Doctoral Dissertation Research: Beyond the Law: Responding to Sexual Violence with Restorative Justice

美国的恢复性司法方案在涉及青少年和轻微犯罪的案件中取得了成功。然而，在性暴力领域使用恢复性司法仍然存在争议。支持者强调幸存者在刑事司法系统中面临的问题，并声称恢复性司法是“对幸存者友好的”。另一方面，反对者担心，由于犯罪的亲密性质，恢复性司法会对幸存者造成进一步的伤害。替代性司法如何满足幸存者的需要，如何追究犯罪者的责任，在很大程度上仍不清楚。该研究项目将审查恢复性司法的实际经验，以更好地了解恢复性司法在多大程度上再现性暴力案件中的系统性伤害，同时挑战现有的刑事司法制度。批判性地分析“对幸存者友好”的司法对幸存者、罪犯、恢复性司法从业人员和整个社会等不同社会行为者意味着什么，对于制定资源和政策以满足幸存者的需求以及恢复性司法方案和传统刑事法律的制度的最佳做法是必不可少的。该项目将在太平洋地区以社区为基础的恢复性司法方案中实施，美国也实施了几个方案。针对性暴力的恢复性司法方案主要在社区一级实施，不属于刑事法律的体系。该项目要求：这些恢复性司法项目是否提供了一种更加以幸存者为中心的司法，或者它们是否继续反映了刑事法律的系统中发现的问题？正义对性暴力幸存者意味着什么？为了探讨这些问题，本研究采用了定性的方法，包括个人恢复性司法案件的参与观察，并与幸存者，罪犯和恢复性司法计划的促进者进行访谈和焦点小组。研究结果将关注幸存者如何驾驭自己的经历和正义框架的特殊性，反对社会对性暴力和内部权力动态的理解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

Restorative justice programs in the United States have seen success in cases involving juveniles and minor crimes. However, using restorative justice in the area of sexual violence remains contentious. Proponents highlight the problems survivors face in the criminal justice system, and claim that restorative justice is “survivor-friendly.” On the other hand, opponents raise concerns about further harm restorative justice causes to survivors due to the intimate nature of the crime. It is still largely unclear how alternative justice meets survivors’ needs and still enacts offender accountability. This research project will examine the lived experience of restorative justice to better understand to what extent restorative justice reproduces systematic harm in cases of sexual violence while challenging the existing criminal justice system. Critical analysis of what “survivor-friendly” justice means to different social actors such as survivors, offenders, restorative justice practitioners, and the society at large,is indispensable to the development of resources and policies that address survivors’ needs and best practices for restorative justice programs and the traditional criminal legal system. This project will be conducted at community-based restorative justice programs in the Pacific Region where several programs are operated in the United States. Restorative justice programs for sexual violence are mainly implemented at the community level, outside of the criminal legal system. This project asks: Do these restorative justice programs offer a more survivor-centered justice, or do they continue to mirror problems found within the criminal legal system? What does justice mean to the survivors of sexual violence? To examines these questions, this research employs qualitative methods including participant observation of individual restorative justice cases, and interviews and focus groups with survivors, offenders, and facilitators of restorative justice programs. Research findings will attend to the specificities of how survivors navigate their own experiences and frameworks of justice against societally held understandings of sexual violence and internal power dynamics.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.