Restorative Justice and Youth Violence toward Parents

Source: (2009) New York: Oxford University Press.

It is crucial to situate current debates on the appropriateness of restorative justice for partner, sexual, or family violence with a clear sense of what women like Carolyn face. Her son’s assault shares elements of partner (or ex-partner) violence, but not fully. Hers is one of three cases of sons assaulting mothers that were finalized by a conference in the second half of 2001 in Adelaide, South Australia. We analyse the three cases, describing the contexts of the violence, and what happened before, during, and after a conference. We relate the findings to the literatures on youth violence toward parents, and feminist and victim advocates’ concerns that a standard restorative justice conference cannot adequately address the unique qualities of these cases. (author’s abstract)