About nine in 10 women who experience sexual assault in a domestic relationship will not report their experience to police and while it is not possible to estimate the rate of reporting of child sexual abuse,survivors take about 20 years to disclose it,rendering opportunity for a criminal response almost impossible except in the rarest of cases.
“Justice” is defined differently for different people but the only measure of justice offered by the criminal legal system rests on a determination of guilt,and we have seen starkly how difficult that is for most survivors to attain.
It’s time to demand more. We need a trauma-responsive system to respond to sexual assault that is survivor-oriented. Restorative justice offers this. It gives survivors choices,a voice,a space to share their stories,to ask questions and seek accountability. Yet it is only available to a handful of victims in NSW. There is no specialist restorative justice process for sexual assault,and restorative processes are very limited,to youth matters and as a post sentencing option in adult matters.
In Victoria,a restorative justice framework has been established in light of the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence and programs such as the South Eastern Centre for Sexual Assault and Open Circle at RMIT have begun using restorative justice to respond to experiences of sexual harm.
Restorative justice for crime brings together the victim,the offender and anyone else affected by what happened to work out a resolution,often with the help of a third party. Most simply it is a mechanism for addressing harm and achieving meaningful justice. It may be but one component of an individual’s “justice” journey.
It hinges on three powerful mechanisms:the opportunity to speak to an experience;the need for others to bear witness;and the opportunity to develop meaningful outcomes. Each of these core elements offers a counterpoint to the loss of power inherent in sexual assault.