“All sexual assault victims should be able to decide for
themselves whether their private experience is made public.” Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, 9-26-18.
This important, yet underreported statement by Dr. Blasey Ford
during her testimony
as part of confirmation hearings to the Supreme Court for Judge Brett Kavanaugh,
exemplifies how the wishes of sexual assault victims are often at odds with the
law enforcement system that depends on the rapid reporting of crimes and a justice
system demands a speedy, impartial trial
of the accused.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) only
approximately 32.5% of all rapes/sexual assaults are reported. This
low rate is the combination of complex factors. Contrary to the belief
expressed even
by those in highest echelons of power, severity of assault does not
always lead to report of assaults. In fact, severity could depress reporting
rates. Data from the BJS indicate that approximately 35% of the victims who did
not report the assault cited “fear of reprisal” or
that “authorities could not/would not do anything to help” as
reasons for not reporting assaults. Unfortunately, there are scores of reports showing
that even in cases with abundant evidence, investigations are often not
rigorous if the perpetrator is
well known and liked, or influential
in the community. In addition, after the report, victims who are
often minors, are frequently ridiculed
and sabotaged by members of their community, even by those supposed
to protect them, or more egregiously, have even been threatened
with, or persecuted themselves.
In addition, in some cases where the perpetrator is convicted, the
sentences can be extremely lenient even for crimes
with elements linked to high risk for recidivism, further eroding
trust of potential victims in the system that is supposed to protect them.
The aforementioned issues are magnified when the cases involve
adolescents, alcohol intoxication, and like Dr. Blasey Ford’s case, they are
decades in the past. These cases are particularly thorny because of valid concerns
regarding the reliability
and malleability
of memory for traumatic events, and is compounded by fears of political
motivations, and of false accusations, which the data suggest occur in a
small fraction of the cases. Importantly, Dr. Blasey Ford’s case has
arisen as part of a supreme court nomination during a time of powerful partisan
division, and under the more intense scrutiny of sexual allegations brought
upon by the #MeToo movement. In
short, this case collects almost every controversial issue associated with
sexual abuse reporting and has resulted in a process that is far removed from
Dr. Blasey Ford’s expressed desire for privacy. How then can a victim achieve a
measure of justice for crimes that may have occurred decades ago and for they
may not want to bring up publicly due to very valid concerns for their safety in
an intensely public case? How can it be done in a way that lets victims “decide
whether their private experience is made public” and not be re-traumatized while
also respecting the rights of the accused who must be presumed
innocent?
One answer is that in our current system, the victim cannot.
Regardless of whether you believe Dr. Ford’s, or Judge Kavanaugh’s version of
the events (or
don’t know what/who to believe) 1, for those of us who
see ourselves as strong supporters of the rights of victims and the accused, the congressional
hearings were a reminder of the deep flaws of our retributive justice system. This system relies on an adversarial
process in which the state pursues the accused and imposes punishment with
little input from the victim. The congressional hearings were an almost surreal, steroidal version of the adversarial system at work: A prosecutor selected by supporters of the alleged perpetrator interviewed a potential victim of sex abuse on national TV(!). Such as system
incentivizes competition between defense and prosecution. Prosecutions are sometimes
not pursued if they are not perceived as “winnable” even
if there is substantial evidence to support them. In other high
profile cases, wrongful prosecutions
and convictions
follow due to community pressure and/or if the accused fit a certain profile
and narrative. In retributive justice systems, rehabilitation is only seen as a
secondary or tertiary goal to control and punishment of behavior resulting in a
self-defeating system from an economic
to a social
perspective.
However, there is an alternative. I want you to take an
imaginary time travel trip to 2012, when Dr. Blasey Ford disclosed in therapy
that she had been sexually assaulted as an adolescent. Imagine that at that
time, she had been able to find a private,
neutral intermediary who would be willing to contact Judge Kavanaugh and
mediate a meeting. In this meeting, the parties would be able to present
evidence for and against the event. The victim would be able to state the
lasting damage that the assailant left, and the assailant could express their
remorse. Both parties could mutually arrive at a peaceful, private and proactive resolution that includes ways for the
assailant to make appropriate remands.
Sounds far fetched? It is
not. These are the basic premises of Restorative Justice (RJ), an approach strongly influenced
by cultural and spiritual traditions of conflict resolution among the
indigenous peoples of Oceania and North America, and reintroduced and
formalized as an approach in the United States largely based on the work of Howard
Zehr. Restorative Justice’s focus is broader than mediation. It aims
“to involve, to the extent possible, those who have a stake in a specific
offence and to collectively identify and address harms, needs and obligations,
in order to heal and put things as right as possible.” (Zehr, 2002). Restorative
justice principles and approaches underlied the “Truth and Reconciliation
Commission” which helped
South Africa move away from apartheid.
Restorative Justice approaches have,
startlingly, helped victims and perpetrators of genocide in Rwanda move forward
in reconciliation villages and live peacefully and collaboratively
as neighbors.
In the United States, RJ approaches have been used in
various juvenile justice
systems. This last point is important. The
alleged offenses by Judge Kavanaugh occurred when he was an adolescent and perhaps
others, allegedly, as a young adult. The best data available on the trajectory
of the approximately 10% of men in college who engage in sexually abusive
behavior indicates that 93% of them engaged in it for a time-limited
pattern, and only 2.1% showed an increase in abuse. This is not to minimize the
enormous suffering that these men inflict on their victims. But for those of us who are strong advocates
of criminal reform and believers in change
and redemption, these data point to RJ as a viable way for victims
to find justice and redress from people who arguably may have changed, and may
not see themselves as abusers. Recently, Beth Jacob wrote a
poignant piece in the Washington Post about how she found the man
who raped her years ago when she was a college student but she decided not to
report because “…as I inventory potential consequences, I know my silence will
go on protecting me and…my rapist’s wife by not naming him, I spare us both. I
remain safe from scrutiny and from reliving another brutalizing round of doubt.” Hers is a powerful statement on the double
suffering of victims. Would it not be better if there was a system for Beth to
approach her alleged abuser, provide a way for her to state her injury, for him
to state his remorse and propose appropriate redress without destroying lives
but improving them in a way that is satisfactory to both? Would not that be a better alternative? Would
not that be justice?
It certainly feels that way to me. Importantly, some data support this feeling.
Systematic studies on the effects of RJ are still relatively few, but they
indicate that victims and offenders report greater sense of satisfaction with
the resolution compared to retributive justice, offenders tend to have greater
compliance with court requirements, there may be reductions in offender
dangerousness and recidivism and it reduces cost of judicial punishment while
fostering citizenships and sense of community (Latimer, et al., 2005). This is
of particular importance for sexual offenses because greater accountability,
but also sense of belonging and community in part of offenders are linked to
lower recidivism rates. Considering that many of the #MeToo victims may be
dealing with the sequelae of abuse that occurred many years ago, as statutes of
limitations may have run out, or may have deep personal reasons to not seek
recourse in the retributive justice system, RJ can provide an avenue for them.
It could provide a private way that many victims would prefer, to seek redress
that helps them heal, and have the added bonus of providing offenders with the
possibility of expressing remorse and address their wrong, a possibility that
many may
be very willing to do.
I cannot pretend to know how Judge Kavanaugh may have
reacted if in 2012 if he had been approached by Dr. Blasey Ford in a RJ context.
But it is likely that it would have been better than the current state of affairs.
It almost certainly would have been better for Dr. Blasey Ford whose life was literally
turned upside down as she had flee her home, receive death threats, and be on
receiving end of a campaign of smears, to testify at a hearing where she “did
not want to be” and “terrified” her. No
victim deserves to be put on actual or a metaphorical trial for their behavior decades
ago as minors, in a public forum filled with political grandstanding, for the
nation to observe in a process that from a victims’ advocate and law
enforcement perspective may
have been more hurtful than helpful. We must provide a better alternative
for future victims who report abuse.
As the momentum of #MeToo continues, more and more victims will
formally and informally report their abuse, and we will continue to have these
same issues play over and over. This has deep repercussions not just for the
victims but for the accused and society at large. Much is
being written about the deep identification that many felt with one
of the protagonists during the hearings, and of surveys indicating that anxiety
of “trials by public opinion,” and being “presumed guilty until proven
innocent” animates
much of the opposition to the #MeToo movement. Many have also
written about what
is “enough punishment” for the (mostly) men who have lost their
careers as result of allegations but not being charged with a crime. Once
again, perhaps RJ can provide a way to address these concerns. If there is a
system by which accuser and accused can mutually agree to convene without the
prying eye of a public that may be detrimental to fact-finding and resolution, then
fears of injustice driven by non-stop, ratings-driven news coverage could
subside.
Similarly, I do not know what is “enough” punishment especially
in cases that result in formal charges and in those that do not, but have
social and labor repercussions. I do
know that victims of these cases are perhaps in the best position to make that
judgment and should be included in such resolutions. I also know, that at some point, an offender
must be allowed to reintegrate
into society. Not doing so denies justice and the data shows, it increases risk
for all of us. Ethical and religious
traditions that have proscriptions on the role of repentance and
forgiveness are part of the foundation of RJ.
Having both victim and offender arrive at a consensus of what is enough
contrition and repentance to obtain forgiveness is a close to justice as we may
be able to be in an era where retributive justice may be an unavailable or
undesirable recourse.
What I’m proposing is an alternative that may bring a
measure of comfort, justice and restoration that our current, flawed
retributive system does not for many people, especially for those with old
wounds that they do not care to revisit in a public forum. The current system
has failed many abused and accused, why not try a better alternative?
Note of thank you to Dr. Katherine Gordon for comments on a draft, and my first doctoral student, Dr. Allison Foerschener, now a post-doctoral researcher at the Florida Department of Corrections whose passion for RJ go me interested in it.