Victims

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I watched the aftermath of the report on the Hillsborough Disaster and like many people could only think about the dignity of the victims through the many years of adversary they have faced. It brought memories of victim issues closer to home be they victims of State or the various Armed Group violence; there emerges a very clear picture of the commonalities shared by victims. I don’t mean to categorise all victims for we must recognise victims are individuals with individual responses to their own personal loss or injury. However what does emerge for me around these issues are victim needs rooted in their quest for acknowledgement, apology and accountability. I could give a list of the cases that are recognizable not by the individual victims but by place or geography and that list would be quite extensive.

How does this connect with the work of CRJI you might be asking? CRJI has worked with countless victims down through the years, from people who are affected by low-level ASB issues through to the victims of serious crime including murder. Our experience is victims have very often-different sets of questions to ask about what has just occurred than those asked from the perspective of a police or criminal justice view. Why me? Does the offender know what they have done? Will they acknowledge that? Will I be safe in the future? Will they do it to me again? This is all underpinned by the need to know,  be known and recognised. These common themes are universal and in a restorative manner are the questions that we feel are part of a process when working with victims. We acknowledge that the criminal justice system does what it does but in the area of victims the victims needs and concerns should be central to the overall process of resolution.

Our work in the community has witnessed the power of dialogue in the most extreme of cases, I have written previously on this, the powerful empowerment for a victim to see and hear their concerns being dealt with not only unlocks a pathway forward for the victim but equally for an offender who will be faced with the hard questions, recognition of hurt but more importantly the difficult potential to change. This potential in our view is in need of support, for the achievement of change for an offender not only benefits them but also the wider community and ensures no other victims from that quarter.

The other common theme around victims that I’ve seen is that victims can very often be stereotyped as people so badly injured that they appear frail and fearful, almost intimidated in submission by what has occurred. While this may be true in some cases, our experience of victims that having been frightened, hurt and injured is that they also display a remarkable level of endurance to seek both the answers they need while also demanding the acknowledgement of their situation. It is this for me, that join the burglary victim, the elderly who suffer so much from ASB with the high publicity victims who have displayed so much courage and integrity in their search for justice.

This brings me to what for many is the real issue, does society have the tools to deal with victims?  From a restorative perspective I would say no. This position derives from the knowledge that victims aren’t viewed as key in the criminal justice process; rather what is important is what law has been broken, by whom and what is the result of the criminal justice process. This is of course is a simplified version of a complex system but it is vital for the system to adopt and develop a restorative approach which will give victims a role in the justice process, which will also create the potential for offenders to face the consequences of their actions and above all create a threshold for both, victim and offender to cross and begin to see events from another place.

All Island Retorative Justice Conference set in motion

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Restorative Justice practice is happening the length and breadth on the island of Ireland. Be it in criminal justice, probation, the care sector, community projects, schools, courts and prisons, restorative techniques are being employed across a huge swath of society. That's the message I took from the meeting held in Ballybot House Newry.

The meeting, organized by the Restorative Justice Forum N.I. was aimed at investigating what was happening across the island in restorative justice and to see how practitioners felt about the possibility of an all island conference on RJ.

There was a good vibe in the room around the idea as presented by the Forums event subgroup.
As with all RJ gatherings a similar set of themes emerges, relationships, inclusivity, sharing and building seem to resonate and settle to be the foundations of a way forward. This is key when like-minded people start to plan an event that aims to promote and develop restorative practice across the island.

It was also refreshing to be in a room where people were speaking positively of their experience of restorative practice, there was no one to convince of the value of RJ as a model of good working practice. This was most refreshing as we went straight to business, discussion followed by agreement followed by discussion and further agreement. Believe me that’s how it went, a good day’s work done and by the end of the session a very clear picture was emerging of what the event will look like.
So now for the hard work, the conference content, the meat in the proverbial sandwich. There was however some good suggestions on this and even more so on the idea of joint presenters highlighting the difference in RJ practices across the island. This may be done in a north/south basis that will really throw up the gaps and difference.

There was also much discussion on what and who should our target audience be? Again we felt we should look to invite practitioners who will have a wealth of knowledge but also legislator’s who at the end of the day help to create the legal framework in which RJ is located within a variety of fields. I think it crucial that we seek to influence those people who can with our experience put RJ up the agenda thus ensuring that we really are starting to build.

A key discussion was the choice of a keynote speaker. No agreement on this one yet although some very solid suggestions in the hat both from an international view through to more home-grown talent.
This was another theme from today’s event, the theme that said that we are well-developed in our knowledge and skill base in using RJ practice. This demonstrates an underlying confidence in what and how we have been doing things and this augur’s well for the future.

Finishing up we have committed to the event, some of the agenda, the venue and future meetings to plan the event further still. I can hardly wait for the event itself; it will make a change to be staying on home soil for an RJ conference, that’s a change in itself.

Power of Dialogue

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Many people find the concept of Restorative Justice difficult to grasp simply because they have never felt or experienced that moment when a word, a gesture or an acknowledgment makes such an impact that it changes their situation irrevocably. For those of us who have been privileged to be present during Restorative Justice sessions, be it RJ Mediation, Circles or Restorative Conversations the power of dialogue shines through.

Like all conflict situations that are fraught with the given's and of course the unknown’s a certain tension is automatically introduced into the equation, how will the other party respond? Will they be honest? Will they abuse the opportunity to restore and resolve and importantly will they acknowledge what has happened? These of course are the central elements of the conversation that parties, sorry, fellow human beings need to ask of each other when they have been injured and wronged. Sometimes the injured is also the wrongdoer, that makes for a complex dialogue but first and foremost they are human, with all that goes with that.

Being present to facilitate these difficult conversations develop and get to the real issues has exposed R.J. practitioners to the absolute power of dialogue. We have witnessed what at times seemed to be intractable problems being quickly transformed by that moment, by that conscious action which say’s I know, I now understand, I am walking in your space and I feel what you felt and I want to put it right.

These are the moments when acknowledgement of hurt, injury and wrongdoing occur, the moments that open up the possibility of resolution, the creation of a threshold that the victim can then decide to cross and accept the acknowledgement for what it is. This is a crucial stage in a restorative process as the wrongdoer awaits acknowledgement of what they have said to put things right.

Putting things right is an age-old idea, from the parent of a young child who accidentally smashes a window and that parent goes and replaces the window thus putting it right. This of-course applies across life’s experience when something has happened and when someone has been injured the driving need to put it right if given the opportunity is a very basic human need.

I recently watched a film, Beyond Conviction, in which serious offenders met with victims and family of victims and that need to put things right was clearly evident and visible to the human eye. None of us need to be specially trained to be open to this.

So for me when talking about Restorative Justice I believe it is important we speak in human terms, about feelings, emotions and yes, putting it right because to put things right means to fully engage and live up to the responsibility to do just that, putting it right and sure can’t we all get that.