Restorative Justice to Handle Sexual Assault Cases at Universities?

Indisputably

Yesterday the NY Times published an editorial recommending the use of restorative justice as one approach to handling sexual assault and other types of misconduct at universities.  See the editorial here.

I think there can be great advantages to using restorative justice processes in a variety of settings.  My concern is that we have seen that universities don’t have a great track record in terms of dealing with sexual assaults on campus (in fairness, few institutions in our society do have a great track record).

I would be concerned that restorative justice not be adopted as another way to avoid dealing with sexual assault.  There are also a number of concerns about using restorative justice processes in any kind of sexual assault case (on campus or off).  When restorative justice is more widely used, it is often specifically not used in these types of cases.  This is due, in large part, to concerns that victims won’t be adequately protected in such a process.

It is good to see, however, that restorative justice is getting such high profile consideration.

                       

Cynthia Alkon

Cynthia Alkon joined the faculty at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law in 2010. She was an assistant professor of law at the Appalachian School of Law from 2006-2010. Prior to joining academia, Professor Alkon was a criminal defense lawyer and worked in rule of law development in Eastern Europe and Central… MORE >