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Summary

O'Connell, Terry (2000). Restorative justice and sexual crimes Paper presented at the Restorative and Community Justice: Inspiring the Future conference, held in Winchester, England, 28-31 March.

The application of restorative justice processes for sexual crimes is a sensitive and controversial topic. As Terry O’Connell remarks, the major concern, given the power-related nature of sexual crimes, is the idea of inviting the victim into a forum with the perpetrator. With this in mind, O’Connell presents two case studies to illustrate how restorative conferences have been successfully used for sexual assault and sexual abuse crimes. These examples are part of an argument that such crimes are best suited for this type of intervention due to the deeply personal nature of the victim’s violation. O’Connell’s perspective therefore is that restorative approaches should be part of the formal justice system.