By Carolina Morales
It’s that time of year again, when people’s days filled with Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and/or New Year celebrations. For many people, the holidays provide an opportunity to come together with family, and to foster connections and belonging.
For survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, however, the holidays can be something else entirely. It can a time of increased abuse, a time of reliving traumatic past events, and a time of not receiving the support needed to keep survivors safe from their abusers.
Yet, there are solutions that can help survivors feel supported. During a recent conversation with Teiahsha Bankhead, executive director of Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (RJOY), I was reminded that restorative justice can offer safe options for families to come together in healthy ways. This requires providing survivors with the healing that they deserve, while decreasing isolation.
Bankhead, who holds a PhD in social welfare, shared with me how restorative justice can include survivor safety and community accountability.
One example she shared stood out in particular. It had to do with a woman
who was sexually abused by a family member, who was subsequently sent to prison. Now that family member was set to be released from prison. Although the woman was happy that he was being released, she contacted RJOY because she also wanted to ensure he wouldn’t cause additional harm. Despite the fact that he had served time, she felt that the legal system had not helped her and her family heal, nor had the system helped to restore the relationship in a healthy way.
That’s where RJOY community came in. RJOY helped the woman with holding her family member accountable, while providing healing circles that helped her feel supported and safe.
Restorative justice is an approach to justice that focuses on accountability and rehabilitation. It aims to repair the harm caused by a crime and to involve all stakeholders in the process.
Restorative practices are often used in educational settings and may, at a survivor’s discretion, be an appropriate approach to healing from domestic violence.
As the holidays approach, the intersection of restorative justice and healing from gender-based violence is particularly important to me. As a queer Latina immigrant and a survivor of sexual and domestic violence, legal systems haven’t helped me.
But through restorative justice, I’ve felt hopeful about opportunities for healing, practicing healthy relationships, and receiving deeper levels of support from family and community.
My personal experiences as a survivor, and the structural inequities I’ve faced, have led me to dedicate two decades of my life to gender-based violence prevention and racial justice. My career has ranged from work at a community nonprofit to county-level policymaking and the criminal legal system.
During those two decades, I’ve learned that prioritizing the needs of survivors, elevating their agency, and addressing the racial, economic and gender inequities they face are key to preventing violence. These approaches to justice have become central to my work, due to the fact that they are embedded in community accountability and transformative justice processes.
It is for these and related reasons that I’m excited about what we
do at Blue Shield of California Foundation.
Law enforcement approach generates fear for some
At the Blue Shield of California Foundation, we support lasting and equitable solutions to end domestic violence. Our Break the Cycle of Domestic Violence strategy focuses on prevention, healing and the power of
collaboration and partnerships.
Based on 20 years of domestic violence research and field experience, we know that the fear generated by law enforcement contact causes many survivors to avoid reporting and seeking support for intimate partner violence. In fact, more than half of survivors of gender-based violence do not use the police, courts or the current shelter system. For one thing, they are fearful of being wrongfully accused and arrested themselves. This kind of error can, in turn, mean that the victim will lose financial support and stable housing, have their children taken away, or risk being killed.
When official responses only promote a law-enforcement response,
we are missing essential opportunities to help more survivors and to prevent future violence.
Creating connections
At Blue Shield of California Foundation, we have started investing in additional options for survivors, particularly survivors of color. We help survivors to find safety, healing and accountability. Most recently we have begun funding a learning community of organizations using restorative justice across California as a viable community-based option to help break cycles of domestic violence by centering survivor needs and building their support systems. Each organization brings varying perspectives,
experiences and capabilities.
Some of these organizations, like the East Los Angeles Women’s Center, already have a long history of supporting domestic violence survivors. Others have deployed restorative justice in other fields, like RJOY, which has
worked for nearly 20 years to disrupt cycles of violence and incarceration among at-risk youth.
Another organization known as Deaf Hope provides statewide support to deaf and hard-of-hearing survivors of sexual abuse and intimate partner violence and their families. Community Justice Center and Success Stories
employ restorative justice to empower incarcerated people and their loved ones throughout California.
Creating survivor-centered solutions for accountability
When we spoke, Bankhead explained that RJOY Conflict Circles are very intentional, require planning and great reserve on the part of the circle facilitator. A Conflict Circle requires participation from all sides of a matter: the victim, the harm doer, and representatives from the community that have been affected.
“The goal of a Conflict Circle,” she said, “is to arrive at a mutually beneficial outcome that addresses the harm the victim has suffered (and) explores what unmet needs might the perpetrator have” that contributed to them causing harm, Bankhead said. “There is support for both of these parties.”
In the example that Bankhead shared above, when the person who caused harm was released from prison, RJOY facilitated a Conflict Circle. Through the circle, the harm-doer agreed to be present when there is family contact. They also agreed to pay off the survivor’s student debt.
Those are some of the elements the survivor needed addressed in order to feel safe and restored from the violent act that she survived.
As we approach the holidays, I truly believe that restorative justice should be among a mix of solutions to prevent domestic violence. Like in the RJOY example, restorative approaches can take many different paths, as long as it is directed by the survivor, not the police or other authorities.
Restorative justice, by definition, provides space and opportunity for survivors to separate the person who caused harm from their behavior. It avoids defining people by the worst things that they have done, while considering that harm-doers have the capacity to change. During the
holiday season, when many of us want closeness with our families and loved ones, restorative justice can offer a way back to healthy, safe relationships.
Author Carolina Morales is a senior program officer at the Blue Shield of California Foundation, where she leads the organization’s programs to end domestic violence.
Top photo by Michael Pointner via Unsplash
This story was produced in collaboration with The California Report.