Transformative justice is useful when aiming to repair relationships and untangle the root causes.
This way of resolving hurt and injury deals with the interpersonal and the systemic structures behind aggressive and violent behaviours.
This may help in an argument with a neighbour, partner or friend. It may also address a series of violent attacks between two communities or several countries.
Regardless of the situation the core principles remain the same.
They are based upon the need for people and whole communities to actively engage and work outside of any state or legal systems.
In this process we are working with accountability and transformation, new ways of communicating and understanding self and other.
Accountability here requires more than an apology, it seeks an understanding of the impact of my actions, and how that impact lands with others in my life and community.
More than just understanding the impact of my actions, I will need to find other ways to change my actions if they result in abuse, violence and harm for others.
Change requires an end to violent and harmful behaviours with an understanding and agreement that we can express ourselves without attacking and hurting others.
Transformational justice aims to work towards relationships and communities that no longer use violence, abuse, manipulation and threats to control people and communities.
This starts with developing the capacity to self reflect, repair, apologise, change behaviours and find new ways to de-escatlate difficult feelings and emotions.
Acknowledging the harm that I have caused is the beginning of being able to step outside of my big and often overwhelming feelings and see that although I have a right to express those feelings, if the impact on anyone else is that they are hurt, abused, injured or scared, then I need to be able to acknowledge that they were hurt by my behaviour.
Before long here, we can get into ideas around revenge as a way of implementing justice.
If you attack a member of my family and I take revenge by attacking a member of your family, who gains from this?
Your family are now hurt and scared by my behaviour, and my family are hurt and scared by your behaviour.
Maybe, if we can both see past the short term situation, we can work out a sustainable way to make sure there is an end to the violence between us?
This may be difficult, especially when we may have both been raised in cultures that use punishment and exclusion to shame and isolate anyone who struggles to manage their own hurt and pain.
There is an old saying that hurt people hurt people, settled people help settle people.
How do we become those settled people?
How do we support hurt people to heal from their hurt?
My experience of working with young adults and others who struggle to manage relationships based upon trust and mutual respect, leads me to believe that restorative and transformational justice practices do build understanding and new emotionally balanced behavioural opportunities.
While restorative justice can resolve arguments and repair relationships, which is really important in many situations, transformative justice is the next step and offers long term change for the whole cultural community.
Maybe we can’t find ways to live on this planet as a single species in harmony, and yet why would I not pursue my understanding that I see futures where we are raised with the skills required to mend harm in ways beyond just punishing and excluding people?
Let me know if you want to know more or have more to offer here, working with individuals and communities around these practices is such a joy when I see it working well.
Thanks for your time and attention, these are the gifts we all have to offer in varying degrees, let’s keep sharing them.