restorative justice

Trauma awareness: 3 speakers showing the way in restorative practice

Restorative Values and Standards Working Group. Picture taken from the Website of EFRJ.

Claudia Christen-Schneider, from Switzerland, is the founder and president of the Swiss RJ Forum, and she is also involved in EFRJ (European Forum For Restrorative Justice) values and standards committee. In her presentation, she will tackle the question, “if Restorative Justice currently fails to live up to its own goals of providing a needs-based and healing form of justice.”

If we practice according to Zehr’s (2002) understanding of Restorative Justice, which is “healing of harms caused by crime”, we might conclude that trauma must form part of it. However, this may not always be the case in reality. Investigating the disconnect between theory and practice, Claudia aims to explore “what it means to work trauma-informed with all stakeholders in a restorative process.“

Dr Colleen Pawlychka is our Canadian advocate of “trauma-informed correctional care”. Her teaching aims to bridge the gap between community and prisoners. In her talk, Colleen will pay special attention to Childhood psychological trauma (CPT) as a main generator of criminal behaviour.

She will share the perspectives of Canadian federal, male prisoners, that she gathered in a series of in-depth interviews with former prisoners who self-identified as having experienced CPT. If you decide to attend her talk, you’ll also get to hear her recommendations for correctional practice, includeing increased community-prisoner connection and implementation of trauma-informed correctional care.

Anna de Paula is also strongly engaging with the topic of trauma. She currently works as a public prosecutor in Brazil. If you’re part of her talk, you’ll be shown how we can help and support victims of crime with minimal financial or personal resources. Yes, that’s right: Support does not equate to money. How? Well… Anna will explain this part! To understand the imporatance of trauma awareness in that equation, don’t miss her talk!

Unhealthy Victim-offender connections: Responding to trauma

A great number of our speakers will touch on the topic of trauma and its role in restorative approaches. Let me introduce six of the presenters from four different countries, who promise to explicitly and extensively discuss this matter.

Kerri Quinn (with two different presentations in her backpockets) , Lamika Wilson and Leaf Seligman are our pioneers from the US – But learn more about their work here:

Kerri Quinn, from the US, studied extensively the dynamics of interpersonal conflict and the impact of language and trauma in restorative practices. Furthermore, she is an extraordinarily experienced practitioner with over 1000 cases!

Kerri Quinn (picture taken from her website “Restorative Way“

And now listen up… Kerri prepared TWO different WORKSHOPS for us!

If you tune into her first workshop, you will leave the conference equipped with trauma-responsive skills, a sharpened understanding of the dynamics of conflict, and specific language tools facilitators can use to de-escalate tension, encourage accountability and enhance listening.

If you come to her second workshop, you will be part of an in-depth exploration of the different stages of trauma experienced by both victims and offenders. Little disclaimer: In this presentation, she will share stories from high risk victim offender dialogues, like murder and vehicular homicide cases, that successfully broke this bond and allowed for restoration and healing.

Kerri is particularly interested in applying the lens of trauma to the undwanted bond created between victim and offender. This bond contributes to anxiety, trauma and impacts other relationships and possibilities for healing… If left unaddressed… On the other hand, this relationship holds great potency. Namely, the possibility for healing and growth – for both parties: VICTIM AND OFFENDER. Althought, achieving this end requires best practice. The kind of practice that leads to SUCCESSFUL cases, and how convenient that Kerri comes with many, many success stories!

And that’s not all: She also brings lots of valuable experience to this conference that lays the grounds for here talks. She is not only the co-creator of the Victim Offender Dialogue Program in Colorado, but she is also currently lecturing at the University of Colorado and the Creighton University Law School. But learn more about Kerri on here: “Restorative Way”!

Two other popular speakers from the US are Leaf Seligman and Lamika Wilson. (You might know Lamika already from our blog post on Restorative Cities “From Restorative Communities … to Restorative Cities … to Restorative States? “) Lamika describes herself as an “advocate for our most vulnerable population and high priority citizens.” Driven by her own experience as someone who has been victimized, her vision is to localize an “office that is accessible for the community”. This office should provide “direct services such as counselling, financial assistance timely and other supplemental resources needed to overcome trauma.” More about Leaf and her work, you can read in our other blog post, here: “Trauma and Restorative Justice: 8 specialists to learn from”

Beyond the Courts – RJ for newcomers

The key paradigm of restorative justice

In a conventional criminal justice system, crime is often defined as being perpetrated against the state. One major deficiency within this definition is the fact that the victim is often not taken into consideration. When ‘justice’ is accomplished in any given law case, the offender generally receives a custodial sentence, while the victim and the community where the crime is perpetrated are removed from the picture. A restorative justice model turns the situation around and seeks to meaningfully consider the needs and trauma of victims and the larger community, recognising them as important figures on the pathway to justice. How does a restorative justice model change how this looks?

“Since justice should seek to put right, and since it is victims who have been harmed, restorative justice must start with victims.”
The Little Book of Restorative Justice by Howard Zehr with Ali Gohar

In 2003 Howard Zehr and Ali Gohar clarifyingly suggested that our current legal systems unhelpfully focus on what offenders have done and the sentences, or punishments, that they deserve. In contrast, a restorative justice mentality urges society to reorientate its focus and consider the needs of the victims, communities, and offenders as a higher priority. This change of vision causes a reconsideration of what justice looks like in each situation and what are to be upheld as important pillars in this justice process.

Two models of questioning:
What law has been broken?
Who did it?
What do they deserve?
or…
Who has been hurt?
What are their needs?
Whose obligations are these?
The Little Book of Restorative Justice by Howard Zehr with Ali Gohar

When contrasted to restorative justice practice, you can very starkly see the absence of the victim in a retributive, or just deserts, judicial and penal process. Why is a victim needed in this process? According to a restorative justice paradigm, human relationship is extremely important. Every crime has implications for the people and community where it is committed – it also has implications for the offender. Amidst human relationship crime is committed, but when an offender is processed in the criminal justice system, suddenly many of the community and interpersonal ties are dramatically reduced or severed. Restorative justice considers the voices of victims, offenders, and the broader community as vital to the justice process, and conversation so profoundly serves to break down barriers that participating individuals experience.

One of the remarkable benefits of a restorative justice methodology is that it is applicable at every step of the traditional criminal justice system. Not only can it be employed prior to arrest, but it is relevant during court procedures, incarceration, and even after release. Restorative justice practices seek to give all stakeholders a voice to talk about their experiences, trauma, and expectations. Crime does not just have monetary consequences, but it also involves relational breakdown.

Over the course of the eConference, RJ World is going to be a place to come and hear stories of restorative justice in action, and to learn about the cutting edge research that is shaping the future of restorative justice practices. We hope you will join us in this endeavour to share voices, vision, and values.

Prof. Jennifer Llewelyn heads new international RJ Lab

Canada / Academic

Bio: Professor of Law, Yogis and Keddy Chair in Human Rights Law and Donald R. Sobey Chair in Restorative Justice at the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia Canada. Director of the Restorative Research, Innovation and Education Lab and the International Learning Community for a Restorative Approach. Research and work focused in areas of relational theory and a restorative approach, human rights, peacebuilding, truth and reconciliation, justice transformation and restorative communities.

Topic: The vision, approach, and plans for the newly established Restorative Research, Innovation and Education Lab (RRIELab) at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada. The reference to “Lab” signals the goal and commitment to hold time, space, and build the connections needed to create, share and mobilize knowledge for action. The presentation will explore the potential and implications of this “change lab” grounded in the principles of a restorative approach for the growth and development of the field. The RRIELab will foster and support connections among researchers, practitioners, policymakers and educators locally, nationally and internationally to translate knowledge into action and to learn from innovation and action. The RRIELab will host and be supported by the Restorative Approach International Learning Community (ILC) – an international collaboration among those supporting the vision and implementation of restorative communities, cities and states.

More about the RRIELab here: DALHOUSIE OFFICIALLY LAUNCHES FIRST EVER INTERNATIONAL RESTORATIVE JUSTICE LAB