Restorative values and confronting family violence.

Source: (2002) In Restorative justice and family violence, ed. Heather Strang and John Braithwaite, 23-41. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kay Pranis begins her discussion of restorative values and family violence by explaining her framework for understanding those values. Specifically, she refers to the significance of Kay Harris’s vision of justice based on feminist principles: the dignity and value of all people; the priority of relationships over power; and the political character of the personal. This set of principles profoundly informs Pranis’s perspective on the principles and values of restorative justice. On the basis of her understanding of those principles and values, she maintains there is significant common ground between efforts to reduce family violence and the restorative justice movement. To advance her perspective, she explores several subjects, including mutual responsibility, legal authority and moral authority, collective action and shared responsibility, problem solving, storytelling, concerns of family violence scholars and advocates, and the importance of spiritual and emotional dimensions in restorative approaches. She also identifies guidelines for restorative justice practices in family violence cases. This chapter is also available on the web.