Due to some of the convos I see happening, I want to share some info I think ppl should have when discussing how transformative justice & community accountability work, the history of these practices, or what they really aim accomplish. There's a lot of misinformation out there.
First, transformative justice and community accountability are not synonyms. Not all community accountability processes that address assault are grounded in transformative frameworks. Communities have been crafting processes in many forms for as long as these harms have existed.
When I discuss transformative justice, I am generally talking about a transformative framework, bc that is consist with my work/belief system. I don't condemn other processes (there are many) bc I respect community and personal autonomy. I think it's fair to expect the same.
Transformative justice can take many forms. There is no singular fixed definition, as it is not a one-size-fits-all mechanism & everything has its own context. I have seen this process play out quickly in some cases, w lesser harms that can be interrupted and transformed quickly.
In my work, I describe TJ as the halting of the immediate harm, acknowledgement of the harm, amends where poss and the attempted transformation of the underlying circumstances that facilitated the harm. But again, different shapes.
For example, a person who will never see the person they harmed again, for whatever reason, could still work with an accountability team to try to transform themselves and their behavior, so as not to do further harm in the future.
TJ is not a recent invention. What we call restorative or transformative justice has existed in numerous contexts throughout history, including some Native and Black communities. These practices weren't interrupted bc they didn't work. They were largely undermined by colonialism.
TJ can look like a lot of things and can involve a lot of harms of varying severity. Community accountability is an extended process (often over a year or more long at times) that usually addresses sexual harm. In a TJ framework, it has elements that I described above.
Community accountability in a TJ framework also involves an acknowledgment that a harm has occurred. Not everyone's going to go in proclaiming their guilt, but the acknowledgement that a harm happened is an essential beginning.
In the model of community accountability I learned, the person who was harmed has a support team & the person who caused harm has an accountability team to challenge them/push them forward. A facilitator is the go between. Teams don't necessarily have to share space w each other.
This is a long and difficult process that only works if it is something that folks want to make work. It is one tool, one alternative to a system that p much always fails and harms survivors. If we are going to say fuck 12, I think we need to offer options. This is one option.
Survivors should be supported on their own terms. If they say they don't want a process, I would never argue. If they say they need to go to the cops, I would not argue. If they hit someone w a baseball bat, I get it. TJ is something some ppl really want.
As a person who has intervened, by request, in a number of harmful situations, I have learned that some ppl who would never engage the police want a different path. Ppl whose children have hurt them, for example, often don't want punitive justice. They want a path to change.
I don't think it makes sense to knock something that some survivors want, that really does work for some ppl, as tho there is some super successful alternative out there that we're all trying to replace w TJ. Nothing works all the time and cages fail us every day.
This is a community based approach & it is a personalized process. So it is not some all-encompassing "alternative to prisons." People who want a bigger spectrum of options need to help construct them, rather than demanding one alternative work in every scenario. Nothing does.
Ultimately, I think survivors get to decide what kind of justice they want to pursue and it is not for us to judge, whether it's TJ or the system, bc we are not the ones who have to live w how it plays out. I respect autonomy. Also, none of us have perfected alternatives to offer
Pressuring survivors into TJ or any other course of action is wrong, full stop. Any idea/avenue of resolution can be misused by people who don't have the right knowledge or correct intentions. That is true of these processes as well.
I also think it's important to fully understand ideas before we pick them apart. I was skeptical about transformative justice until I got my learn on. Once I understood it, I knew I believed in it. Not everyone will, but it's good to understand something before shooting it down.
For those who want to learn more, this is an excellent resource. transformharm.org/?fbclid=IwAR2V…
More than anything, I hope that every survivor gets the support they deserve. I know that doesn't happen, but I think it's something we should all aspire to. And I think every survivor should be respected as the best judge of what course of action they need.
Correction: 3rd tweet should say "when I discuss community accountability"
I'm not taking anything negative that I have seen people say personally. I am comfortable in my beliefs and their foundation & I haven't seen anything that undermines that confidence, so I'm good. But I have seen others attacked & incorrect info spread & I wanted to address that.
