Victim-Survivor Stories of Restorative Justice

Restorative justice has been embraced in criminal justice policies and discourses in a wide range of jurisdictions as the centring of victims’ voices in policy and practice. This is often articulated as listening to the lived experience of victim-survivors. The purpose of this article is to subject such centring to critical scrutiny and consider the extent to which restorative justice can overcome the challenges of whose voice is listened to and why. This paper recognises that individual victims can and do experience restorative justice as a process of validation and that this can occur in different ways – for example, as apologies and/or forgiveness. Such processes are important for individuals. However, this paper is primarily concerned with offering some reflections on the extent to which individual experiences can and/or should serve the interests of society as a whole. This carries implications for what is understood as justice for everyone.