Domestic Violence

Restorative justice for domestic violence victims and perpetrators.

4 tips for restorative justice programs, skills with victims and addressing domestic violence

from the entry by Kris Miner on Restorative Justice and Circles: ....I’ve been working with Restorative Justice for 14 years, full-time the past 6, going on 7 years. I read all I can find, I am passionate about using a holistic response to people, finding the strengths and power for transformation and healing in Restorative Justice. These 4 tips come from experience and education.

Circulos de Paz and the promise of peace: Restorative justice meets intimate violence

from the article by Linda G. Mills, Mary Helen Maley and Yael Shy in New York University Review of Law and Social Change: Circles of Peace/Circulos de Paz was founded in Nogales, Arizona in 2004 to address these myriad problems with both the criminal justice response to intimate violence and Batterer Intervention Programs. Circles of Peace is the first court-referred domestic violence treatment program to use a restorative justice circle approach to reduce violent behavior in families in the United States. The program consists of twenty-six to fifty-two weeks of conferences, or "Circles," bringing partners who have been abusive (the "applicants") together with willing family members (including those who have been abused, the "participants"), support people, a trained professional facilitator, and community volunteers. The goal is to encourage dialogue about the incident, the history of violence in this family, and meaningful change.

Is restorative justice suited for gender-based violence?

from Sylvia Clute's article on Genuine Justice: Feminists have long decried the deficiencies in the traditional criminal law system when it comes to gender-based violence. The criminal law system fails victims, offenders and the community; there are no winners. Most cases are never reported, and the reported cases have a high attrition rate. Few cases are actually prosecuted. According to Melanie Randall, a law professor with expertise in legal remedies for gender violence, the needs of the victim are diametrically opposed to the needs of the criminal law system. That system is driven by complex rules; it challenges the victim’s credibility; she has no control; she must tell the state’s story instead of a coherent narrative around what happened to her. There is no protection against recall, and there is no safe face to face confrontation.

Relations of domination and subordination: Challenges for restorative justice in responding to domestic violence

from the paper by Julie Stubbs: Barbara Hudson is cautious in her approach to RJ: she summarises the appeal of RJ in ‘the openness of story telling and exploration of possibilities for constructive and creative responses to offences’. In the context of domestic violence she suggests that RJ offers the victim ‘the opportunity to choose how to present herself… [to express] her feelings, her understanding of events, her wishes and demands for the future’. However, Hudson recognises that the discursiveness of RJ is not without problems such as the risk of domination and the reproduction of power relations and she emphasizes the need for ‘strong procedural safeguards’.

On the efficacy of victim-offender-mediation in cases of partnership violence in Austria, or: Men don’t get better, but women get stronger: Is it still true? Outcomes of an empirical study

from the study by Christa Pelikan: Put in a nutshell, the core finding of this study reads thus: The efficacy of VOM in cases partnership violence is to a large part due to the empowerment of the women victims, but partly, albeit to a smaller percentage, also due to an inner change, to insight and following from that a change of behaviour on the side of the male perpetrators. These achievements cannot be understood except as part of a comprehensive societal change – a change of collective mentalities, or in other words: change of expectations1 regarding the use of violence in intimate partnerships.

Domestic Violence Surrogate Dialogue

from their website: Our Mission: The Domestic Violence Surrogate Dialogue (DVSD) program is designed to arrange an appropriate setting and environment whereby domestic violence victims and offenders may meet and engage in a conversation intended to lead to a form of restorative justice. A goal of the session is to generate understanding between the victim and offender as to each other's views and attitudes, as well as focus on the many consequences of domestic violence. I deally, the dialogue will be a catalyst for the victim to begin the release of feelings that will allow her to abandon her anger and initiate a healing process. She will also be able to ask probing questions of an offender that she would never have been able to ask her own abuser for fear of retribution. At the same time, the interactive conversation with the survivor may motivate the offender to seek and find redemption. The offender would recognize that the victim is a person who has been harmed, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally. The program also provides the offender an opportunity to help a victim of the same crime he had committed. By revealing his own insight, motivations and manipulations, the offender can enable the victim to discover how to identify and avoid violent behavior in future relationships. For both surrogates, these outcomes would represent a dramatic breakthrough.

Why is it important for people of faith to be involved in domestic violence work?

from the Renewal House blog entry: A reporter from the Boston Herald asked me that question yesterday afternoon. The reporter is working on an article highlighting the Restorer’s Ministry, a new hotline led by three women from the Grace of All Nations Church in Dorchester. We have been supporting the training needs of the three as they seek to live out their call to serving individuals and families struggling with issues of domestic violence in their community.

Intimate partner violence: Towards a sociological understanding

from Richard Record's entry on Sociological Dialogues: Finally the Domestic Violence Act as an intervention by the criminal justice system is based on an adversarial system, where victims often have to defend themselves within the court setting, since perpetrators have the opportunity to make representations and place the victims under cross examination. The credibility of victims can therefore be broken down. Therefore there is the possibility that the woman who might need the protection order the most, will not get one granted due to her credibility being brought into question.

Federal Probation publishes paper on “Pono Kaulike: Restorative Justice and Solution-Focused Approaches to Domestic Violence in Hawaii”

From the Restorative Practices E-Forum for 28 July: The Pono Kaulike program provided facilitated restorative justice processes combined with solution-focused brief therapy with subjects who plead guilty to crimes including assault, harassment, criminal property damage, criminal trespass, terroristic threatening and negligent homicide.

Weissman, Deborah M. . The personal is political - and economic: Rethinking domestic violence.

The domestic violence movement is no exception. ... The domestic violence movement developed into largely a legal movement ensconced within the criminal justice system. ... The domestic violence movement itself has suffered a loss of momentum as criminal justice policies have emerged as the primary intervention strategy. ... Indeed, this scholarship has suggested that the convergence of interests between the domestic violence movement and the criminal justice system has been largely illusory. ... Indeed, the dominant cultural norm of work pervades systems of national morality. ... Individual and household characteristics and domestic violence ... In an ironic use of terminology, some have described men's lack of control in their responses to the loss of identity that arises out of events such as a plant closing as a socially constructed type of "learned helplessness," the very concept used to describe battered women's inability to exit from abusive relationships. ... The gender dimension to workplace violence adds yet another consequence for domestic violence as these experiences are reproduced in households, as norms established in one venue carry over to the other. (author's abstract)

Goldfarb, Sally F.. Reconceiving civil protection orders for domestic violence: Can law help end the abuse without ending the relationship?

This Article argues that the dual goal of advancing women's safety and women's autonomy can be achieved by bringing protection orders that allow ongoing contact between the parties from the margin to the center of domestic violence law. ... Many of the lawyers said that orders permitting ongoing contact are helpful for cases where a domestic violence victim is not ready to end the relationship with her partner and therefore is unwilling to pursue a stay-away order. ... Some attorneys who had experience with orders permitting ongoing contact reported that the orders can help change the batterer's behavior. ... In jurisdictions that grant orders allowing ongoing contact, lawyers reported that modifying the order to add stay-away provisions is permissible and is typically easier than obtaining an order in the first instance. ... One lawyer said that she used to think that orders permitting ongoing contact were "useless," but she has recently reconsidered and concluded that they can be beneficial for women who do not want to leave their relationships, a group of victims for whom (in this lawyer's words) "we do almost nothing." ... Because of the hazards presented by ongoing contact between a victim and abuser, several lawyers stressed the importance of providing clients with a full array of protections, including access to a battered women's advocate, risk assessment, safety planning, and effective responses from police and other agencies. (Author's abstract)

Coleman, Vallerie E.. Dangerous Dances: Treatment of Domestic Violence in Same-Sex Couples

"The existence of same-sex domestic violence challenges the traditional assumption that domestic violence is rooted primarily in men's patriarchal privilege. While the role of patriarchy in perpetuating and maintaing domestic violence cannot be underestimated, battering in lesbian and gay relationships brings to light the need for a multidimensional understanding of domestic violence. In order to address the complex individual, relational, and societal variables that underlie the perpetration of battering, we must creatively broaden both our theoretical understanding of domestic violence and our treatment modalities. Although domestic violence also occurs in bisexual and transgender relationaships, this chapter focuses specifically on how, under certain circumstances, couple therapy can be safe and effective treatment modality for lesbians and gay men." (excerpt)

Fontes, David L.. Male Victims of Domestic Violence

"Until there are active and public outreach programs and services for male victims in the community, it is doubtful that males will come forward. Women did not come forward for help in the numbers we see today until we implemented active outreach programs and services for them. The domestic violence movement must be fully inclusive of all victims and perpetrators of violence and abuse. As stated earlier, whether it is dad or mom who assaults the other, the child who witnesses the abuse learns that violence is an acceptable way to resolve conflict between people. This is not the lesson we want children to learn. In the 1970s many in the women's movement invited men to be more open in sharing their emotions and feelings. Now that men are starting to share their feelings and may even share the abuse they have received from their female partners, is anyone really listening, and do they have the will to help them -- not by accident but by focus?" (excerpt)

Hamel, John. Gender-Inclusive Family Interventions in Domestic Violence: An Overview

"Current policy toward domestic violence, including criminal justice and mental health responses that favor psychoeducational same-sex group treatment for perpetrators (usually for men) and victim services for victims (almost always women), has proven to be shortsighted and limited in its effectiveness (Babcock, Green, & Robie, 2004; Mills, 2003). In this chapter, a critical review is undertaken of family interventions in domestic violence from the advocacy model to past and recent alternative treatment approaches that take into consideration the systemic, interactive, and complex nature of family violence. Afterward, procedures for assessment and treatment are outlined on the basis of a new, research-based gender-inclusive systems model." (excerpt)

Krieger, Sarah. The Dangers of Mediation in Domestic Violence Cases.

Sarah Krieger points to the increasing use of alternative methods of dispute resolution in family law cases to promote efficient justice and to serve family relations better. For Krieger, as she argues in this essay, the trend in favor of mediation leads to the re-privatization of family law, thus resulting in a setback to the political and legislative progress of the battered women’s movement. To make her argument, Krieger examines the effects of mandatory mediation in family law cases involving domestic violence. Mandatory mediation, she states, has an overall negative impact on gender relations in general, and in specific on the progress of securing legislative rights and protection for battered women. In her essay she sketches a brief history of domestic violence, and its nature and effects; defines and explains alternative dispute resolution; discusses the inappropriateness of domestic violence victim and batterer participation in mediation; looks at legislative responses in certain states; and questions the training of mediators and their screening processes for domestic violence as inadequate for dealing with cases of domestic violence.

Hayden, Anne. Restorative Justice: Has it Potential for Dealing with Domestic Violence?

While many advocate for the application of restorative justice system-wide in criminal justice, some have questioned its effectiveness or appropriateness for certain types of crimes – for example, domestic violence. In the latter instance, domestic violence is described as having unique characteristics, such that restorative justice is not suitable for cases of this sort. In this paper, Anne Hayden raises the question of restorative justice and domestic violence by pursuing four objectives: (1) a challenge of the misconception that domestic violence is perpetrated only by men; (2) an examination of the dynamics of gender and power in domestic violence; (3) a comparison of possible outcomes of interventions in domestic violence, with an argument for the use of restorative justice in some instances; and (4) a discussion of certain principles for the practice of restorative justice in domestic violence cases.

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

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.

Busch, Ruth. Domestic violence and restorative justice initiatives: Who pays if we get it wrong?

In this concluding chapter to this collection of essays, Ruth Busch evaluates arguments about the use of a restorative justice model for domestic violence cases. To date, many restorative justice initiatives have addressed juvenile justice and non-violent crimes. Some advocates of restorative justice urge the extension of restorative justice processes to adult criminal offending, including cases of violence within families. In contrast, some other people, especially advocates for battered women, argue that restorative justice is inherently unfair and dangerous in such cases; the conventional criminal justice system offers better protections and outcomes for victims of domestic violence. Beginning from a position against the use of restorative justice in most cases of domestic violence, Busch discusses inadequacies and recent improvements in the court system; the accuracy of claims about victim-offender mediation with respect to domestic violence; limitations of family group conferencing in the juvenile justice sphere, and in relation to domestic violence offenses; community group conferencing and domestic violence; and the Pennell and Burford conferencing model in relation to domestic violence.

Lichti, Chris and Block, Heather. Restorative justice with respect to domestic violence and sexual abuse

In view of the challenge of seeking the best response to domestic violence and sexual abuse, the authors explore how understandings of restorative justice and family violence theory intersect. Integration of restorative justice with domestic violence and sexual abuse theory is difficult, in part because of the complex and unique dynamics of abuse. Yet, using a detailed chart for purposes of comparison and contrast, the authors highlight key ways in which restorative justice better applies to domestic violence and sexual abuse than retributive justice.

Pelikan, Christa. Victim-Offender Mediation in Domestic Violence Cases - A Research Report.

In this paper, Pelikan examines the results of empirical research into the issue of victim-offender mediation in domestic violence cases, with emphasis on the situation in Austria. She begins by summarizing the critique of mediation in such cases. After a careful explanation of the nature and method of her research, she analyzes the results of the research. This includes a typology of various effects of victim-offender mediation in domestic violence cases (e.g., victim-offender mediation as a reinforcement of change; or as the beginning of reformation; or as supporting separation). Based on her research, Pelikan concludes with recommendations on victim-offender mediation in such cases.