Transformative justice
“Transformative Justice (TJ) is a policy framework and approach to responding to violence, harm and abuse. TJ seeks to respond to violence without creating more violence and/or to engage in harm reduction to decrease violence. Transformative justice responses and interventions 1) do not rely on the state; 2) do not reinforce or perpetuate violence such as oppressive norms or vigilantism; and most importantly, 3) actively cultivate things that prevent violence like healing, accountability, resilience, and safety for everyone involved.” – Mia Mingus [1]
History of Transformative Justice
“TJ was created by and for many of these communities (e.g. indigenous communities, black communities, immigrant communities of color, poor and low-income communities, communities of color, people with disabilities, sex workers, queer and trans communities). It is important to remember that many of these people and communities have been practicing TJ in big and small ways for generations–trying to create safety and reduce harm within the dangerous conditions they were and are forced to live in. For example, undocumented immigrant women in domestic violence relationships, disabled people who are being abused by their caretakers and attendants, sex workers who experience sexual assault or abuse, or poor children and youth of color who are surviving child sexual abuse have long been devising ways to reduce harm, stay alive and create safety and healing outside of state systems, whether or not these practices have been explicitly named as “transformative justice.” - Mia Mingus [2]
Notes from Beyond survival: strategies and stories from the transformative justice movement. By Ejeris Dixon and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
"The process of building community safety poses some critical questions to our movements: What is the world that we want? How will we define safety? How do we build the skills to address harm and violence? How do we create the trust needed for communities to rely on each other for mutual support?" "''What can you help build? What conversations can you start to increase the safety of your community? What new structures or collaborations will you crease to decrease your reliance on the criminal legal system?"- Ejeris Dixon
Nathan Shara on going from saying sorry to doing sorry
- Shame undermines transformative justice. Where guilt focuses on a behaviour (I did something bad), shame creates an identity (I am bad). Shame creates hiding, numbing, blaming, attacking, defending and overcompensating.
- We want to avoid overaccountability: "I can't stand how bad I feel and I can't imagine making it right" and underaccountability: "I'm going to hide that it happened or lie/blame someone else"
For folks who have experienced harm, they'll want to assess:
- What accountability for the harm caused looks like to them
- Requests they might have, boundaries for the person who caused harm
- Their understanding of what caused harm
For folks who caused harm, they'll want to assess:
- How they're relating to the situation
- How they think their behaviour impacted the person
- How would they feel about telling someone in their life they caused harm to the person?
- How they understand what caused the harm
Philly Stands Up! Collective on 5 phases of the accountability process
1. The beginning
- Choose a pair of people other than the harmed and the person who did the harm to provide support and facilitate the accountability process.
- Assess the situation and schedule a meet up with the person who caused harm.
2. Designing the process
- Make a list of demands with the person who was harmed. I.e. 'if they see me somewhere it's their responsibility to leave the premises', 'they are not to contact me personally, ever' etc.
- Involve the person who was harmed in designing the process, including objectives, timeline, tactics.
- Engage the person who caused harm in a way that works for them (i.e. a meeting online? On a walk? Doing a reading or watching a recording?) Set ground rules w the person so you can hold them accountable if they fail a commitment (i.e. arriving on time or giving notice otherwise, no name calling etc).
3. Life structure
- Give the person who caused harm space at each meeting to do a 'check in'; hurdles in their daily lives, emotional state, logistic hurdles, progress made. Provide support where possible.
4. Tools used
- Ask to hear stories, encourage discussion. These can help push for new ways of understanding and rewriting narratives that prevent people from taking full responsibility for their actions.
- Use writing to record instances of abuse, log times they feel angry or frustrated, or to journal about how the accountability process is going.
- Role-playing call help build skills of perception, try new behaviours and understand past ones.
- Refer to film, lectures, podcasts etc. on relevant issues at play
5. Closing the process
- When the demands have been met according to the person who was harmed, the process can close
- The person who did the harm should have sustainable systems of support available moving forward
- Space out meetings more gradually (i.e. meeting every 2 weeks, every month, then every 2 months etc. until meetings are no longer needed).
For a tool used in transformative justice circles on accountability, see pod mapping.
For further insight on transformative justice, we recommend checking out this quick video featuring Adrienne Maree Brown, Mia Mingus, Stas Schmiedt, Ann Russo, Esteban Kelly, Martina Kartman, Priya Rai, and Shira Hassan
If you have any suggested revisions or additional resources to share related to the above content, please email them to kenzie@lehub.ca.
