Restorative Justice and Race

Research on the complex and still unexplored relations between Restorative justice and race which demands serious critical attention from both activists, practitioners and scholars

Daly, K. and Stubbs, J. (2006) Feminist theory, feminist and anti-racist politics, and restorative justice, G. Johnstone and Daniel van Ness (eds.), Handbook of Restorative Justice. Cullompton: Willan Publishing.

Abstract

”Feminist engagement with restorative justice (RJ) takes several forms, and this chapter maps five areas of theory, research and politics. They are: theories of justice; the role of retribution in criminal justice; studies of gender (and other social relations) in RJ processes; the appropriateness of RJ for partner, sexual or family violence; and the politics of race and gender in making justice claims. There is overlap among the five, and some analysts or arguments may work across them. However, each has a particular set of concerns and a different kind of engagement with RJ.’

Commentary

How restorative justice deals with patriarchal and racist structures in society and how these translate into specific harms and destructive relational dynamics is a highly debated area of study. This article sets the scene of this subject from a feminist perspective.

Gavrielides, T. (2022) Power, Race, and Justice The Restorative Dialogue We Will Not Have. London: Routledge

Excerpt

‘…Structured around the four concepts of power, race, justice and restorative justice, the book uses empirical new data and normative analysis to reconstruct the way we prevent power abuse and harm at the inter-personal, inter-community and international levels. This book offers new lenses, which allow us to view power, race and justice in a modern reality where communities have been silenced, but through restorative justice are gaining voice. The book is enriched with case studies written by survivors, practitioners and those with direct experiences of power abuse and inequality. Through robust research methodologies, Gavrielides’s new monograph reveals new forms of slavery, while creating a new, philosophical framework for restorative punishment through the acknowledgement of pain and the use of catharsis for internal transformation and individual empowerment. This is a powerful and timely book that generates much needed hope….’

Commentary

A long-awaited book-length work on the intricate relations between restorative justice and race, written by an international scholar who has pioneered work in this area. Gavrielides, in fact, also authored in 2014 Bringing Race Relations Into the Restorative Justice Debate: An Alternative and Personalized Vision of “the Other” Journal of Black Studies, https://doi.org/10.1177/00219347145260.

Davis, F. (2019) The Little Book of Race and Restorative Justice: Black Lives, Healing, and US Social Transformation. Good Books

Excerpt

‘…In our era of mass incarceration, gun violence, and Black Lives Matters, a handbook showing how racial justice and restorative justice can transform the African-American experience in America. This timely work will inform scholars and practitioners on the subjects of pervasive racial inequity and the healing offered by restorative justice practices. Addressing the intersectionality of race and the US criminal justice system, social activist Fania E. Davis explores how restorative justice has the capacity to disrupt patterns of mass incarceration through effective, equitable, and transformative approaches. Eager to break the still-pervasive, centuries-long cycles of racial prejudice and trauma in America, Davis unites the racial justice and restorative justice movements, aspiring to increase awareness of deep-seated problems as well as positive action toward change…’

Commentary

A slender yet deeply insightful work by Fania Davis on the problematic interplay and yet emancipatory potential of restorative justice and race

Delgado, R. (2017). Prosecuting Violence: A Colloquy on Race, Community, and Justice: Goodbye to Hammurabi: Analyzing the Atavistic Appeal of Restorative Justice. In Restorative Justice (pp. 261-285). Routledge.

Excerpt

‘A recent innovation in criminal justice, the restorative justice movement has serious implications for the relationship among crime, race, and communities. Restorative justice, which sprang up in the mid-1970s as a reaction to the perceived excesses of harsh retribution, features an active role for the victims of crime, required community service or some other form of restitution for offenders, and face-to-face mediation in which victims and offenders confront each other in an effort to understand each other’s common humanity. This article questions whether restorative justice can deliver on its promises. Drawing on social science evidence, the author shows that the informal setting in which victim-offender mediation takes place is apt to compound existing relations of inequality. It also forfeits procedural rights and shrinks the public dimension of disputing. The article compares restorative Justice to the traditional criminal justice system, finding that they both suffer grave deficiencies in their ability to dispense fair, humane treatment. Accordingly, it urges that defense attorneys and policymakers enter into a dialectic process that pits the two systems of justice, formal and informal, against each other in competition for clients and community support. In the meantime, defense attorneys should help defendants find and exploit opportunities for fair, individualized treatment that may be found in each system’.

Commentary

A useful reflection on the necessity of addressing more directly, critically and seriously the role of race for restorative justice and restorative justice for a more racially just society.

Utheim, R. (2014). Restorative justice, reintegration, and race: Reclaiming collective identity in the postracial era. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 45(4), 355-372.

Abstract

‘Restorative justice has gained ascendancy within both judicial systems and educational settings through which court-involved youth are resocialized as part of reintegration intervention. This article explores the conflict over collective representation at the intersections among public education, criminal justice, and restorative intervention. The author argues that restorative intervention must attempt to broaden its cultural reach and implicate the countercultural realities that exist at the margins of society and at the interstices of its own praxis.’

Commentary

An original take on the subject, from an anthropological perspective, concluding with an appeal for a culturally-sensitive restorative justice.

Evans, K., Morrison, B., & Vaandering, D. (2021). Critical race theory and restorative justice education. Listening to the movement: Essays on new growth and new challenges in restorative justice, 77-94.

Excerpt

‘A study about white privilege and restorative justice which examines how critical theory can challenge implicit bias in restorative justice processes in school settings‘

Commentary

An interesting and updated reflection focussing specifically on restorative justice in school settings and how it could benefit from critical race theory. In the same collection another excellent work on race and restorative justice is Dashman, M., et al, Bringing a racial justice consciousness to the restorative justice movement: A call to white practitioners.

Turner, J. (2019). Race, gender and restorative justice: Ten gifts of a critical race feminist approach. Rich. Pub. Int. L. Rev., 23, 267.

Excerpt

‘At this moment, we have not yet reached the time invoked in the epigraph where punishment, violence, and oppression have been eradicated because of “what the people did to break the silence.”2 But, this is a time when silences are being broken. In this moment, largely because of the efforts of the Movement for Black Lives and multiple #MeToo campaigns, United States society is increasingly aware of the realities of racialized police violence against people of color; and a continuum of sexual violence and harm that disproportionately affects women and girls of color, as well as queer and trans people of color.3 These and other forms of interpersonal and institutionalized viol’

Commentary

One of the few intersectional studies on restorative justice. An updated discussion from a perspective which demands more consistent engagement from both scholars and the restorative justice movement.

Gallinetti, J., Redpath, J., & Sloth-Nielsen, J. (2004). Race, class and restorative justice in South Africa: Achilles heel, glass ceiling or crowning glory?. South African Journal of Criminal Justice, 17(1), 17-40.

Abstract

‘This article reports on a research project aimed at assessing the impact of race and class disparity in restorative justice processes in South Africa. It was conducted against the backdrop of the inclusion of family group conferencing and restorative justice policy in the Child Justice Bill 49-2002 and in various governmentally supported initiatives. All known facilitators who had convened family group conferences in the preceding year were requested to complete a questionnaire and to report on specific cases in which a family group conference had been held where victims and offenders were from different class or racial backgrounds. Six of the returned case studies are detailed in the article. The authors conclude that, while inter-race and inter±class restorative processes occur less frequently than might be predicted, the fact of these differences is not necessarily an impediment to success. However, numerous other factors, including language differences and transport difficulties, can limit the effectiveness of this method of resolution of criminal justice disputes.’

Commentary

One of the very few intersectional studies on restorative justice, focussing on the South African context.

Young, D. (2019). Your ways or our ways?: Addressing Canadian Neo-colonialism and restorative justice. Salus Journal, 7(2), 85-108.

Abstract

‘In Canada, there is much focus on diversionary tactics and restorative justice programs designed to redirect offenders from the judicial processes and incarceration. This study examines the impact of race on accessibility to restorative justice, as well as the challenges of colonialism, and the potential role of neocolonialism in exacerbating the inequities of the Canadian criminal justice system with respect to restorative practice. This study of race-based access to restorative justice involves a critical examination of the origins of contemporary restorative justice through the application of Critical Race Theory. The phenomenon of over-representation of Indigenous persons in Canadian correctional institutions is considered in light of emphasis on reportedly Indigenous-based restorative practices in the Canadian criminal justice system. The study findings confirm that restorative justice practices in the Canadian criminal justice system are purported to be Indigenous based, but if one were to examine Indigenous culture and investigate the history of such practices, one would discover that this is not accurate. Moreover, Indigenous people do not enjoy the benefits of their alleged cultural traditions with respect to restoration of collective interests due to inequitable access to restorative practices built into the justice system. Despite this current reality, researchers continue to investigate restorative practice and practitioners continue to work toward the development of restorative justice programs that can be delivered in a manner respecting authentic Canadian Indigenous ways.

Commentary

The Canadian context has always been a crucial laboratory for the development of restorative justice. In this paper some critical issues related to the relation between restorative justice and indigenous cultures are considered. On the same subject see Barmaki, R. (2022) On the incompatibility of ‘Western’ and Aboriginal views of Restorative Justice in Canada: a claim based on an understanding of the Cree justice, Contemporary Justice Review, 25(1), 24-55, and Bailey, M. (2021) Challenging the myth of color blindness in restorative justice programs. International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 10(3), 129–141.

Balfour, G. (2008). Falling between the cracks of retributive and restorative justice: The victimization and punishment of Aboriginal women. Feminist Criminology, 3(2), 101-120.

Abstract

‘In 1996, the Canadian government introduced progressive sentencing law reforms that called for special consideration of the conditions in Aboriginal communities as legacies of colonialism and to limit the use of incarceration. At the same time, feminist-inspired law reforms sought compulsory criminalization and vigorous prosecution of gendered violence. Since that time, there has been a doubling of the rate of imprisonment of Aboriginal women, and gendered violence is three and a half times greater in Aboriginal communities. Using the sentencing decisions of two cases involving Aboriginal women convicted of manslaughter, the author explores the practice of law as a site of backlash and an appropriation of feminist-inspired antiviolence strategies. The author draws on feminist and critical race studies of restorative justice in the context of gendered violence to examine why the victimization–criminalization continuum has not been fully recognized in the practice of restorative justice.’

Commentary

Another excellent paper on some problematic limitations of restorative justice when facing gendered violence against Aboriginal women.

Muhammad, S. H., & Gray, J. M. E. (2021). Race, Mental Illness, and Restorative Justice: An Intersectional Approach to More Inclusive Practices. Seattle J. Soc. Just., 20, 159.

Excerpt

‘In the summer of 2019, a Black man faced trespassing charges in Georgia. The facts of the case were not entirely about the trespassing offense because the defendant had been “belligerent” with everyone who came near him from the moment of his first contact with police. The court assigned a public defender, and from her first meeting with her client, she knew why he committed the offense and why he had been “belligerent” with police, corrections officers, and nurses at the jail. Her client was shoeless, he had open wounds on his feet, and his eyes focused on something both distant and within himself. She knew those eyes, and she knew what they meant…’

Commentary

A recent and highly original intersectional paper on the complex relations between restorative justice, race and mental illness.

Davis, F. E., Lyubansky, M., & Schiff, M. (2015). Restoring racial justice. Emerging trends in the social and behavioral sciences: An interdisciplinary, searchable, and linkable resource, 1-16.

Abstract

‘Despite important overlapping interests, until recently, few racial justice advocates have embraced restorative justice (RJ), and the RJ community has largely failed to explicitly address race. Suggesting a convergence of the two movements, this essay presents an overview of RJ principles, history, and methods. We review the evidence for racial bias in criminal justice and school discipline and then note emerging restorative initiatives to ameliorate historical and contemporary racial inequities. We conclude by touching on gaps and challenges characterizing research and applied work in the field while suggesting strategies to move toward a racially-conscious restorative movement as both an effective alternative to state-imposed punishment and a powerful force for racial justice.’

Commentary

A stimulating paper, suggesting that racial justice and restorative justice have much in common, and particularly their emancipatory potential.