The boys may now need more than a condom and a pre-nuptial in their tool kit, for protection!

Previously domestic violence and sex offences were excluded, (by virtue of their penalty) from the formal framework of restorative justice, however following the launch of project restore last month, by its initiator, Dr Shirley Julich, we can expect this to be the primary point of referral. The gate keepers in this case The Police and Lawyers.
A question critical to any anticipated outcomes from project restore is – who is driving the machine? Restorative Justice Protagonists or groups representing survivors of domestic violence and sex offences. Names such as Auckland Sexual Abuse Help, The Safe Network, and Rape Crisis, feature strongly here. We can expect this to be a victim centered process. In the development of the restorative Justice conference, we will see an amalgamation of domestic violence allegations from the family court and sexual allegations from the criminal justice system. What we are seeing here is the development of “gendered violence legislation” within our legal framework. There is no indication as to the form of the compliance and enforcement regime that might operate, to ensure the success and development of this project, nor what protection might exist for the innocent people who will be subjected to false allegation, or any level of review of outcome or development, let alone funding criteria. In the male perspective — It is teenage boys who will be most vulnerable here.

Just as a post script. I am not going to try to establish the casual link between restorative justice and child support and I won’t post it in that category