Sewing the tear

An analysis of the application of the restorative justice model to hate crimes against the LGBTQIA+ community in Italy

Resumen

Restorative Justice is a system of criminal justice focused on the victim’s story which tends towards a reparation, at least a symbolic one, of the harm caused by the offence. Unlike the traditional retributive model, in the Restorative Justice system the offender’s punishment falls into the background, and on the contrary, it focuses on the chance to sew the tear between victims and authors, and also between authors and the community at large. Thereby, Restorative Justice empowers all those affected to explain their thoughts and feelings around what happened. It restores the victim’s dignity and assigns the rightful responsibilities to the offender. Over the years, some projects of Restorative Justice have been activated in Italy, primarily in the field of child justice. In addition, the Cartabia reform introduced new laws to encourage the use of this approach. Considering the great attention that this approach offers to the victims’ needs and to the importance of an authentic and generative dialogue, it could be very helpful when dealing with homolesbobitransphobic incidents. This approach would allow the queer victims to tell their stories and the offenders to acknowledge the pain caused by their actions. But it doesn’t end here: Restorative Justice can set up rehabilitative programs in order to dismantle the ideas and preconceptions that led to the offence, developing empathy towards others. The application of Restorative Justice has the potential to help with the victim recognition and the creation of rehabilitative programs that could have an impact on the community at large. However, implementing restorative activities implies a series of limitations as to the operators’ training. People who work with victims and offenders must be prepared and educated about hate crimes against the LGBTQIA+ community, along with their consequences on society. For instance, the Italian justice system doesn't include a specific criminal offence that recognises sexual orientation and gender identity as motivations that lead to the commission of hate crimes. Therefore, the objective of this article is to examine the current Italian scenario on the matter, by observing what kind of projects have been implemented and their outcomes. In order to do so, the authors will analyse the documentation produced at a national and european level. Moreover, the authors will get in touch with associations dedicated to the promotion of restorative projects to get to know their direct experiences in this field. Our goal is to underline the potential of Restorative Justice and to offer solutions to overcome its limitations. The underlying belief is that the improvement of written documentation on the matter is the first step to spark a deep reflection, which would serve as a foundation for the creation and implementation of new, conscious, and effective projects.

Keywords: Restorative Justice, LGBTQIA+, hate crimes.