Dangerous Dichotomies: The Potential for Restorative Justice to Resolve Feminist Dilemmas.

Source: (2003) Paper based on presentation to World Congress of Criminology. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

This article explores dilemmas that have emerged from my work on gender, culture, violence, and justice. I examine feminist positions regarding, first, violence against women and, secondly, female offenders. The summary of feminist perspectives reveals that feminists are simultaneously supporting and rebelling against the current punitive approach to crime. A major source of the problem is dichotomous thinking in terms of: the interests of victims versus the interests of offenders; the experiences of girls/women versus the experiences of boys/men; and state intervention versus community intervention. I argue that restorative justice has the potential to overcome dichotomous thinking and to resolve the dilemmas facing feminist/critical scholars. Indeed, core elements of a feminist vision of justice coincide with a restorative vision of justice. (Excerpt).