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Abstract
A policy provision in the Criminal Victim Assistance Program in British Columbia excludes the offender from participating in restorative justice approaches with the victim (and other affected parties) during counseling. A historical analysis of victim responses to crime shows that the victim experience to crime is socially constructed. In this regard, this policy act that excludes offenders from the victim healing process is consistent with a traditional approach to justice, which understands the offender to have committed a crime against the state, not the victim; however, separating the offender from the healing process is problematic within a restorative framework of justice where relationality is a central premise. Using a restorative lens, this policy act is contrary to an accompanying statute that has explicit provisions for counseling support for crime victims, as well as other statutes that provide for restorative responses to crime in Canada. The way we counsel and support victims from the harms created by crime cannot be separated from our view of justice.
Notes
A version of this paper was presented at the Discourse and Policy Practices: Politics-Legitimacy-Power Conference, Grenoble, France, June 22–25, 2010 (Panel: The Policy Analyst as Facilitator).
1. In 2011 in British Columbia, there were 3635 applications for criminal victim assistance; counseling was awarded to 2935 of these decisions. Though we do not know the number of victims for whom a restorative process would have been appropriate, this is a substantial number of victims who have not had a choice to use a restorative process (Victim Services and Crime Prevention, personal communication, 2012).
2. Crime Victim Assistance Act (SBC Citation2001, Chap. 38, Assented to August 27, 2001).
3. ‘Prescribed offence’ means an offence under the Criminal Code prescribed for the purposes of section 3(1) (a) (i).
4. These include: (a) medical or dental services or expenses; (b) prescription drug expenses; (c) disability aids; (d) counseling services or expenses; (e) vocational services or expenses; (f) protective measures, services or expenses; (g) repair or replacement of damaged or destroyed personal property; (h) home modification, maintenance, or moving expenses; (i) vehicle modification or acquisition; (j) homemaker, childcare or personal care services or expenses; (k) maintenance for a child born as a result of the prescribed offence; (l) income support; (m) lost earning capacity; (n) transportation and related expenses; and (o) a prescribed category.
5. ‘Victim’ means a person, other than a witness, who is killed or injured as a direct result of (a) a prescribed offence, or (b) an event referred to in section 3 (1) (a) (ii).
6. 3 (1) (b).
7. 3 (1) (c).
8. ‘Psychological harm’ means a psychological condition that (a) interferes with the health or comfort of a person and (b) is more than merely transient or trifling in nature.
9. ‘Prescribed offence’ means an offence under the Criminal Code prescribed for the purposes of section 3(1)(a)(i).
10. These include: (a) medical or dental services or expense; (b) prescription drug expenses; (c) disability aids; (d) counseling services or expenses; (e) vocational services or expenses; (f) protective measures, services or expenses; (g) repair or replacement of damaged or destroyed personal property; (h) home modification, maintenance, or moving expenses; (i) vehicle modification or acquisition; (j) homemaker, childcare or personal care services or expenses; (k) maintenance for a child born as a result of the prescribed offence; (l) income support; (m) lost earning capacity; (n) transportation and related expenses; and (o) a prescribed category.
11. Act 3(1)(c)(ii)(A).
12. The BC Health Professions Act also regulates the standards and methods of counseling that are usable by health care professionals.
13. Criminal Victim Assistance (General) Regulation 11(1).
14. Crime Victim Assistance (General) Regulation 11(2)(a).
15. Crime Victim Assistance (General) Regulation 11(5), 11(6).
16. http://crcvc.ca/en/compensation.php#ns last visited June 10, 2010.
17. In Canada, the provinces of British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick have explicit provisions in their victim assistance legislations for counseling.
18. For example, the United Nations produced a set of guidelines endorsing restorative approaches to deal with crime (United Nations, Citation2007). Numerous truth and reconciliation commissions are being implemented in response to large-scale collective crimes against humanity (e.g. South Africa, Rwanda, Canada, Pakistan). As well, restorative practices have received formal legal recognition in criminal justice statutes dealing with youth crime in England and Wales (e.g. Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act), and in Canada, both the Criminal Code and the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) have provisions consistent with restorative values (see Tomporowski, Buck, Bargen, & Binder, Citation2011). Further, there are judicial decisions (e.g. Gladue v. Roe), and critical policy papers (see A Strategy for the Renewal of Youth Justice, Department of Justice Canada, Citation1998) that express further support for restorative approaches to justice.
19. Though, it is noted, that state compensation is now in contestation: the argument has been that perhaps it is not the state that should be responsible for victim compensation (Doerner & Lab, Citation2008).
20. Crime Victim Assistance (General) Regulation 11(6).
21. see Footnote 18.