Plus Ca Change...

Here's a newsflash: Restorative justice practiced in the context of the patriarchal justice system still screws women over!

Now I now that is hard to believe, since some of you think that restorative justice is The Answer. Well, that's where you'd be wrong. So cute and naive.

Angela Cameron, a guest speaker in our class, called her feminist concerns "a constellation of worries" about the way restorative justice is practiced, including concern for the vulnerabilities of the particular group (e.g. battered women) to the offender and whether there is someone who is familiar with those vulnerabilities who is part of the process.

Her work with Emma Cunliffe revealed that the circle sentencing process in cases of intimate violence is quite problematic from a feminist and anti-VAW perspective. Practiced in the context of our beloved (patriarchal) justice system, the supposedly restorative circle sentencing practice actually perpetuates some of the same ills of the conventional system, including eliminating the voice of the survivor and perpetuating mythologies about women's bodies. To top it all off, the judgments they analyzed kind of pat themselves on the back for being restorative, even though they demonstrably continue to fail to address the issues through a gender-sensitive lens. Well, that's not entirely true; they do in fact address issues of intimate violence through a gender-sensitive lens. It's just that the gender they're sensitive to is male.

Just when you think there's hope...

Siiiiigh.

What is a feminist to do?! When I reflect upon the abysmal status of women interacting with the justice system as victims/survivors and as offenders (and maybe even the lawyers and judges), the logical thing is to not have a lot of hope. This system seems broken broken broken for many people, most of them vulnerable for some reason. Even me. I'm vulnerable because I'm a feminist. Someday (soon, I imagine, since I am soon to make my escape from the most left-wing ivory tower law school in the country), I'm going to pay some price because someone's going to find out I'm a feminist. But I'm no where near as vulnerable as the women survivors and offenders, clearly.

I have always pretty firmly been on the side of change from within. I'm never going to be so radical that I become alienated from the establishment because I don't want to get locked out (and I don't dismiss the possibility that this has something to do with liking my own privilege). I'm just a lot more useful chipping away at the establishment from the inside. But, this establishment is so screwed up in places that I wonder if it can ever really act in an equality-seeking manner. It can't, I don't think, until it acknowledges, for example, that buying in to circle sentencing or other restorative measures does not a fair system make.

Just when you think there's hope...

(Sometimes there is. After all, I am The Closet Optimist, not The Closet Pessimist).