Seeing the Harm to Happiness: Integrating Satisfaction With Life Into Restorative Practices

• Author: Jeremy Olson,Rebecca S. Sarver,Brad Killian
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/08874034221115337
• Published date: 01 February 2023
• Date: 01 February 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/08874034221115337

Criminal Justice Policy Review

2023, Vol. 34(1) 88 –109

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/08874034221115337

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Article

Seeing the Harm to

Happiness: Integrating

Satisfaction With Life Into

Restorative Practices

Jeremy Olson1, Rebecca S. Sarver2,

and Brad Killian1

Abstract

This article proposes an approach to intervening in harms that is based on the

integration of positive psychology and restorative justice. We begin by reviewing the

importance of interpersonal relationships to restorative justice. Next, we discuss

harms as viewed in restorative justice. We then explore the concept and language of

happiness through models of satisfaction with life (SWL) from positive psychology.

We end the article by proposing the integration of models of SWL into the practices

of restorative dialogue and the development of restoration plans.

Keywords

restorative justice, satisfaction with life, positive criminology, positive psychology,

happiness

We all assess our lives in terms of happiness (Veenhoven, 2010). Happiness cuts across

culture, race, class, and circumstances (Cloutier & Pfeiffer, 2017; Myers & Diener,

1995). Happiness also cuts across systems, agencies, disciplines, and clients. Individual

happiness and community happiness are mutually reinforcing; improving one improves

the other (Cloutier & Pfeiffer, 2017; Myers, 1999), especially where there are strong

interpersonal connections and mutual reliance between members of the community

(Yazzie, 1996). The strength of the relationships within the community produces

1Penn State Wilkes-Barre, Dallas, PA, USA

2Elmira College, NY, USA

Corresponding Author:

Jeremy Olson, Criminal Justice, Penn State Wilkes-Barre, 44 University Drive, Dallas, PA 18612, USA.

Email: jao@psu.edu

1115337CJPXXX10.1177/08874034221115337Criminal Justice Policy ReviewOlson et al.

research-article2022

Olson et al. 89

shared norms and increased communication. A happy, well-connected community

with shared norms is more likely to be sustainable and benefit from decreased threats

to the community, such as criminal behavior (Cloutier & Pfeiffer, 2017).

The American criminal justice system has long recognized the importance of hap-

piness in decreasing criminal threats. One of its strongest underlying theories is that

of Rational Choice. Rational Choice Theory (RCT) suggests that people will weigh

the risks (pain) and benefits (happiness) associated with an action and take the course

of action that is most likely to result in more happiness than pain (Akers & Sellers,

2009; Bernard et al., 2015). Research has supported the contention that applying this

calculus can reduce offending (Paternoster & Pogarsky, 2009). The calculus can be

effective whether the pain is a formal sanction imposed by the system or an informal

sanction like the shunning of behavior by members of one’s community (Bachman

et al., 1992). Despite its underlying theory and knowledge about the potential to

reduce crime by increasing happiness, the system has remained punitive in nature.

Historically, the criminal justice system’s main response to crime has been to threaten

or inflict pain on (potential) offenders.

More recently, criminologists have been turning their attention to happiness.

Leaders in criminology have begun to call for research and practices that focus on the

development of positive skills and traits within offenders and potential offenders

(Nikolic-Ristanovic, 2014; Ronel & Elisha, 2011). Writers have begun to debate the

inclusion of a happiness perspective in risk–needs–responsivity assessments (Andrews

et al., 2011; Birgden, 2009; Ward et al., 2012; Wormith et al., 2012) and in restorative

justice (Walgrave et al., 2021). In addition, researchers are finding associations

between happiness and crime (MacDonald et al., 2005; Olson et al., 2020; Suldo &

Huebner, 2004). The present article continues the discussion about integrating happi-

ness into one of the areas of interest to American criminal justice, restorative justice.

Specifically, we call for teaching the language of the models of satisfaction with life

(SWL) and incorporating the domains of these models into restorative dialogue and

the development of restoration plans. We believe that this approach complements and

strengthens restorative efforts to build strong interpersonal relationships and transform

harms. We also believe this approach will result in more personalized restoration

plans. Because they are more personalized, we believe that essential people are more

likely to follow through with those plans and repair harms. We begin the discussion

with relationships.

The Web of Relationships

Strong interpersonal relationships are the core of restorative justice and restorative

practices (Vaandering, 2013; Zehr, 2015a, 2015b). Restorative justice acknowledges

that we are all interconnected in a broad context that includes family and community

(Davis, 2019; Zehr, 2015b). This interconnectedness forms a web of relationships and

connections such that events that happen to any one person in the web will have some

level of effect or impact on everyone in the web (Yazzie, 1996; Zehr, 2015a). Figure 1

demonstrates our vision of this web.