Gavrielides T., Loseby G. and Ntziadima A. (2014), Restorative Justice and Domestic Violence: A Critical Review, London: IARS Publications. ISBN: 978-1-907641-28-2.
 
This is an e-book available only in pdf and Kindle. For Amazon kindle purchase follow the link  
 
 
There can be no doubt that restorative justice has finally made it onto the policy agenda. In Europe, the interest in restorative justice is increasing and the United Kingdom (UK) is no exception. In the European Union (EU), for the first time restorative justice is explicitly regulated at a EU wide legislative level so that victims who chose to be involved are safeguarded. This is achieved through the Directive 2012/29/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing of minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime (“Victims’ Directive”).
 
Restorative justice is being discussed in various international fora and continues to attract the interest of many reformers and researchers (e.g., see Braithwaite 2002; Gavrielides 2007). These debates are complemented with numerous evaluations of restorative practices (e.g., see Miers 2001; Miers et al 2001; Wilcox and Hoyle 2004). However, the appropriateness of restorative justice with cases of violence against women (VAW) remains largely unexplored (Cook et al 2006; Gitana and Daly 2011). There is a general consensus among feminists and victim advocates that restorative justice is not appropriate for these cases particularly when it comes to intimate partner violence (Stubbs 1997 and 2002; Acorn 2004; Hopkins and Koss 2005). Consequently, this area of practice remains under-researched and lies in the shadow of the law (Hopkins et al 2004; Gitana and Daly 2011). Nevertheless, this has not hindered passionate practitioners from piloting conferences, mediation and other restorative justice programmes most of the time without any government support (e.g., Hudson 1998 and 2002; Julich 2010).
 
Advocates and opponents of restorative justice have called for further research into this grey area of limited practice (Yantzi 1998; Coker 1999; Stubbs 2002; Gavrielides and Coker 2005; Gavrielides 2007). Based on the premise that the restorative justice rhetoric should be on the development of restorative justice’s processes and principles and not on the superiority of its paradigm, this e-book aims to open up the debate on restorative justice’s appropriateness with VAW cases.