Transferring restorative justice to the field of domestic violence in Taiwan

Abstract

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 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.