Tempering Idealism with Realism: Using Restorative Justice Processes to Promote Acceptance of Responsibility in Cases of Intimate Partner Violence

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312 R I. The Importance of Public Truth-Telling and Acceptance of Responsibility to Victim Healing and Community Norm Change: Social and Psychological Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . 320 R A. Benefits to Individual Victims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321 R 1. Victim Allocution: Public Truth-Telling as a Component in Victim Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321 R 2. Offender Allocution: Acknowledgment of the Wrongful Act as a Component of Victim Recovery . 325 R B. Benefits to Victims as a Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327 R C. Benefits to Society in General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328 R II. Theoretical Support for Public Acceptance of Responsibility: The Benefits, Concepts, Practices, and Caveats of Therapeutic Jurisprudence, Restorative Justice, and Feminist Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330 R A. Therapeutic Jurisprudence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331 R B. Restorative Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332 R III. Feminist Theory and Acceptance of Responsibility for Intimate Violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 R A. Dovetailing Feminist Jurisprudence and a Public TruthTelling Approach to Domestic Violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336 R B. Specific Feminist Concerns About Diversion and Restorative Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339 R