My wonderful colleague, Janine Geske, who started the Restorative Justice Iniative here at Marquette has been spending her semester abroad at the University of Leuven in Belgium. Other than being wildly jealous for the regular access to topnotch chocolate, fruity beer, frites, and waffles, I am also very impressed with what looks like a diverse and talented faculty working in the area. As Janine writes:
Just a few of the university’s recent research projects included:
• Meeting the Challenges of Introducing Victim-Offender Mediation in Central and Eastern Europe
• Developing Standards for Assistance to Victims of Terrorism
• Mass Victimization and Restorative Justice. In Search for the Possibilities to Apply Restorative Justice Principles In An Integrated Approach…Case Studies in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia
• Mediation and Community Oriented Measures in Cases of Hate Crime and Discrimination
• Victims and Restorative Justice: An Empirical Study of the Needs, Experiences and Position of Victims Within Restorative Justice Practices
• The Development of a Theoretical frame for “Restorative Justice” From An Ethical and Social Perspective
Belgium itself has a relatively long history of “penal mediation” or, as they called it later, “victim-offender mediation.” You can read her entire post here.
I, like Caitlin Noonan, also had the pleasure of being a part of Professor Geske’s Restorative Justice Clinic during the fall of 2010. I know what a powerful impact restortative justice can have on individuals and the community. What did cross my mind as I read this post were some concerns I became aware of during Professor Laplante’s Comparitive Transitional Justice class in that what works for one society in transitioning and restoring their legal system and their citizens may not work for another society. Leading a society from one type of legal system into another can be difficult and it seems in some of these situations that transitional justice and restorative justice will have to be combined in a way that can be effective (Bosnia and Serbia). In terms of the projects “mass victimization and restorative justice” and “assistance to victims of terrorism” I wonder how effective restorative justice can be in a situation where the victim and the perpetrator are disconnected and the harm has been so widespread. I have seen restorative justice successes in smaller situations but I wonder if it can have the same valuable impact on such a large group of people. Through working in the women’s prison with ten to fifteen women trying to facilitate restorative justice circles, the group of students I was working with and myself realized that we would not be able to “reach” everyone and that inevitably some women would get more value from the experience than others, if this type of model was used on a larger scale I would be interested to see the type of impact an RJ process could have. Overall I look forward to more updates on Professor Geske’s experience.
First, I agree with the jealousy over the chocolates, my parents used to have to hide Belgian chocolates which family would bring us after visits either to Belgium or family visiting from Belgium.
I think that Belgium, and more specifically the Univeristy of Leuven, being willing to allow international professors to participate in their Restorative Justice program is a great thing. To me it seems that the collaboration and insights that professors will gain from each other will be invaluable. Allowing professors form different countries to talk with each other to see what has or has not been effective in their different RJ programs will allow the different programs to avoid making teh same mistakes. This process will also allow the professors and other individuals involved in RJ to make suggestions on programs that have worked the best and ways to improve struggling programs.
It seems that this experience will allow all the the international professors involved will provide them with teh ability to return to their respective RJ programs and implement new items which are working well in Belgium or other professors programs. Hopefully, this experience will also allow Prof. Geske to bring new ideas back to Marquette for the Restorative Justice Program here and perhaps the US and other countries will also turn to each other to see waht is or is not working.
Since arriving at Marquette, I have had the fortunate opportunity to work with Prof. Geske on several Restorative Justice Initiative projects, including a victim-offender dialogue and the Green Bay Prison Restorative Justice Program, and to have facilitated two RJ programs at the Milwaukee Women’s Correctional Center. I have witnessed the impact that victim-offender dialogues have on the healing process for the victim, offender, and others in their respective communities. I have also seen how both community-building and harm-repairing circles can create a sense of accountability and compassion in just a few hours that might not ever be reached through traditional channels in the criminal justice system. From a public safety perspective, this is especially significant because accountability and compassion are critical factors in reducing recidivism and strengthening community bonds.
Reading Prof. Geske’s article, I hope that the United States will follow Belgium’s suit and make greater strides toward implementing Restorative Justice and ADR practices into the criminal justice system. The Milwaukee DA’s office is on the frontlines of this effort, having already established Restorative Justice unit that provides community conferencing opportunities for victims, offenders, and community members to discuss the facts and impact of a particular crime. The office also has a Community Prosecution unit aimed at crime prevention, targeting violent offenders, and engaging community-based organizations in the process. As resources in Milwaukee are already limited and the criminal justice system is overrun with many repeat-players, it is necessary to look beyond our traditional mechanisms to these evidence-based alternative methods that are aimed at crime prevention.