Domestic violence and women’s safety: Feminist challenges to restorative justice.

Source: (2002) In Restorative justice and family violence, ed. Heather Strang and John Braithwaite, 42-61. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

In this essay, Julie Stubbs focuses on domestic violence, as against other forms of family violence. Beginning with the perspective that domestic violence is different from other forms of violence, she maintains that the need to provide safety to the victims is fundamental to any response to the problem. In this context, she pursues the question whether restorative justice can live up to claims that it provides better outcomes for victims than conventional criminal justice system practices. Part 1 of her essay examines three underlying conceptions where key differences emerge among participants in the discussion about restorative justice, victimology, and domestic violence. Part 2 explores the diversity of women’s experiences of domestic violence and the significance of such diversity in considering and evaluating interventions to address their situations. Part 3 deals with empirical findings concerning domestic violence and challenges to restorative justice. In the end, Stubbs expresses skepticism about the alleged benefits of restorative justice for victims of domestic violence.