“Walking in her shoes”: The Impact of Victim Impact Panels on Perpetrators of Intimate Partner Violence

ABSTRACT

Restorative justice models have had success with some issues within the criminal justice system; however, advocates and researchers within the intimate partner violence practice community have been reluctant to embrace this model. Criminal justice responses for intimate partner violence continue to be founded on a blend of retributive and rehabilitative justice models. Despite this reluctance, use of the restorative justice intervention of victim impact panels, may have targeted utility for increasing perpetrators’ empathy for their victims. The author 2examined responses from perpetrators who were mandated to participate in a victim impact panel experience as part of the coordinated community system response to intimate partner violence.

KEYWORDS:

• Batterers
• family/domestic violence
• offenders
• restorative justice
• victim impact statement