New approaches to community and intimate violence
Restorative Justice and INTIMATE Violence
A growing number of communities are considering restorative justice-based programs as an alternative to traditional batterer intervention programs. Part of the appeal of programs based in restorative justice is they allow for more individual focus on a specific case and greater participation by all those affected by the violence, rather than solely focusing on the person who has been arrested for a domestic violence crime.
The Center on Violence and Recovery has developed two restorative justice-based interventions for domestic violence, and has also received funding from the National Science Foundation to evaluate one of these programs.
- Peacemaking Circles (also known as ‘Circles of Peace’) work within the criminal justice and child welfare systems. These circles engage the “applicant” (arrested offender), once he or she is processed in the local courts, the victim (if he or she chooses to participate), as well as a circle keeper facilitator, support people for both the applicant and the victim, and other appropriate members of the couple’s family or community. Peacemaking Circles examine the root cause of violence, including histories of abuse, sexism, substance abuse, poverty, and other stressors. To read more about Peacemaking Circles, and the successful implementation of Circles of Peace in Arizona, click here. To read more about Peacemaking Circles statistics, click here.
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National Science Foundation Study
Researchers at the Center on Violence and Recovery are currently in the process of completing a study funded by the National Science Foundation that compares a typical batterer intervention program with Circles of Peace. Results are expected in the Spring of 2009. -
Healing Circles are a pre-arrest, community-based model that does not involve the criminal justice system. To learn more about the Healing Circles Pilot Project at Jewish Family Services in Clifton-Passaic, New Jersey, click here.