Restorative Justice as a Trauma Informed Approach to Accountability

Punishment is a strategy that many of us use to discipline or change behavior. For many young people and adults punishment can be triggering. It can lead to shut down defensive or apathetic behavior. However if you take a Restorative Justice approach and provide opportunities to repair harms done it can lead t longer lasting positive outcomes. This alternative approach to traditional punishment is trauma-informed because it gives people choices, provides clear expectations and involves and maintains connection to community.

There are three assumptions that underlie Trauma Informed Accountability and Restorative Justice:

1. When people and relationships are harmed needs are created
2. The needs created by harms lead to obligations
3. The obligation is to heal and “put right” the harms

Typically we focus on the person who has done the harm and the punishment we think that person deserves. Often times excluding the person or the community that has been harmed. From my experience once when someone is defiant or apathetic a power over approach will not work if you want them to see the larger implications of their actions, behaviors and consequences. What makes restorative justice process trauma informed is that it is predictable, consistent and maintains a connection to community that in return helps build empathy.