Objective: The present study aims to analyze the criminal justice policy governing the peace courts and assess its compliance the financial and qualitative components of restorative justice.
Method: Qualitative research with content analysis on 25 verdicts from the peace courts of Shahrekord and Isfahan (1402-1405) with purposive sampling, overt/covert coding and word association analysis.
Findings: Three overarching themes: (1) Authoritarian judgment procedure with the codes of “eliminating agency”, “expertise-based” and “evidence-based” which is more prominent in violent cases than in financial claims. (2) Bureaucratic case management priority for quick closure over healing. (3) Formative financial compensation with only the calculated blood money which is present in 100% of criminal cases and 20% of financial claims. The “absent presence” of terms such as apology, mutual forgiveness, emotional compensation, and behavior modification in all opinions indicates the dominance of the evidence-based approach over the healing one.
Conclusion: The criminal justice policy governing peace courts is mainly based on a repressive-managerial approach, and the qualitative component of restorative justice (psychological and relationship) is in the absolute financial component has been partially realized. There is a significant gap between legislative goals and judicial performance , which is in factors such as the pressure of case density, the principle of separation of the prosecutor’s office from the in the Iranian legal system, and the neglect of teaching mediation skills to judges. This research emphasizes the need to review the educational policies of judges, reform the structure of the proceedings, and separate criminal from legal jurisdictions.