs and policies have continued to expand in the United States. Many programs have substantially helped in the reduction of repetitions of offences. The programs help to divert the youth from going through the criminal justice system by offering them mediation and arbitration platforms. Using these programs as diversions helps to lower the costs of criminal justice. Both victims and the offenders derive more satisfaction from the use of restorative justice systems compared to traditional criminal justice. The programs mitigate post-traumatic stress to the crime victims and the crime-related expenses. They also reduce the desire for the victims to carry out revenge against the offenders (Wachtel, 2016) . The restorative justice model can be applied both inside and outside the criminal justice systems. They occur in the prisons during the solution of disputes amongst prisoners bringing healing to the victims of crime. However, restorative justice is criticized for paving the way for victims to avoid the formal criminal justice system. The mediators and arbitrators may mediate with offenders resulting in injustice to the victims. Victims may be pressured to participate in the restorative justice programs when they are not ready to do so.
References
Braithwaite, J. (2020). Restorative justice and reintegrative shaming. In Criminal Justice Theory, Volume 26 (pp. 281-308). Routledge.
Cohen, R. L. (2016). Restorative justice. In Handbook of social justice theory and research (pp. 257-272). Springer, New York, NY.
Marshall, C. D. (2020). Restorative justice. In Religion Matters (pp. 101-117). Springer, Singapore.
Strang, H., & Braithwaite, J. (2017). Restorative justice: Philosophy to practice . Routledge.
Wachtel, T. (2016). In pursuit of paradigm: A theory of restorative justice.
