Gender, Power and Restorative Justice

This book ties restorative justice into the exercise of patriarchal power. It is focused on the individual narratives of 15 girls and young women who have participated in a victim-offender restorative justice (RJ) conference and the perspectives of youth justice practitioners. Gender, Power and Restorative Justice expands feminist engagement with RJ by focusing critical attention on the importance of the social construction of gender, the exercise of power, shame, stigma, muting and resistance to girls’ experiences of RJ conferencing. Drawing upon recent developments to the sociology of stigma and feminist perspectives on shame, the book contends that RJ conferencing can produce harmful implications for girls and young women who participate. Ultimately it is argued that anti-carceral, social policy alternatives, underpinned by feminist praxis, should replace a youth justice jurisprudence for girls. This book will be of particular use and interest to those studying modules oncriminology, youth justice, criminal justice and social work courses.

Jodie Hodgson is a lecturer in Criminology at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. Jodie has previously worked as a lecturer at Leeds Beckett University and the University of Liverpool. She completed her PhD at Liverpool John Moores University. Her research interests are situated within the areas of youth justice, feminism and critical criminology.