Biography: Dr. Sandra Pavelka serves as Professor and Founding Director of the Institute for Youth and Justice Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University. Dr. Pavelka previously served as Project Administrator of the Balanced and Restorative Justice (BARJ) Project, funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, US DOJ. She provides consultation, training and technical assistance with legislators, justice system and educational stakeholders, and victim advocates in the development and implementation of restorative justice principles, practices, legislation, policies and evaluation.
Topic: Lawmakers and justice system administrators seek to clarify the aims of justice management and policy, while exploring possibilities for the future of the justice system beyond individual treatment/rehabilitation and retributive justice. Legislators and justice system administrators have reformed their juvenile justice agenda from punitive actions to a means that provides responses to crime and wrongful occurrences by developing and implementing restorative legislation and policies. Restorative justice seeks to balance the needs of the victim, offender and community by repairing the harm caused by wrongdoing and delinquent acts. Dr. Pavelka will present her research that found a majority of states in the US have incorporated restorative justice in statute or code that include general provisions and intent, practices, funding and evaluation. The state of Colorado, which notably implements systemic reform by integrating restorative justice principles and practices in law and policy, is examined as a model state.
Dr. Brunilda Pali is a senior researcher at the Leuven Institute of Criminology, KU Leuven, Belgium. She is currently also Secretary of the European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ). Her areas of interest are gender, critical social theory, restorative justice, cultural and critical criminology, environmental justice, and arts. Her research website is www.restorotopias.com
Topic: Environmental restorative justice: A justice framework for preventing, stopping and repairing environmental harms
The challenges of developing meaningful responses to environmental harm that stop damaging the earth and its inhabitants (human and other-than human), that repair and heal the devastating harms already made, and build different systems that respect ecosystems and the rights of future generations, have never been greater. Restorative justice presents a great opportunity to bridge the ineffectiveness of existing environmental responses and the pressing need to stop existing harmful practices, repair harms made and prevent future environmental damage. In this presentation, I focus on the theoretical and conceptual alignments that are necessary to make in setting the agenda of environmental restorative justice. In addition, I illustrate with some past, present, or emerging worldwide initiatives on the field the possibilities and limits of the restorative engagement with environmental justice issues.
This innovative model of restorative justice arises from the experience obtained from the family restoration processes carried out in the Justice Department in Mexico (Poder Judicial del Estado de México), which is a pioneer in restorative practices in judicial settings, achieving an integrated model from which aims to resolve the legal dispute, but goes further by addressing and attending the offenses and damages that arise in the family environment.
Architect of this initiative Professor Claudia Villavicencio will be speaking about this initiative at RJ World and joins us today.
RJ World: Thanks for being with us today Claudia! Could you give us a quick overview of this family initiative in your justice department.
Prof. Villavicencio: The Family Restorative Justice project seeks to deal with the damage in an integral way, that is, not only in form, but also in substance, reaching the damages, to look for alternatives that allow for their repair.
This involves the multidisciplinary intervention of a team made up of professionals from different social sciences, such as law, psychology, social work, etc., who together with the family facilitator, who directs the restoration process, accompany families on the road to dealing with offenses and repairing damages in the family relationship. Multidisciplinarity allows an integral mapping of the conflict from the experience of different professions, which allows identifying the damages and seeking effective alternatives that allow them to be repaired in an integral way.
Restorative justice, when applied to family law cases, allows addressing the entire spectrum of restorative practices from informal to formal practices, not only reactively, but also preventively, which allows families to strengthen healthy emotional and social ties.
The design of programs with a total, moderately or partially restorative approach, is also part of this integrative approach to heal the damage in family relationships, according to the needs of the participants.
Presentation summary: “The importance of the implementation of restorative justice in family conflicts, for the adequate and necessary care of the damage caused in said environment by the family conflict itself, in accordance with the philosophy, principles and methodologies of the practices restorative. The application of family restorative justice is necessary for those conflicts where the damage causes asymmetric conditions between people and this does not allow them to be addressed from a mediation approach, but under the accompaniment that is possible with family restorative justice with appropriate multidisciplinary intervention.”
RJ World: That’s a very comprehensive approach. How does this work in relation to courts and legal proceedings?
Prof. Villavicencio: In judicial settings where there is already a trial, formal restorative practices have been carried out in the Mexican Judiciary Power (Poder Judicial Mexiquense), such as “circles of restorative sentencing in family matter” (“círculos de sentencia restaurativos en materia familiar”) where with the collaborative approach and democratic restorative justice, judges, magistrates, lawyers, parents, children, community members, and the multidisciplinary team that facilitates and accompanies families, attend to damages, and seek to repair them, and with the agreements that emerged from the Restorative process and of the circle said, the corresponding sentence is issued in family matter, without a doubt having facilitated the first circle of this type, it encourage my interest in strengthening and building a model.
RJ World: Thanks for speaking with us today Claudia. We’re looking forward to hearing all about it in August!
Dr. Brunilda Pali is a senior researcher at the Leuven Institute of Criminology, KU Leuven, Belgium. She is currently also Secretary of the European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ). Her areas of interest are gender, critical social theory, restorative justice, cultural and critical criminology, environmental justice, and arts. Her research website is www.restorotopias.com
Topic: Environmental restorative justice: A justice framework for preventing, stopping and repairing environmental harms
The challenges of developing meaningful responses to environmental harm that stop damaging the earth and its inhabitants (human and other-than human), that repair and heal the devastating harms already made, and build different systems that respect ecosystems and the rights of future generations, have never been greater. Restorative justice presents a great opportunity to bridge the ineffectiveness of existing environmental responses and the pressing need to stop existing harmful practices, repair harms made and prevent future environmental damage. In this presentation, I focus on the theoretical and conceptual alignments that are necessary to make in setting the agenda of environmental restorative justice. In addition, I illustrate with some past, present, or emerging worldwide initiatives on the field the possibilities and limits of the restorative engagement with environmental justice issues.
Biography: Dr. Sandra Pavelka serves as Professor and Founding Director of the Institute for Youth and Justice Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University. Dr. Pavelka previously served as Project Administrator of the Balanced and Restorative Justice (BARJ) Project, funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, US DOJ. She provides consultation, training and technical assistance with legislators, justice system and educational stakeholders, and victim advocates in the development and implementation of restorative justice principles, practices, legislation, policies and evaluation.
Topic: Lawmakers and justice system administrators seek to clarify the aims of justice management and policy, while exploring possibilities for the future of the justice system beyond individual treatment/rehabilitation and retributive justice. Legislators and justice system administrators have reformed their juvenile justice agenda from punitive actions to a means that provides responses to crime and wrongful occurrences by developing and implementing restorative legislation and policies. Restorative justice seeks to balance the needs of the victim, offender and community by repairing the harm caused by wrongdoing and delinquent acts. Dr. Pavelka will present her research that found a majority of states in the US have incorporated restorative justice in statute or code that include general provisions and intent, practices, funding and evaluation. The state of Colorado, which notably implements systemic reform by integrating restorative justice principles and practices in law and policy, is examined as a model state.
This innovative model of restorative justice arises from the experience obtained from the family restoration processes carried out in the Justice Department in Mexico (Poder Judicial del Estado de México), which is a pioneer in restorative practices in judicial settings, achieving an integrated model from which aims to resolve the legal dispute, but goes further by addressing and attending the offenses and damages that arise in the family environment.
Architect of this initiative, Professor Claudia Villavicencio, will be speaking about this initiative at RJ World and joins us today.
RJ World: Thanks for being with us today Claudia! Tell us about how you saw the possibilities for restorative justice in your department.
Prof. Villavicencio: Thank you! My passion, vocation, and commitment to family restorative justice arose from my daily experience as a facilitator in the Judiciary of the State of Mexico, both in the family and criminal sphere – when I realized the and the harms that are generated in families and the way in which these are projected not only within the family, but also the impact on the social environment.
RJ World: We share that passion! So how did you go about applying the restorative approach?
Prof. Villavicencio: I realized the possibility and the need to implement the spectrum of restorative practices for families to not only resolve the conflict, but also address the damage, when I managed to identify the need for families to go beyond an agreement, to a trial or a sentence. I consider it important to support these families with a restorative approach from beginning to end, which gave me the opportunity to carry out the first ‘circle of sentencing’ in family matters with the valuable participation of families, magistrates and officials of the court, community and multidisciplinary team, for the attention of damages and the solution of the conflict from the root.
Over the years I have come to realize that peace that is built from families transcends people and the social environment, so betting on family restorative justice is an accurate bet in favor of Peace.
Could you give us a quick overview of this family initiative in your justice department.
Prof. Villavicencio: The Family Restorative Justice project seeks to deal with the damage in an integral way, that is, not only in form, but also in substance, reaching the damages, to look for alternatives that allow for their repair.
This involves the multidisciplinary intervention of a team made up of professionals from different social sciences, such as law, psychology, social work, etc., who together with the family facilitator, who directs the restoration process, accompany families on the road to dealing with offenses and repairing damages in the family relationship. Multidisciplinarity allows an integral mapping of the conflict from the experience of different professions, which allows identifying the damages and seeking effective alternatives that allow them to be repaired in an integral way.
Restorative justice, when applied to family law cases, allows addressing the entire spectrum of restorative practices from informal to formal practices, not only reactively, but also preventively, which allows families to strengthen healthy emotional and social ties.
The design of programs with a total, moderately or partially restorative approach, is also part of this integrative approach to heal the damage in family relationships, according to the needs of the participants.
Presentation summary: “The importance of the implementation of restorative justice in family conflicts, for the adequate and necessary care of the damage caused in said environment by the family conflict itself, in accordance with the philosophy, principles and methodologies of the practices restorative. The application of family restorative justice is necessary for those conflicts where the damage causes asymmetric conditions between people and this does not allow them to be addressed from a mediation approach, but under the accompaniment that is possible with family restorative justice with appropriate multidisciplinary intervention.”
RJ World: That’s a very comprehensive approach. How does this work in relation to courts and legal proceedings?
Prof. Villavicencio: In judicial settings where there is already a trial, formal restorative practices have been carried out in the Mexican Judiciary Power (Poder Judicial Mexiquense), such as “circles of restorative sentencing in family matter” (“círculos de sentencia restaurativos en materia familiar”) where with the collaborative approach and democratic restorative justice, judges, magistrates, lawyers, parents, children, community members, and the multidisciplinary team that facilitates and accompanies families, attend to damages, and seek to repair them, and with the agreements that emerged from the Restorative process and of the circle said, the corresponding sentence is issued in family matter, without a doubt having facilitated the first circle of this type, it encourage my interest in strengthening and building a model.
I hope that in the following years, efforts will be added from the community and institutions to increase restorative programs in family matters, to allow holistic support and the highest value that justice can achieve when it is achieved from the recognition of the another, the reparation of the damage and the integral solution of the conflict in the family scenario.
RJ World: That’s a powerful vision! Thanks for speaking with us today Claudia. We’re looking forward to hearing all about it in August!
