Can Restorative Justice Change the Way Schools Handle Sexual Assault?

[eridani]

http://www.thenation.com/article/what-if-punishment-wasnt-the-only-way-to-handle-campus-sexual-assault/

?The national dialogue about campus sexual violence has focused largely on punishment: why students who have done terrible harm have not been punished, what kinds of acts should be punishable, whether current methods of punishment are unfair to one party or the other. But this fixation on rare suspensions and expulsions ignores many students who wish their schools would attempt to rebuild, and not only sanction, in the aftermath of their assault or abuse.

A report released last Wednesday by a group of researchers at Skidmore College’s Campus PRISM Project proposes a solution: restorative justice for campus gender violence. “Restorative justice” is a term thrown around a lot, sometimes inaccurately, to describe a wide range of practices that foster conversation between the wronged and wrongdoers. At their best, the complex, time-intensive processes give form to the core commitments of restorative justice: focusing on the needs of survivors and engaging all involved parties, including the wrongdoer and larger community, in developing meaningful, tailored solutions—which may include punishment as one factor among many.

The new report urges schools to consider piloting one popular “RJ” model, known as restorative conferencing. After intensive preparation, participants—who may choose RJ over other, more traditional disciplinary options—sit around a table with a facilitator, who encourages dialogue with a carefully prepared script. The parties discuss the harm and then, together, develop a detailed timeline to restore the harm done and reintegrate the wrongdoer. This alternative to adversarial hearings, the Skidmore researchers believe, will better address the real needs of survivors and offenders while avoiding the trauma of antagonistic disciplinary clashes. Unlike a traditional hearing, RJ requires the accused to admit wrongdoing before the process even begins; the question at issue is what can be done to remedy the harm, not whether it happened. (Neither party may be forced to participate in RJ, so accused students who maintain their innocence are routed to standard discipline processes.)

?To many outside observers, the idea of a victim discussing her rape with her rapist and his family is plainly preposterous. To University of Arizona professor Mary Koss, a longtime proponent who collaborated with Pima County prosecutors to launch the first restorative-justice program for victims of sex crimes, making that discussion possible is the point. “Most victims say that they want to tell their story and be heard,” she explains. “They want to be validated as a legitimate victim. They want to attempt to do their part in making sure the person doesn’t hurt anyone else and have some input into the consequences.” Adversarial student discipline hearings, Koss says, often force victims through traumatizing hearings and investigations without addressing their desires, thanks to schools’ singular focus on defining and punishing rule-breaking (which, she notes, they only very rarely do for sexual offenses).

[Heidi]

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