Restorative justice and family violence

Source: (2002) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Many proponents of restorative justice tout its potential for systemic and comprehensive transformation of the criminal justice system. Others – of whom some are advocates of restorative justice and some are critics – contend that restorative justice principles and practices are ineffective and even unsuitable for some types of offenses. From this perspective, violence within families is often cited as one of those types of offenses, and the argument is made that restorative justice interventions would be inappropriate and even harmful in such cases. In Canberra in 2000, the Reshaping Australian Institutions Project of the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, sponsored a conference to address the controversial subject of restorative justice and family violence. Practitioners and legal experts in restorative justice, the women’s movement (particularly the battered women’s movement), indigenous self-determination, and domestic violence were invited to present papers and discuss key issues from a variety of perspectives. Topics addressed in this volume include the following: restorative values and family violence; feminist challenges to restorative justice; sexual assault and restorative justice; children and family violence; feminist praxis and family group conferencing; transformative justice; mediation; and restorative justice and aboriginal family violence. An index makes topics in the book easily accessible, and an extensive list of references points toward further directions for study.