Imagining Restorative Justice for Intimate Partner Violence

Abstract

Restorative justice (RJ) approach is currently not a mainstream practice for addressing the issue of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Singapore. In IPV, the persons affected are not limited to the persons experiencing violence (PEV) and persons using violence (PUV). There is a ripple effect when IPV happens and oftentimes, children, significant others and people in the community are negatively impacted. In short, IPV hurts self and relationships. Being relational in focus, the authors believe that an RJ approach can bring about healing and growth for persons directly or indirectly affected by the violence by building connectedness and a person’s relational capacity.

The authors proposed a framework for IPV work in the context of males using violence and females experiencing violence. Anchored in four working principles that are based on RJ, this framework seeks to guide practitioners to journey with affected parties in their healing process. In their endeavour to make a case for RJ in IPV work, the authors also offered possibilities and challenges for restorative IPV intervention in Singapore’s current landscape.

The authors strongly believe that an RJ-influenced practice has the potential to break the violent cycle by disrupting the conditions associated with IPV, including isolation, economic stress and societal norms regarding gender expectations. The authors also opined that an RJ-influenced practice can create a sustained longer-term outcome of healthy relationships through establishing non-violence behaviour as a societal norm.

Citation

Ling, K.S. and Kumar, U. (2023), "Imagining Restorative Justice for Intimate Partner Violence", Orton, B. (Ed.) Gendered Perspectives of Restorative Justice, Violence and Resilience: An International Framework (Diverse Perspectives on Creating a Fairer Society), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 5-23. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80382-383-620231002