RJ and Gender-based Violence

Restorative Approaches for Gender-based Violence

March 14, 2022

While punitive and carceral approaches have been the principal responses to gender-based violence in the United States, there is growing interest in using restorative approaches to heal from the harm caused, promote accountability and ensure that the cycle of violence is not perpetuated.  

Danielle Sered, Common Justice Director, says that all solutions to violence should adhere to four guiding principles.  Interventions to prevent and intervene in violence should:

  • Be survivor-centered - The needs of survivors should be centered and prioritized
  • Accountability-based - Common Justice highlights five key elements of accountability: (1) acknowledging one’s responsibility for one’s actions, (2) acknowledging the impact of one’s actions on others, (3) expressing genuine remorse, (4) taking actions to repair the harm to the degree possible, and (5) no longer committing similar harm.
  • Safety-driven - our response to violence should prioritize community safety and finding ways of ensuring safety, while minimizing isolation and coercion.
  • Racially equitable - First of all, survivors of color are less likely: to have their needs met, their needs centered, and their desires heeded.  Second of all, we have to focus on the systemic and structural racial inequities that are a driver of gender-based violence, like racial inequity found in our schools, employment, housing, healthcare and mental health support.

At GCC, we see the Restorative Justice Movement and the Transformative Justice Movement as sister movements seeking to promote and enact these guiding principles.  As GCC explores ways of incorporating restorative approaches to gender-based violence in Athens and beyond, we seek to learn from the transformative justice (TJ) movement.  Mia Mingus, writer and organizer with the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective, describes Transformative Justice on her blog Leaving Evidence as “a political framework for responding to violence, harm & abuse…without creating more violence.”  


We invite you to learn more about the transformative justice movement and efforts to end gender based violence by exploring TJ resources and reflections here.

other blogs and recommended reading

Liberatory Consciousness

We cannot do restorative justice work well if we are not also fighting for racial equity in the spaces that we work. Looking through the lens of equity, we find the concept of liberation. This brings up the question, how do we grow our liberatory consciousness?

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NYC Expands RJ programs

The Bronx community center is one of 16 organizations in New York City receiving a combined $6.5 million over the next year for programs to bolster public safety using restorative justice — a philosophy that aims to build community and mediate arguments through conversation, rather than through discipline or criminal charges. It’s sometimes used as a way for crime victims and perpetrators to make peace. But it can also be used as a tool to help people feel comfortable having difficult discussions. Some New York City school administrators, court officials and nonprofits are already using restorative justice to mediate disputes.

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What GCC Means to Us at The Cottage

Linnea Ionno, executive director at The Cottage, shares how accepting the inevitability of conflict and building skills help her organization navigate both internal and external conflicts.

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Opinion

Where Is the Forgiveness and Grace in Cancel Culture?

A link to an editorial written on 12/28/21 in the New York Times from Michael Eric Dyson, reflecting on Bishop Tutu's approach to apartheid and the limited value of punishment or banishment.

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Restorative Arlington Partners with Arlington Public Schools to Support Students and Strengthen Restorative Justice in Education

Restorative Arlington has partnered with Arlington Public Schools (APS) to support Restorative Justice in Education. Restorative Arlington has allocated over $140,000 to provide direct services to APS, including services for students who have experienced harm as well as restorative justice training for staff and additional resources.

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