Sexual Violence and Restorative Justice - Hardcover

by Marie Keenan (Author), Estelle Zinsstag (Author)

Concerned by the high attrition rates for sexual crime and the secondary victimization experienced by victims during their participation in the criminal justice system, this book analyses the extent to which restorative justice can address the justice gap that exists in current justice provision.

Building on clinical experience and earlier research on sexual crime the authors engage with the complex dynamics and traumatic impact of sexual crime as a critical starting point for their research and examine whether restorative justice can contribute to a more enhanced justice response.

The book presents extensive new data on restorative justice as applied in sexual violence cases across the globe. It engages with feminist concerns regarding the traumatic impact of sexual violence and the potential for re-traumatisation; the power imbalances that characterise these offences and the potential for re-victimisation; the potential for coercion of the victim to participate in the process; the potential for manipulation of restorative justice by the offender; and the potential that restorative justice could lead to the reprivatisation of sexual crime and ultimately to its decriminalisation.

Having examined these topics in detail, the book concludes there is an important role for restorative justice in addressing the justice gap that exists after sexual crime and offers guidance on how this can be achieved.

Author Biography

Marie Keenan, Associate Professor, School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin, Ireland, Estelle Zinsstag, Lecturer/Assistant Professor of Criminology, Edinburgh Napier University

Marie Keenan (PhD) is an Associate Professor at the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice at University College Dublin. She is a criminologist, systemic and forensic psychotherapist, a restorative justice practitioner and registered social worker. She is a member of the Advisory Board of UCD'S Criminology Institute, member of the Higher Education Authority's Advisory Group on Sexual Violence and Harassment in Higher Education Institutions, and Chair and Principal Investigator for UCD's Sexual Exploitation Research Programme. She is a member of the Gender Based Violence and Institutional Abuse Working Groups of the European Forum for Restorative Justice, Board member of the Global Advisory Council for Restorative Justice International, Advisor on training for Restorative Justice in response to sexual violence in Estonia and Member of the Advisory Board for the Implementation of Restorative Justice in Scotland. She has contributed in several capacities to the Australian
Royal Commission on the Sexual Abuse of Children in Australia.

Estelle Zinsstag (MSc, PhD) is a lecturer/assistant professor of criminology at Edinburgh Napier University and a senior researcher at the Leuven Institute of Criminology (KU Leuven, Belgium). She is also a research associate at the Centre for Criminology (University of Oxford) after having been its departmental lecturer in 2019-2020. She is co-chief editor of 'The International Journal of Restorative Justice' and of the book series 'Studies in Restorative Justice' published by Eleven (The Netherlands). She is co-chair of both the 'Scottish Network of Restorative Justice Researchers' and the Working Group on Restorative Justice at the European Society of Criminology. She is a member of the European Forum for Restorative Justice (research committee and gendered violence working group) as well as of the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (UK). Finally she is a member of the stakeholder group guiding Scottish Government on the development of RJ in Scotland.