Traditional criminal justice system observes crime as a violation of law and the central focus of this system is to punish offenders. However, certain crimes are not only against the law, but also against individuals and interpersonal relationships, and in order to handle such crimes, social, psychological, and relational injuries must be recognized alongside material and bodily injuries. Sexual offence is sensitive because of its social and psychological nature. The victim is traumatized throughout her life as a result of the hurt and scar left by this offense. However, under traditional justice system, such effect on human relationship and disturbed psychology remain undetected and therefore, Restorative Justice (RJ) approach towards sexual offence should be considered.

Introduction to RJ process

Restorative Justice is an unconventional method of justice with special concern for repairing harm. The RJ method preserves a cooperative process in which all stakeholders, including the victim and the offender, meet face to face to discuss ‘how to repair the harm’ and become directly involved in reacting to the crime with an opportunity to speak about it. Howard Zehr says, “RJ is a process to involve, to the extent possible, those who have a stake in a specific offence and to collectively identify and address harm, needs and obligations, in order to heal and put things right as possible”. RJ system attempts to see justice from different approach with an aim to heal the harm caused or revealed by criminal behavior. Susan Sharpe remarks, RJ programs aim to put key decisions into the hands of those most affected by crime, make justice more healing and ideally, more transformative and reduce the likelihood of future offences.

The aim of RJ is twofold: to address the needs of victim and give them a sense of empowerment; to give unique opportunity to the offender to repair the harm along with taking responsibility and changing their behaviour. As a result, this justice system aspires to make positive improvements in the lives of both victims and offenders. To that aim, it includes family members of both offenders and victims, as well as other community members in the process. The RJ process follows different types of models namely The Victim Offender Conferences (VOC), Family Group Conferences (FGC) etc. The victim’s voluntary permission to participate in the RJ process is ensured by a neutral mediator or facilitator. The Facilitator personally prepares everyone before coming together to ensure the safety and fairness of the process. RJ proposes that all stakeholders, including victims, offenders, family members, and the community, be provided with sufficient information about one another so that they can determine whether or not to participate in RJ through face-to-face discussion.

Considering RJ method to deal with the sexual offences: Bangladesh perspective

RJ can be an effective method to deal with the sexual offences because these offences involve complex social relations and harm caused by them is mostly psychological. Due to the sensitive nature of sexual offences, they often remain unheard and compromised by the victim. RJ, on the other hand, takes into account the victim’s sensitivity and provides them a sense of empowerment by providing a platform for them to share their story, express their emotions, and demand answers from the perpetrator. Also, RJ concentrates on repairing the harm along with developing the morality and ethics of the offender not to repeat the harm again. But unfortunately, the traditional justice system fails to get victims out of psychological breakdown and to help offenders in changing their behavior. Some scenarios from different spheres of life under Bangladesh perspective can be well explanatory here.

  • Sexual harassment in the workplace is a common occurrence, but women are often afraid to speak up for fear of the consequences or professional reputation. Under traditional justice system, the offender with the allegation of workplace sexual harassment gets sacked or punished with fine, imprisonment. But in the culture of victim blaming, the victim can never be as comfortable as before in the office atmosphere rather she faces insecurity from other colleagues which eventually leads to depression and finally quitting the job. In another light, the offender and his family may become victims as a result of the punishment procedure, as the offender may be unable to obtain a new career or run his family, causing the offender to become depressed and his family to suffer unnecessarily. Again, the same offender, if finds a new job may involve in this kind of sexual offences again. Thus, no angle of outcome under traditional justice system actually has any benefit except punishing the offender. Sexual offences at workplace generate from the depreciation of moral value which ends in depression, sufferings and insecurity of which the traditional justice system is least bothered. But for the same scenario, under the RJ process the victim, offender, community (here representative from the office) will meet together face to face and work on repairing the cause and consequences of harm. It will attempt to develop the sense of moral value in the offender and to make the victim feel empowered again and comfortable before the offender himself along with the whole office which will ultimately restore both victim and offender successfully contributing to the productivity of the workplace.
  • Sexual harassment by family members is a curse, but it is frequently overlooked for the interest of restoring relationships, family reputation, and so on. For example, a newly married bride gets harassed through offensive sexual gesture or behavior from her younger brother-in-law. Now, if the offender is taken to court under traditional justice system, he will either be punished, or he may not be punished due to the legal loopholes. Whatever happens to the offender, the victim may be abandoned by her in-laws or even her own spouse and family due to patriarchy. But in this narrative, the victim needs security and support from her family whereas the offender is in dire necessity of family education to mend his ways which is quite difficult to achieve from traditional justice system. The RJ here will attempt to restore the relationship within family ensuring comfort zone for the bride in the family along with enabling the offender to change his behavior and to take responsibility.
  • Eve teasing is another threat for which most of the girls are reported to get dropped from education and get into early marriage. Teenager boys within local areas involve in this offence for the lack of proper moral and sexual education. But traditional justice does not care about educating the ignorant, rather treats them just as offenders which never helps the young aged teasers realize the pain of victim inflicted by him.

In Bangladesh, until the causes and consequences of these kinds of compromised sexual harassments are addressed, they will lead to serious sexual violence; mere whistling will encourage molestation and mere gang eve-teasing for gang rape etc and in this regard, RJ would be a worth considering system as it reduces the likelihood of future offences.

Challenges and prospects

There is plethora of challenge in the way of RJ specially while applying in sexual offences. For example, in the aforementioned instances, the victim may be pressured to grant consent by her family, in-laws, and office for the sake of her reputation due to our society’s patriarchal mindset. Any farther, because of the traumatic experience victim may not be comfortable to face perpetrator and finally she may not be satisfied with the result and her afterwards position in office or in laws house. The biggest challenge a victim may face is to be restricted from taking any legal actions against the offender. But the entire process of RJ is designed to be very carefully considered in cases of sexual harassment which is adequate enough to address every challenge arisen.

First of all, RJ is only considered when initiated by the survivor. For example, the family members or employer on behalf of the victim cannot propose to initiate the process. No one should ever be expected or in any way pressurized to take part, and, in order to make sure the process is safe, RJ should only happen when there is a facilitator with the right skills and experience available. They must have completed suitable training and have specific expertise in sexual harm. They will determine whether the procedure is appropriate and, if so, will ensure that the survivor is kept safe following the procedure.

Secondly, this procedure allows the victim to choose whether she will attend the procedure alone or with the assistance of a friend or family member. RJ always ensures that the victim is involved in the process without any iota of fear and pressure from the stakeholders. In this instance, the facilitator is expected to constantly be supportive of the victim’s decision.

Finally, RJ is only initiated if the offender has admitted to the crime. RJ does not override the criminal justice system and once an offender has been convicted a restorative intervention does not impact on their sentence. Moreover, RJ service can be used alongside with prison sentence. Therefore, it includes justice officials also in case of yielding any legal outcome. Even after the RJ process, the punishment process still remains in criminal justice system and the court corridor is always open for victim to get access to justice as she desires.

Overall, RJ system follows high level of preparation where parties are neither allowed to be pressurized to attend the process nor to accept the outcome of the process. RJ even permits the parties to drop and quit the process any time. Thus, RJ is a platform for the victim to vent her depression, psychological discomfort on offender and his family, an opportunity for the offender to realize his wrongdoing which helps him to accept his guilt and punishment.

Conclusion

To deal with sexual offences which are sensitive but often compromised in Bangladesh, RJ might be a savior as it respectively focuses on addressing the causes of harm, repairing the harm done to the victim and accepting the offender as a reformed person. RJ aims to address the cause of offence, to repair the harm and to bring transformative changes into offender. RJ encourages offenders to take responsibility for their action and make amends, and offers the potential for behavioral changes. RJ helps the offender to be free from the tag of criminal and aims to reintegrate into the society as a reformed person. Also, RJ brings victim, offender and society together to accept the offender as a reformed person making it easy for all stakeholders. Overall, this unique opportunity can provide satisfaction and sense of closure which can ultimately help both victim and offender to move on in life.

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