Unique challenges can be faced when attempting to repair the harm caused by domestic violence. One way to repair the harm caused by domestic violence is restorative justice. This paper will break down the meaning of restorative justice. It will also discuss restorative justice approaches to helping victims of domestic violence. An examination into the potential benefits and harms of restorative justice in domestic violence cases will be addressed. Finally the paper will discuss how social workers can benefit from the use of restorative justice when it comes to helping victims of domestic violence.
Restorative Justice and Domestic Violence Victims
Domestic violence is a problem that can often be ignored, covered up and denied. Once a victim decides to take action to get out of an abusive relationship restoration can begin. When a victim has gone through a traumatic event he or she can struggle with the process of restorative justice. The victim may still be dealing with frightening memories of the abuse. Also a victim may have come to terms with the domestic violence and would just like to leave it in the past. These are some of the unique challenges faced by
Circle of Peace is a restorative justice program designed to deal with the trauma and violence of domestic violence (Mills, Barocas, & Ariel, 2013). This program focuses on meeting needs of both victim and abuser. To meet the needs of victim and abuser, Circle of Peace attempts to go beyond criminal punishment. To do this, Circle of Peace mediates restorative justice between the victim and abuser. The program also works with judges by educating them on alternatives to criminal punishment, such as helping abuser come to terms with exerting power and control over victims. Also, the program is designed to confront the limitations of domestic violence intervention (Mills, Barocas, & Ariel,
Domestic Violence is a widely recognized issue here in the United States. Though many people are familiar with domestic violence, there are still many facts that people do not understand. Abuse is not just physical, it is mental, emotional, verbal, sexual and financial. Many victims of physical abuse are also fall victim to these abuse tactics as well. An abusive partner often uses verbal, mental, emotional, and financial abuse to break their partner so to speak. It is through this type of abuse the victim often feels as though they are not adequately meeting their partner’s needs.
Restorative justice is defined as “using humanistic, no punitive strategies to right wrongs and restore social harmony” (Siegel, 2008, p. 189). Instead of imposing harsh penalties on offenders like long prison sentences or even the death penalty, restorative justice calls for a more rehabilitative approach, such as reconciliation and offender assistance.
One of the main programs that started the development of restorative justice is victim-offender mediation. Early victim-offender mediation began as a program to impact offenders and to help them really understand the harm that they had done to their victims.
Domestic violence is a problem in our country with nearly 1 million women experiencing at least one incident of domestic abuse each year, (2009/10 British Crime Survey). Social-program funding is being scrutinized in the current economic climate with doubts as to whether American tax dollars should be used to help victims of domestic violence. Cutting funds for government programs that assist victims of domestic violence is not an option for many reasons. In this essay I will explore some of the many ways these programs help our fellow citizens in order to support the argument for continuing to fund said programs.
Zehr (1990) who is thought to be one of the pioneers leading the argument for restorative justice highlighted three questions presented when taking a restorative approach; what is the nature of the harm resulting from the crime? What needs to be done to make things right or repair the harm? Who is responsible for this repair? He ascertained that ‘crime is fundamentally a violation of people and interpersonal relationships’. He also noted that violations create obligations and liabilities and that restorative justice seeks to heal and put right the wrongs. Restorative jus...
This voluntary alternative gives the offender the opportunity to take responsibility for their actions and identify the impact they have had on their victim, while also giving the victim the chance to confront the offender and take steps to repair the harm done. The victim can ask the offender questions about the crime and the offender may apologise or make amends for their actions. Restorative justice is confrontational and can be difficult for both parties but is proven to help both the offender and victim. While it is confrontational for the victim, for some it can be better than testifying in court. Data shows that restorative justice greatly helps victims in their recovery from the offence. Although the benefits of restorative justice in adult offenders is unclear, it significantly reduces the number of reoffenders in youth. For this reason, restorative justice is mostly used for minor infringements and within the youth justice system.
It aims to describe an arrangement of the major political and social institutions of a society such as the constitution, legal system, economy, family, and so on as being fair. Fairness is also at the core of restorative justice. Unlike the retributive system restorative justice is concerned with reforming. Not just the offender but the wrongdoing itself. As previously mentioned, the victim is not primary subject of the retributive system the law or state is. This is an unfair assurance of power by the state over the victim, to the point they where the victim may even feel re-victimized. The State assess what was lost, the state gets to talk at the trial, the victim rarely gets a chance to even see the offender before the trial. By keeping the participants of the trial apart the likelihood of proliferating long lasting resentment, and emotional trauma increases. Dining both parties closure and healing. Rawls believes the state should only be the facilitator of these communications between the parties not key participant in the
Over the years, the traditional criminal justice system has emphasized offenders’ accountability through punishment and stigmatization. The emphasis on the retributive philosophy made it challenging for the system to meaningfully assist and empower crime victims. In the criminal justice system, victims often face insensitive treatment with little or no opportunity for input into the perseverance of their case and report feeling voiceless in the process used (Choi, Gilbert, & Green, 2013:114). Crime Victims, advocates, and practitioners have called for an expansion of victims’ rights and community-based alternatives rather than punishment-orientated justice policies. What victims want from the criminal justice system is a less formal process, more information about case processing, respectful treatment, and emotional restoration. Therefore, there is a growing need to progress towards the restorative justice (RJ) system.
As the purpose of restorative justice is to mend the very relationship between the victim, offender, and society, communities that embrace restorative justice foster an awareness on how the act has harmed others. Braithwaite (1989) notes that by rejecting only the criminal act and not the offender, restorative justice allows for a closer empathetic relationship between the offender, victims, and community. By acknowledging the intrinsic worth of the offender and their ability to contribute back to the community, restorative justice shows how all individuals are capable of being useful despite criminal acts previous. This encourages offenders to safely reintegrate into society, as they are encouraged to rejoin and find rapport with the community through their emotions and
This approach has introduced a criminal justice policy agenda. In the past, victims to criminal activities have been outsiders to the criminal conflict. In recent times, many efforts have been made to give the victims a more central role in the criminal justice system. Some of these efforts were introduced a few years back, though even at that time, these efforts were seen as long overdue. Some of these efforts include access to state compensation and forms of practical support. For advocates of restorative justice, crime is perceived primarily as a violation of people and relationships, and the aim is to make amends for all the harm suffered by victims, offenders and communities. The most commonly used forms of restorative justice include direct mediation, indirect mediation, restorative cautioning, sentencing panels or circles and conferencing. In recent...
Restorative justice is the ideological approach to justice that prioritizes, healing, reconciliation and accountability in response to an offense. Restorative justice holds great value, as it finds implementation in classrooms, managing, parenting and, most commonly, the criminal justice system. It aims to focus on the damage an offense has done to a victim, to restore offenders to law-abiding lives, and repair the harm done to communities and society. Restorative justice views justice as a tool to heal offenders and victims of a crime committed to deter both parties from committing future offenses, in comparison to the current justice system that views justice as punishment and retribution for crimes. Restorative justices focusing on an offender’s
According to Champion the 3 factors that indicate changing criminal justice policy toward punishing offenders are: (1) decrease in crime, (2) changing public attitudes, and (3) fiscal pressures (2007). Due to these changes restorative or reparative justice has become more popular, particularly in case of property crimes. Restorative justice can be defined as, “A philosophical framework and a series of programs for the criminal justice system that emphasize the need to repair the harm done to crime victims through a process of negotiation, mediation, victim empowerment, and reparation (West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, 2008). This thread will provide a synopsis of the 3 factors mentioned and if or how this impacts the victim’s voice.
Tinneke Van Camp of California State University, Fresno and Jo-Anne Wemmers of the University of Montreal conducted a research of how victims might like to be offered the restorative justice approach to resolving their issues. They provide, “Independent studies reveal that when done properly, restorative justice (RJ) practices outperform criminal justice proceedings in meeting victims' concerns for insight, voice, and fairness and, as a result, can have therapeutic value. Introducing RJ to victims of crime should be done responsibly, and, therefore, it is important to understand whether and how victims want to be informed about RJ,” (Van Camp, Wemmers 2016). For their research, they decided to interview 34 victims using two different approaches
When Mary Catherine Parris was told that I would be talking to her about restorative justice, her response was, “Is that a real thing?” (personal communication, September 23, 2015). Through this assignment I realized that restorative justice is not talked about within the criminal justice system. For both of the individuals I spoke with, the idea of restorative justice seemed like a joke. In trying to persuade them both that restorative justice is a real thing, I was met with very similar beliefs and comments from both individuals. They both believed that restorative justice would not work and believed that some aspects of the approach were completely useless (M. C. Parris, & R. Clemones, personal communication, September 23, 2015). The responses
“Restorative justice is an approach to crime and other wrongdoings that focuses on repairing harm and encouraging responsibility and involvement of the parties impacted by the wrong.” This quote comes from a leading restorative justice scholar named Howard Zehr. The process of restorative justice necessitates a shift in responsibility for addressing crime. In a restorative justice process, the citizens who have been affected by a crime must take an active role in addressing that crime. Although law professionals may have secondary roles in facilitating the restorative justice process, it is the citizens who must take up the majority of the responsibility in healing the pains caused by crime. Restorative justice is a very broad subject and has many other topics inside of it. The main goal of the restorative justice system is to focus on the needs of the victims, the offenders, and the community, and focus