The potential use of a victim-led restorative justice system for cases of sexual violence in Northern Ireland.

The impact of sexual violence, including rape, can have devastating effects on individuals and communities and as such they are regarded as some of the worst violations of human dignity. Sexual violence is an action with the intention to assert power and control over another individual, which often leaves the victim-survivor experiencing long lasting physical and psychological harms. It is a well-established notion that crimes of sexual violence are under reported and suffer from high levels of attrition, leaving most victim-survivors without any sense of justice. This is no different in Northern Ireland.

Following the Ulster Rugby Rape trial in 2018, the Gillen Review was commissioned and published in 2019. This was a major review of the Northern Irish criminal justice system’s handling of cases of sexual violence. The Gillen Review highlighted the current inadequacy of the criminal justice response by pointing to low reporting levels, high levels of attrition once in the criminal justice system and the majority of victim-survivors being left without a sense of justice. In total there were over 250 recommendations made by the Gillen Review, and while the majority of these recommendations are being taken forward by the Gillen Implementation Team, recommendations 243 and 244 are being explored via this collaborative PhD by Kirsten McGregor. While Kirsten McGregor is an independent researcher this research is funded as a Collaborative Studentship with the Department of Justice.

Specifically, recommendation 243 requested the Northern Ireland Department of Justice (DoJ) to consider a victim-survivor led Restorative Justice (RJ) scheme within the criminal justice system dealing with serious sexual offences where the offender has admitted their guilt, the victim-survivor has requested RJ and the perpetrator has agreed to be involved at any stage of the criminal justice process. Recommendation 244 also requested the DoJ to consider a victim-led voluntary self-referral RJ service to resolve certain serious sexual offences where the victim-survivor may not wish to participate in the formal criminal justice system.

The European Forum for Restorative Justice’s defines RJ as:

“Restorative justice is an approach of addressing harm or the risks of harm through engaging all those affected in coming to a common understanding and agreement on how the harm or wrongdoing can be repaired and justice achieved”.

This broad definition of RJ allows it to be flexible to the needs of all those involved, especially the victim-survivor. Though, to permit a broad understanding, there also needs to be set of practical elements which unite it. Specifically, RJ is a victim-led process, in which participation for all is voluntary, the offender must take responsibility for the crime to be eligible and the safety of all participants is paramount.

The use of RJ for cases of serious sexual violence has been a highly contentious issue for some time, with a considerable amount of debate. Most of this debate centres on the theoretical implications of the use, rather this research seeks to present the feasibility and the viability of such systems in Northern Ireland. The views and opinions of the various stakeholders have been gathered through qualitative one-to-one interviews with victim-survivors, offenders and various criminal justice and support organisations. To date 35 interviews have been completed, however they are still on going. Through the collection of these views and opinions it is hoped that some of the associated implementation and operational challenges of the use of such a system for cases of sexual violence will be identified. Subsequent focus groups will be conducted where policy proposals will be presented to stakeholder groups to ensure they reflect the views and opinions expressed during the initial interview stage of the research. Due to the collaborative nature of the PhD, the policy recommendations will be presented to the DoJ.

The emerging findings suggest that there are concerns regarding the safety of victim-survivors during restorative justice processes. However, while these concerns need to be taken seriously this should not lead to certain types of sexual violence being deemed too sensitive and victim-survivors being denied access. Rather it should be assessed on an individual level. Additionally, while there is an understanding why Gillen suggested an exploration of a system which operated outside the criminal justice system. The current format of the criminal justice system raises issues which make such a system legally complex.

 About the Author- Kirsten McGregor is a third year PhD candidate at Queen’s University Belfast. Previous to moving to Belfast, Kirsten studied for a MRes in Criminology at the University of Glasgow in 2019, receiving a Merit. Her dissertation, which received a Distinction, consisted of a policy analysis using Carol Bacchi’s WPR framework to assess Scotland’s current policy regarding the use of restorative justice and how it would affect cases of gender-based violence. Kirsten also competed her undergraduate degree at the University of Aberdeen doing a joint honours in Sociology and Politics between 2015-2019.

For further reading:

Brooks-Hay, O., Burman, M. and Bradley, L., (2019). Justice Journeys: Informing policy and practice through lived experience of victim‐survivors of rape and serious sexual assault.

Euforumrj.org. (2022). ‘Restorative justice in a nutshell’. [online] Available at: <https://www.euforumrj.org/en/restorative-justice-nutshell> [Accessed 7 February 2022].

Gillen, J., (2019). Gillen Review Report into the law and procedures in serious sexual offences in NI. Belfast: Department of Justice.

Hohl, K., & Stanko, E., (2015). ‘Complaints of rape and the criminal justice system: Fresh evidence on the attrition problem in England and Wales’. European Journal of Criminology, Vol.12, 324-341.

Koss, M. P., (2014). ‘The RESTORE program of restorative justice for sex crimes: Vision, process, and outcomes’, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Vol. 29(9), pp.1623-1660.

Zinsstag, E. and Keenan, M., (2017). Restorative Responses to Sexual Violence Legal, Social and Therapeutic Dimensions. Oxon: Routledge.