New approaches to community and intimate violence
Restorative Practice and Domestic Violence
The Center on Violence and Recovery has developed two restorative justice-based interventions for domestic violence, and has also been commissioned by the National Science Foundation to evaluate one of these programs.
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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 Passaic, New Jersey, click here.
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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.
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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.