Intimate Partner Violence Victims' Participation in a Restorative Justice Process

Background and Purpose: Restorative justice (RJ), which seeks to repair harm, promote healing, and connect with the community, centers a victim to identify their needs and desires and allows their voices to be heard to address violence and harm. Recently, RJ has been increasingly used to address violent crimes, including intimate partner violence (IPV). Empirical research has reported relatively high procedural satisfaction of victims in cases of those violent crimes. Nonetheless, little is known about why IPV victims may choose not to participate in the RJ process, or their engagement in the process if they do participate. This study, therefore, aims to explore IPV victims’ participation, attitudes, and role in the process of Circles of Peace (CP), an RJ peacemaking circle model to address domestic violence.

Methods: A qualitative content analysis was conducted to identify categories and subcategories about IPV victims’ participation and their roles in the CP process across session notes recorded by a facilitator. Participants of CP sessions comprise a facilitator, offender (both male and female), victim (participation is voluntary)/victim advocate (if the victim chose not to participate), support people, and a trained community volunteer. The study includes 47 cases where offenders completed four sessions of circles. In total, 188 session notes were used. Three coders coded and analyzed the session notes of individual CP sessions using Atlas.ti. Trustworthiness was achieved through strategies of researcher triangulation and peer debriefing.

Findings: The main categories that emerged in the individual CP sessions include: 1) Barriers to victim participation (“The victim was not able to join us today for this final session as he had to take care of their kids today”), 2) Victim’s roles in the process (“Alcohol was identified as the primary issue of concern for both [offender] and her partner”), 3) Victim’s attitude and engagement (“[Victim] is very supportive of [the offender] and is willing to engage in any process that makes their relationship stronger and makes them better parents to their child).

Conclusions and Implications: Overall, the findings highlight the significance of providing an IPV victim with options to participate in the treatment process while ensuring their safety. Several internal and external barriers to participation were identified among victims. Internal barriers include a victim’s reluctance and mental health while external barriers include victim’s work schedule, transportation, and childcare issues. Offering victims an opportunity to be involved in the CP process may enable victims to identify their needs and desires and share their own perspectives with the offender, the facilitator, and other participants. Particularly, many CP participants discussed issues regarding parenting or co-parenting, emphasizing the needs and potential benefits of including a victim in the CP process to address IPV.