The RESTORE Program for sex crimes: differentiating therapeutic jurisprudence from restorative justice with therapeutic components
Abstract
This chapter defines therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ), indexes similarities and differences of restorative justice (RJ) and TJ, assesses the relationship between TJ, RJ and therapy. It presents case studies of TJ courts and of Responsibility and Equity for Sexual Transgressions Offering a Restorative Experience (RESTORE), a model RJ programme with therapeutic components for sex crimes that was designed, implemented and evaluated in the US. Evaluation of success in RESTORE focused on measurement of process outcomes, satisfaction and safety. The chapter explains the common language used to describe criminal case parties in the literature ('victim' and 'offender'), and utilise the terms from the RESTORE model: survivor-victim (SV) and responsible person (RP). Using study designs that attribute therapeutic outcomes to ancillary therapy services used by SVs and RPs but also measure justice outcomes related to the conferencing process will ultimately provide a more holistic picture of the scope of effects of RJ with therapeutic components.