Bringing together authors and victims of domestic violence who are not involved in the same case: the Nantes public prosecutor's office is launching an experiment with around ten volunteers to try to prevent recurrence.
To read also: "We postpone our death until tomorrow": four women tell the hell of domestic violence
"
The objective is to arrive, not by the confrontation but the dialogue, at a process which facilitates the reconstruction of the victim and the responsibility of the author
", explained Wednesday to the press the public prosecutor Pierre Sennès .
According to him, "
it is a way of restoring the social bond and preventing recidivism
".
Called “
restorative justice
”, this experiment complements the various systems already present in Nantes, where the judicial court receives a thousand proceedings each year for criminal offenses in matters of domestic violence.
It should involve ten volunteers - five perpetrators of violence and five victims - and take place between March and September 2021 in several stages: preparatory interviews, group meetings (victims on one side, perpetrators on the other), five meetings three hours between perpetrators and victims and finally a review meeting.
The system will be implemented by two associations, France Victimes 44 Nantes, which supports 500 women each year, and Adaes44 (a departmental association for educational and social support), which follows around 300 perpetrators of domestic violence.
They are already working together during authors' empowerment courses and wanted to go further by training their staff at the French Institute for Restorative Justice (IFJR).
The International Restorative Justice Week is held from November 16 to 20.
Long experienced in Anglo-Saxon countries (Canada, Great Britain, United States ...) but also in Japan or Belgium, it is enshrined in French law in the law of August 15, 2014 and implemented by a circular from the Keeper of the Seals of March 15, 2017.
