Huang, Hsiao-Fen
Description
This thesis contributes to a deeper understanding of the application of restorative
justice to domestic violence in a society with remnants of Confucian thinking.
Domestic violence cases in local projects A and B, which are part of Taiwan’s
Restorative Justice Initiative, are investigated through a case study methodology. The
translation of restorative justice in theory and practice is addressed, with particular
attention given to the influence and effectiveness of the implementation...[Show more] networks on
the translation process.
This thesis makes a comparison of western, Confucian, and feminist interpretations of
restorative justice, to develop an analytic and argumentative base for this thesis. Five
core principles are identified from western theories of restorative justice: accountability,
active participation, reintegration, rehabilitation, and restoration. Confucian and
feminist values that correspond to the five restorative justice principles are also
recognised, such as ‘role-bearing persons’, ‘relational appropriateness’, ‘harmony’, and
‘face’ in Confucianism, and from feminism ‘validation of wrongness of violence’,
‘power and control’, ‘cycle of violence’, ‘gender equality’, and ‘consciousness-raising’.
These values shape restorative justice as practised in Confucian and feminist contexts.
Through official documentation, qualitative interviews, and meeting observations,
western, Confucian, and feminist versions of restorative justice were all found to carry
some weight with implementers and participants. First at the institutional level,
implementation institutions (the Ministry of Justice and the District Prosecutors
Offices and NGOs in Projects A and B) all comprehensively accepted, but
differentially favoured, western, Confucian, and feminist versions of restorative justice.
The Ministry’s support for Confucian and western versions of restorative justice were
respectively bolstered by the legacy of Chinese mediation, and by the legitimation of
restorative justice through the United Nations, mediated by an international restorative
justice NGO and Taiwan’s restorative justice scholars.
As the state adopted a steering role, local institutions had opportunity to implement
restorative justice programs in their own fashion. In Project A, the NGO’s speciality in
family mediation nurtured Confucian interpretations of restorative justice. In Project B,
feminist interpretations of restorative justice were developed, based on the mental
health profession and feminist commitment, and strengthened by a highly networked
feminist community in Taiwan. The key difference between the overall approach of
Projects A and B was the strength of the implementation team’s connection with a
pro-feminist external network. In Sally Engle Merry’s (2006b) terms, the implementers
and actors in the external network who were imbued in Confucian or feminist
discourses, appeared adept at vernacularising them into other discourses, including
restorative justice.
At the level of interpretation of individual implementers (criminal justice officers and
practitioners), nine practice goals were set up, reflecting an amalgamation of and also
competition among western, Confucian and feminist interpretations of restorative
justice. The implementers variously privileged western, Confucian or feminist values. .
This generated different logics of orderings of the nine goals (and thereby the five
principles) of restorative justice. ‘Acknowledgment of wrongdoing’ was a watershed
goal. Implementers favouring Confucian values of ‘face’ and ‘harmony’ considered
this goal unnecessary and prioritised ‘reduction of punishment on offenders’ and
‘relationship restoration’. Those adopting a feminist interpretation reversed these
priorities.
The multiple expectations and needs of victims and offenders in Project A also manifested coexistence and diverse prioritisation of western, Confucian, and feminist
ideas. The parties’ satisfaction with restorative justice processes was closely related to
how practitioners responded to their expectations and needs. Victim discontent or hurt
most often accompanied practitioners valuing their own professional opinions or
family views over victims’ voices; or pursuing relationship restoration by consolidating
family hierarchy, while failing to attend to the wrongfulness of violence.
Victim and offender voices and feedback supported the proposition that western,
Confucian, and feminist interpretations of restorative justice may collectively, but not
solely, meet the needs and expectations of victims and offenders of domestic violence
in Taiwan. These research findings suggest that for Taiwan’s practitioners, an
interpretation of restorative justice that is responsive to parties’ expectations and needs
is a necessity.
This thesis proposes hybridity of emotional, cultural, and political intelligence in
vernacularisation of restorative justice. Implements need to embark on a sharp learning
curve to achieve this outcome. Devolved governance and management approaches
such as double-loop learning and the logic of mutual causality are of critical
importance to the revised vernacularisation model that is proposed in this thesis.
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