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Rape is supposed to be a crime against the state:
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Marlee didn’t believe sending the assailant to prison would be productive in any way. Her social work studies showed criminals are released from prison more angry, more violent, more likely to rape.
If only there were a way to find out answers to her question “why” and tell him how much pain he had caused. If only there were a way to forgive and understand without condoning, a kind of “rapist rehab” that would teach her assailant about consent and how to be respectful to women.
She searched the internet and found The Forgiveness Project — a Toronto non-profit that works with ex-convicts, mentors and prison programs on the power of forgiveness — and she learned about restorative justice (RJ).
Tara Muldoon was eager to help.
The founder and executive director of The Forgiveness Project had been through something similar in September 2017 — had just wrapped up a business meeting at a local restaurant, was completing paperwork, when a stranger assaulted her.
There was video footage, it looked like a slam-dunk case, but Muldoon had worked with the court system for years and knew the trial process would be re-traumatizing.
She wanted closure, acknowledgment, an apology. It never came.
When her assailant was given a chance to speak to the court, instead of accepting blame “he just wanted to talk about how hard this was on himself. In the end, he got probation. It was a really hard blow for me.”
Through The Forgiveness Project, she helps others understand the complexities of trauma and forgiveness.
Muldoon could see Marlee was breaking new ground. She directed her to Jeff Carolin, a Toronto lawyer who believed in the restorative approach.
Carolin told Marlee restorative justice has been done for smaller crimes — shoplifting youth, for example — but he didn’t know of any case in the conventional justice system involving an adult male and sexual assault victim where the restorative process replaced adjudication by the courts entirely — no trial, no guilty plea.
How a Markham sex assault survivor found justice — and peace | The St…
archived 2 Nov 2019 13:20:57 UTC
If only there were a way to find out answers to her question “why” and tell him how much pain he had caused. If only there were a way to forgive and understand without condoning, a kind of “rapist rehab” that would teach her assailant about consent and how to be respectful to women.
She searched the internet and found The Forgiveness Project — a Toronto non-profit that works with ex-convicts, mentors and prison programs on the power of forgiveness — and she learned about restorative justice (RJ).
Tara Muldoon was eager to help.
The founder and executive director of The Forgiveness Project had been through something similar in September 2017 — had just wrapped up a business meeting at a local restaurant, was completing paperwork, when a stranger assaulted her.
There was video footage, it looked like a slam-dunk case, but Muldoon had worked with the court system for years and knew the trial process would be re-traumatizing.
She wanted closure, acknowledgment, an apology. It never came.
When her assailant was given a chance to speak to the court, instead of accepting blame “he just wanted to talk about how hard this was on himself. In the end, he got probation. It was a really hard blow for me.”
Through The Forgiveness Project, she helps others understand the complexities of trauma and forgiveness.
Muldoon could see Marlee was breaking new ground. She directed her to Jeff Carolin, a Toronto lawyer who believed in the restorative approach.
Carolin told Marlee restorative justice has been done for smaller crimes — shoplifting youth, for example — but he didn’t know of any case in the conventional justice system involving an adult male and sexual assault victim where the restorative process replaced adjudication by the courts entirely — no trial, no guilty plea.
