Circulos de Paz and the promise of peace: Restorative justice meets intimate violence

from the article by Linda G. Mills, Mary Helen Maley and Yael Shy in New York University Review of Law and Social Change:

Circles of Peace/Circulos de Paz was founded in Nogales, Arizona in 2004 to address these myriad problems with both the criminal justice response to intimate violence and Batterer Intervention Programs. Circles of Peace is the first court-referred domestic violence treatment program to use a restorative justice circle approach to reduce violent behavior in families in the United States. 

The program consists of twenty-six to fifty-two weeks of conferences, or "Circles," bringing partners who have been abusive (the "applicants") together with willing family members (including those who have been abused, the "participants"), support people, a trained professional facilitator, and community volunteers. The goal is to encourage dialogue about the incident, the history of violence in this family, and meaningful change. 

Sep 16, 2011 Practice, Region: North America and Caribbean, Policy, Circle, Case:Domestic Violence, Country:USA

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