Approach with caution not cynicism: Rape and restorative justice

From the post by Nikki Godden on Inherently Human: 

Typically, feminists are resistant to the idea of responding to rape  – or sexual violence more generally – through restorative justice. After decades of campaigning to get the harms women suffer recognised in politics and law, their concerns that such a move will trivialise rape and provide only ‘cheap justice’ are fair. So too are the criticisms that restorative justice cannot address or appropriately account for the gendered power imbalances between the victim and offender, and that, as a result, it may cause further harm to the victim and fail to protect her and others from future violence. While this means I’m wary of restorative justice as a response to rape, I do think there is value in exploring this idea. Likewise, in a 2010 report Jennifer Brown et al. mention restorative justice as an ‘expanded justice alternative’ that could be considered – although they are similarly careful to set the sceptical feminist scene.

Oct 20, 2010 Policy, Case:Violence, Case:Sexual

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Response by Dr Martin Wright to European Commission consultation document: Taking action on rights, support and protection of victims of crime and violence

From the response by Dr. Martin Wright:

The key to this reply is in the last answer:  that in principle restorative justice practices should be available to all victims, subject only to the safeguards mentioned in the reply to Question 17.  Restorative processes are in the interests not only of victims, but also of offenders and the community.  

Victim-offender dialogue is valuable as an end in itself as well as a means to an end.  For many victims, action to make the offender less likely to re-offend is at least as high on their list of priorities as monetary compensation or reparation through work.  When the victim and offender agree on one of these methods of reparation, it is incumbent on the community to provide the resources to enable offenders to carry them out.  

Oct 01, 2010 Region:Europe, Support, Mediation, Correspondent:Martin Wright, Victim, Policy, Other

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