Addressing individual and community needs in the aftermath of campus sexual misconduct: restorative justice as a way forward in the re-entry process

ABSTRACT

Restorative justice is an approach to incidents of harm involving a high level of support and accountability for people who cause harm. To date, there is neither federal regulation nor commonly applied standard of care for re-entry to campus by a student who has been found responsible for sexual misconduct. Restorative justice re-entry circles represent a promising approach to the reintegration of students, taking into account the needs of the individual survivor, the student who violated policy, and the safety concerns of the campus community. Using a case study, this article outlines an example of a re-entry circle at a university in the United States and discusses the lessons learned with regard to concerns about the student’s mental health status, issues of race and racism on campus, and the role of a trauma-informed approach to circle practice in incidents involving a complex interplay of mental health, social status, and race on campus.

KEYWORDS:

• Restorative justice
• campus adjudication
• reintegration
• sexual misconduct
• Circles of Support and Accountability
• Title IX

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 In this article, we use the terms survivor, complainant, and harmed party interchangeably. We avoid the stigmatising term “offender” in favour of “respondent,” “accused student,” and instead use person-first phrasing such “student who caused harm” or “student that violated policy.”