Restorative Justice for survivors of domestic and sexual violence
Our domestic and sexual violence (DSV) project aims to increase access to Restorative Justice for people harmed by domestic and sexual violence.
It is important that survivors of domestic and sexual violence are able to make their own decisions regarding participation in a restorative process, just like people who have been harmed by other crimes. They should be treated as unique individuals, with the agency to make their own decisions about their recovery, and not as a homogenous group.
This means that they should be given the option of a referral to their restorative provider so that they can learn more about restorative approaches, and decide whether such an approach may be beneficial for them.
Read our report: Using restorative approaches for sexual and domestic abuse
Why me? identified four issues that are currently preventing access to RJ for survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
- Survivors of domestic and sexual violence are not being offered RJ.
- Skills to facilitate restorative services in these cases are inconsistent across service providers.
- Little work is being done to improve access to RJ in domestic and sexual violence cases.
- There is a deep-rooted misunderstanding about the positive role RJ can play.
What are we doing?
- Seeking to understand which services are receiving referrals for domestic and sexual violence cases, the level of these referrals, where the referrals come from, and what the barriers are which prevent this from happening more widely.
- Working with colleagues from the UK and Europe to establish good practice for safe RJ in cases of sexual and domestic violence.
- Developing knowledge on the training supervision and ongoing coaching that providers require in order to be better equipped to facilitate DSV cases.
- Providing RJ to survivors referred to Why me? where regional provision is not available and supporting RJ providers to work safely with survivors in their area through training, co-facilitation, supervision, and coaching.
Download our Restorative Justice for Domestic and Sexual Violence brochure
Our Domestic and Sexual Violence project is kindly funded by the National Lottery Awards for All grant and the Hollick Family Foundation.
If you would like to find out more about this project, please contact Keeva Baxter on keeva.baxter@why-me.org.
