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This was written for a transformative justice (TJ) intervention I led and I'm sharing it here for others to use in their work. It was meant to be a brief description for those who are not as familiar with the framework and orientation of TJ and do not have the time or capacity to read a large, long document. It is not a history of TJ, nor a complete naming of every part of TJ, or even a thorough fleshing out of all that is named here. It is an introductory description of work that can be hard to describe. It is meant to be a starting point, not an endpoint. I hope it may be useful for some of you.
Many thanks to Ejeris Dixon, Mariame Kaba, Andi Gentile, and Javiera Torres who helped edit this description so it could be shared publicly. Thank you to the many groups and countless individuals who have been part of creating, building, and carrying forward what we now call "transformative justice" and "community accountability." Special appreciation to the people and groups who have greatly influenced my understanding of TJ: Sara Kershner, Creative Interventions, Mimi Kim, The Atlanta Transformative Justice Collaborative, INCITE!, Communities Against Rape and Abuse, Philly Stands Up, Community Holistic Circle Healing, Just Practice, Shira Hassan, Mariame Kaba, Ejeris Dixon, and The Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective. Thank you also to all of those whose names we do not know, who have been practicing this work in big and small ways, long before it was named and documented.
Transformative Justice (TJ) is a political framework and approach for responding to violence, harm, and abuse. At its most basic, it seeks to respond to violence without creating more violence and/or engaging in harm reduction to lessen the violence. TJ can be thought of as a way of "making things right," getting in "right relation," or creating justice together. Transformative justice responses and interventions:
1)do not rely on the state (e.g. police, prisons, the criminal legal system, I.C.E., foster care system), though some TJ responses do rely on or incorporate social services like counseling;
2)do not reinforce or perpetuate violence such as oppressive norms or vigilantism; and most importantly
3)actively cultivate the things we know prevent violence such...