The relationship between healing and justice for survivors of sexual violence: Participants’ experiences of restorative justice

INTRODUCTION: This article explores how participants in restorative justice processes facilitated by Project Restore NZ (Project Restore) experienced healing and discusses how these experiences relate to experiencing a sense of justice. Project Restore is a specialist restorative justice provider group situated in the community that has developed restorative processes specifically designed to respond to sexual violence. METHODS: The data presented in this article come from an anonymous online questionnaire that was developed using the justice interests of Daly’s (2017) victimisation and justice model. The questionnaire was comprised of both multi-choice, quantitative and open qualitative questions; this article focuses on the qualitative data related to healing. Thirty-seven survivors of sexual violence who had participated in a restorative justice process facilitated by Project Restore completed the questionnaire. FINDINGS: Although constructed around the topic of justice, the questionnaire—and particularly the open qualitative questions—nonetheless elicited a significant amount of data pertaining to healing, an element that was not specifically canvassed. Participants spoke of healing both in relation to restorative justice in general, but also in connection to specific justice interests from Daly’s Victimisation and Justice model. CONCLUSION: The findings strongly suggest that there is an interplay between justice and healing, which is consistent with the literature, and point to Daly’s justice interests as pertinent considerations to guide the practice of social workers who are supporting survivors to heal from sexual violence.