People Against Prisons Aotearoa

Abolitionist Demand 26:  Institute community-based solutions to harm and violence.

This is a part of No Pride in Prisons’ Abolitionist demands. These demands were originally published as a book. To see a pdf of the book, click here. To buy a copy, please email info@noprideinprisons.org.nz

An interpretation of restorative justice exists in many criminal court systems around the world, including in New Zealand (see Sentencing Act 2002, s 24A). Superficially, this model resembles the transformative justice model. Whilst understanding that restorative justice is an important alternative to the violent isolation of custodial sentences, No Pride in Prisons ultimately rejects this model in favour of transformative justice. One reason for this is that restorative justice’s embedding in the criminal court system does little to challenge the state’s monopoly over violence and responses to violence. But most importantly, in prioritising mere ‘restoration’ of the relationship between the parties involved, the restorative justice model makes two dangerous assumptions. First, it assumes that a prior state of sufficient liberty existed for all parties involved, and second, it assumes that all wrongdoing by the perpetrator is solely the result of poor individual choices. Transformative justice rejects both of these assumptions, taking into account social and economic issues behind the actions of parties and looking to transform the lives of both victim and perpetrator.

For a full discussion of community-based solutions to harm and violence, see demand 10.