by Rosie Chadwick
Great talk by Estelle Zinsstag last week, for which many thanks – and to the largest ever audience at a Mint House event, involving people from around the world and showing the high interest in the topic.
My main takeaways? Restorative justice in cases of sexual violence is a serious undertaking. It requires highly skilled and specialist facilitation, robust assessment of the safety of the process and victims’ needs must of course be front and centre.
But... some concerns raised about RJ in cases of sexual violence apply equally to court proceedings. More customary criminal justice processes are patently not working for victims as things stand – as low prosecution rates bring home. Research suggests that many victims would welcome the option of a restorative response. Plus it’s already happening on every continent, in many cases ‘under the radar.’
Governments therefore need galvanising to make this option more widely available, backing this up with long-term funding, rigorous practice and ethical standards and careful evaluation.