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Item Professional insights into sexual violence restorative justice risk assessment, Recommendations for practice(Taylor and Francis Group, 2025-05-09) Bremer C; Fletcher RB; Shepherd M; Jülich SConventional criminal justice systems are often ill-placed to offer appropriate justice responses for victim-survivors of sexual violence. Restorative justice following sexual violence (SVRJ) is a trauma-informed victim-centered justice process showing significant benefits for victim-survivors (e.g. meeting justice needs, supporting recovery), perpetrators (e.g. improved insight, community reintegration, reduced reoffending), and their wider communities (e.g. encouraging accountability, addressing harmful beliefs). Careful risk assessment within SVRJ is vital to preventing secondary victimization, yet standardized SVRJ risk assessment guidelines are not currently available in Aotearoa New Zealand. SVRJ professionals (n = 16) engaged in semi-structured interviews exploring their perspectives and experiences of SVRJ risk assessment. Data were analyzed by reflexive thematic analysis resulting in four themes: perceived participant preparedness, safe support systems, culturally competent assessment, and participant alignment. These themes formed the basis for the developed SVRJ risk assessment guideline recommendations. Wider implications of the findings are also discussed. The research contributes to understandings of SVRJ risk assessment and professional practice.Item Balancing risk in sexual violence restorative justice : professional views on risk assessment for restorative justice processes addressing sexual violence : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand(Massey University, 2024) Bremer, Charlotte (Charlie) GraceSexual violence is an ongoing international human rights issue, often resulting in significant negative impacts, and not always well addressed within conventional criminal justice systems. Restorative justice following sexual violence (SVRJ) is a victim-centred justice process showing significant benefits for victim-survivors (including meeting justice needs and supporting recovery), perpetrators of harm (including insight, community reintegration, and reduced reoffending), and wider communities (encouraging accountability and addressing harmful beliefs). However, there is a risk of causing further harm through SVRJ, meaning professionals in this space have an obligation to manage risk as best as possible. Risk of further harm is one reason why SVRJ is not particularly common around the world, and why opinions are often divided regarding the appropriateness of its use. Currently, there are no standardised guidelines for assessing risk within SVRJ. Instead, professionals may rely on their judgement alone, which is the least reliable and valid method of risk assessment. The current research seeks to address this by investigating professional perspectives about the factors important within SVRJ risk assessment, and subsequently developing SVRJ risk assessment guideline recommendations, which could enable a structured and more reliable approach to SVRJ risk assessment. Professionals (n=16) experienced in the areas of SVRJ and RJ risk assessment were interviewed about their experiences of SVRJ risk assessment, particularly what they considered within their assessments and risk-related decisions. Interview data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, with four themes identified: perceived participant preparedness, safe support systems, culturally competent assessment, and participant alignment. These findings formed the basis for developed SVRJ risk assessment guideline recommendations. Wider implications of the findings for SVRJ risk assessment, policy and practice are discussed. It is hoped that this research provides important insight into SVRJ professional practice and risk assessment and contributes to the safe use of SVRJ both in Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally, allowing more people to access the benefits of SVRJ in safe and considered ways.Item Restorative Justice Responses to Sexual Violence: Perspectives and Experiences of Participating Persons Responsible and Persons Harmed(Taylor and Francis Group, 2024-04-03) Jülich S; Brady-Clark M; Yeung P; Landon FThe failings of mainstream Western criminal justice systems in dealing with sexual violence cases, including the potential revictimization and retraumatization, are well established. Accordingly, demand has grown for alternative justice mechanisms. Project Restore NZ is funded by the New Zealand government to facilitate specialist restorative justice processes for sexual violence cases in Aotearoa New Zealand. Referrals come both from the community and from the New Zealand criminal justice system. This research investigated the experiences and perspectives of both persons harmed and persons responsible who undertook a restorative justice process through Project Restore. A survey was made available to participants between 2016 and 2019 and was completed by 37 persons harmed and 28 persons responsible. Comprising both multi-choice quantitative and open-ended qualitative questions, the survey explored the preparatory stage, motivations, and outcomes of the restorative justice process, as well as the emotional and practical experiences of the process itself. Although there is some variation in responses, the findings indicate that a majority of both persons harmed and persons responsible generally had positive perspectives on and experiences of the restorative justice processes offered by Project Restore.Item Homosociality, Sexual Misconduct and Gendered Violence in England’s Premodern Legal Profession(Oxford University Press, 30/09/2022) McVitty EFifteenth- and sixteenth-century evidence shows that common lawyers and law students regularly engaged in sexual misconduct and violence against women. Social histories of the early legal profession give little attention to such incidents, treating them as aberrations or as the ‘natural’ excess of privileged youth. By contrast, this article uses gender analysis to argue that sexual misconduct and gendered violence were structural features of all-male legal culture, contributing to homosocial bonding and to lawyers’ performance of masculinity. Records from the Inns of Court, London civic administration and royal government reveal law students asserting manhood through shared involvement in sexual misconduct and violence. However, it is significant for the history of the profession that young men were not the only offenders. While senior practitioners condemned misconduct and violence in rules and disciplinary regulations, in practice they shielded fellow lawyers from consequences and participated themselves. As perpetrators went on to become barristers, serjeants-at-law, judges and public office-holders, a tradition of toleration and intergenerational complicity was sustained across time. These findings generate new insights into how the training and socialization of lawyers contributed to the gendered violence inherent in the patriarchal judicial system of pre-modern England.