As conversations about how to functionally build safer communities become more commonplace in the #DefundPolice era, you are likely to hear one of these two terms as alternatives to justice that punishes. Both are centered on accountability, though the overall philosophies differ.
Our legal system operates on a theory of punishment. An individual commits harm and they must pay some type of penalty. It is an agreement between the individual who does harm and the state.
Theories of restorative and transformative justice are different. They focus on remedying the harm within the community in a way that doesn’t create more harm.
Restorative Justice
Restorative justice has roots in aboriginal and Native American practices in North America and New Zealand. It is built on a system of bringing victims and perpetrators of harm together to take accountability, forgive, and heal. It’s a collaborative and cooperative process that involves goal setting and taking action to repair the harm that one has caused.
A helpful example of restorative justice practices can be found in the work of Danielle Sered and her organization Common Justice. Common Justice uses a restorative justice program with a focus on violent felonies in adult court. In her book, Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair, Sered describes the process in 5 elements:
“(1) acknowledging responsibility for one’s actions; (2) acknowledging the impact of one’s actions on others; (3) expressing genuine remorse; (4) taking actions to repair the harm to the degree possible, and guided when feasible by the people harmed, or ‘doing sorry’; and (5) no longer committing similar harm”
Sered explains the power that the process can give to survivors who feel comfortable participating in the process. When the individual who created the harm takes responsibility for their actions and makes themselves available to honestly answer the questions of the survivor, survivors are able to piece together a real narrative of what happened and move forward from it, instead of relying on their own gaps in memory or relying on self-blame when no one is present to take real responsibility. Acknowledging one’s impact also allows the causer of harm to realize that what they did was harmful. It keeps people from falling back into a normalization of violence, which for many individuals can be a strong past coping mechanism since the vast majority of people who commit violence are themselves survivors of it.
Most striking are the examples Sered gives of step 4, or “doing sorry.” She speaks about an incident between one individual who had mugged another. The individual who caused the other man harm, taught his victim self-defense as part of their restorative justice agreement. This allowed the man to feel more empowered in addressing the trauma he felt around other men after the mugging. Another girl who jumped a girl similar in age, went through a practice of not riding the train for a whole year (even though it was her only reliable form of transportation) to try and understand the circumstances created by the trauma she caused the girl she attacked, who had become too fearful to use public transportation, dramatically disrupting her life. These were individual parts of a much larger process and system of reflection, accountability, and remorse.
Transformative Justice
Transformative justice is similar in that it also focuses on community-based solutions to harm. However, it seeks to take the process a bit further.
Building Accountable Communities, a project created by the Barnard Center for Research on Women in partnership with Project NIA, created a video series on transformative justice (TJ) that features a number of prominent TJ practitioners. These individuals unpack what TJ is and what it can look like in practice.
Adrienne Maree Brown describes the difference between restorative justice and transformative justice as a spectrum: restorative justice is one way of trying to achieve justice within our communities, but transformative justice takes that approach one step further. She explains that restorative justice attempts to restore to the condition before the harm took place. However, usually, that original condition is itself one that has a number of injustices built into it. Transformative justice aims to dig deeper: how can we also address the root causes of injustice and move toward an even stronger community?
In the same video, a number of other practitioners address this key difference, that restorative practices address a specific instance of harm between two people and how to resolve it, whereas transformative justice looks further at the conditions that allowed that harm to become normalized. They describe it as zooming out, looking at the context, and also examining our collective responsibility in society in creating systemic conditions that allow the same harms to continue.
Peace and Conflict scholar Anthony Nocella, in an overview of transformative justice theory, describes the difference as this:
“Restorative justice stresses that the system is flawed, overworked, and retributive, but does not address why it exists, how it is racist, sexist, ableist, and classist, whom it benefits, and how it was developed. Transformative justice…is about looking for the good within others while also being aware of complex systems of domination. If the world is to transform, we need everyone to transform and everyone to be voluntarily involved in critical dialogue together.”
The practitioners in Building Accountable Communities’ video series also point out that transformative justice cannot occur within the system and must happen outside the state. This can differ from restorative justice practices which at times become institutionalized, such as using restorative justice circles within schools or in situations where courts allow for individuals to participate in these programs (such as Sered’s Common Justice as an alternative to traditional criminal punishment). This is not to say that restorative justice practices are bad or a step in the wrong direction. However, in line with the prison abolition movement, transformative justice theory holds that these systems are so flawed that true transformation can only occur directly within communities themselves.
In the words of Generation FIVE, an organization dedicated to ending child sex abuse, the goals of Transformative Justice are:
- Safety, healing, and agency for survivors
- Accountability and transformation for people who harm
- Community action, healing, and accountability
- Transformation of the social conditions that perpetuate violence – systems of oppression and exploitation, domination, and state violence
In other words, restorative justice is a more microscale solution that focuses on addressing specific instances of conflict. Transformative justice utilizes some of the same accountability techniques within interpersonal healing. However, it also encapsulates a much broader approach and way of looking at systemic harm and thus is broader in its reach and application.
Learning More
Interested in learning more about transformative justice and how it fits into the broader discussion surrounding prison abolition and the #DefundPolice movement? I suggest looking through the videos and resources on Building Accountable Communities’ webpage and reading more about the work of Mariame Kaba.
Transformative Justice Kollektiv Berlin has also created a great Transformative Justice Reading List. They also have a number of links alongside the reading list that include organizations in the United States and abroad that utilize Transformative justice practices. Organizations such as Generation FIVE, Project NIA, and Creative Interventions have created toolkits and guides which can be great resources for those looking to embrace a more Transformative approach.
- How Can Human-Centered Design Lead to Greater Social Impact? - January 27, 2021
- How is Transformative Justice Different from Restorative Justice? - December 30, 2020
- Expungement and Sealing: What Are They and Why Should States Expand These Forms of Record Relief? - November 13, 2020
Helpful and well written article. Thank you.
Thank you for this article!