Sentencing Circles and Intimate Violence: A Canadian Feminist Perspective

Abstract

Advocates of restorative justice claim that these models can benefit offenders, victims, and communities and also address historical injustices perpetrated against Aboriginal peoples. These claims extend to cases of intimate violence. In the case of judicially convened sentencing circles in cases of intimate violence in Canada, these claims have not been borne out. In fact, by measuring the outcomes in these cases against recent studies of battered women's needs, these models, as they are currently constituted, have inadequately addressed social injustice and inequality experienced by women within Canadian Aboriginal communities and, in some instances, have revictimized survivors of intimate violence.

Keywords: Canadian feminist perspective, intimate violence, sentencing circles, battered women, social injustice, inequality, Aboriginal communities, Canadian Aboriginal women, revictimized, survivors of intimate violence