Restorative justice and sexual violence on college and university campuses: scoping review and recommendations for further research

Traditional approaches to adjudicating sexual assault on university campuses are grounded in adversarial frameworks that are arguably narrowly punitive and retraumatizing for survivors. There have been many calls for "restorative justice" (RJ) as a promising alternative. However, RJ in higher education settings remains relatively underexplored, particularly in relation to sexual violence. This scoping review synthesizes existing scholarship on RJ as applied to sexual violence within higher education settings in the United States. A comprehensive search was conducted in July of 2023. Emergent themes of 41included articles were: dissatisfaction with traditional adjudication practices; enthusiasm about possibilities for introducing RJ practices; concerns about practical and theoretical implications of using RJ practices on campuses; recognition of limited existing research; and recommendations/considerations for implementation. This review revealed significant gaps in existing evidence. Future research should examine the effectiveness, institutional uptake, and macro-structural context of RJ practices to address sexual harm on college campuses.