I have a question about restorative justice. (Not related to Mastodon stuff, but it's been on my mind for a while since I started working on a project in like 2016?)
What does it look like? Who is worthy? Is it for all crimes? Does the community determine or just the victim(s)?
@guerrillablack I attended the workshop about transformative justice at #34c3 [0] and I'll try to tell you about the case we discussed. This is from memory and English is not my first language so please bear with me..
This happened in a leftist and autonomous project, so they didn't involve the police or state at all.
A male member of the project enacted sexual violence upon a female member of the project (I think both lived there).
@guerrillablack They goal was: create a safe space for the victim and give them room to heal but also to help the perpetrator realize his wrong doing and help him to become a better person. If I remember correctly both of them continued living in the project. It was a long and exhausting process and almost broke the group apart. It was especially difficult to get the perpetrator accept that he had even done something wrong.
But they felt that simply ousting him would just continue the cycle.
@fap wow, thank you for sharing it! I've been a part of similar things in groups where self-critique was heavily practiced and interventions, and it has always been so exhausting to meet a resolution.
@guerrillablack I think we call came away from this session feeling that it's incredibly hard to do the right thing. It certainly can feel like you're tilting at windmills. But I was also deeply impressed how they genuinely tried to live their principles and how they wanted both sides to get better and heal.
@guerrillablack They formed two support groups, one for the victim and one for the perpetrator. Each group included friends of the person they where responsible for, so they where sympathetic towards them. The purpose of the groups is to form a support net for each of them but also to have the groups interact with each other so for example the victim can express what they need to feel safe without necessarily getting into direct contact with the perpetrator.