Restorative Justice Responses to Sexual Assault

摘要

A large international literature promotes restorative justice options as satisfying and empowering to crime victims. This paper examines restorative justice for sexual assault from the perspective of three groups of survivors: (a) adults victimized by adult perpetrators; (b) adults or juveniles victimized by juveniles; and (c) adults sexually molested as children by adults. Sexual violence within a violent intimate relationship such as domestic violence is excluded from consideration. The use of restorative justice in cases of domestic violence is the subject of another VAWnet document by Ptacek and Fredericks (2008). Although it may involve forced sexual relations, domestic violence, compared to adult sexual violence, is more likely to involve longer standing and more committed relationships, multiple co-occurring forms of psychological and physical violence, repetitiveness and often escalation of the abuse over time, and the involvement of children directly or as witnesses. A restorative justice conceptualization involves three constituencies: (a) survivor/victims and secondarily victimized family and friends who suffer distress along with their loved one; (b) community members who experience less safety and social connection when they perceive high levels of crime and low deterrence, yet who simultaneously may be contributing to an environment supportive of sexual violence; and (c) offenders as well as their families and friends, who experience guilt and shame that is associated with being accused of a sexual crime or belonging to the interpersonal relationship context from which the offense arose.