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]
Examples of Transformative Justice
"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 cease to decrease your reliance on the criminal legal system?"- Ejeris Dixon [3]
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Disposability discourse |
Much discussion around the severity of COVID was lessened by expressing how it mainly sickens and kills elderly, chronically ill, and disabled people. This discourse suggests these groups are seen disposable. |
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Loosened restrictions too early |
When governments loosened COVID restrictions in response to business demands, political pressure, and public impatience, rather than scientific evidence, high risk populations (the chronically ill, disabled and elderly) were subsequently told they are disposable yet again. |
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Working through illness |
Regulations around how many sick days should be required when someone falls ill with COVID also demonstrated ableism. In relation to these regulations, and in favour of profit above health, many politicians including US President Joe Biden, praised themselves for working through COVID, instead of encouraging people to rest and recover if they'd fallen ill. |
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Individualism |
Individuals have been encouraged to make 'personal' choices on vaccines (without legitimate health restrictions), masks and gatherings. "There is no individual safety without collective safety and collective safety requires that no one is safe unless everyone is safe." - Mia Mingus [4] |
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
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.
