Beyond Carceral Justice: Exploring Restorative And Transformative Approaches To Gender-based Violence

Background: For four decades, the dominant legal answer to gender-based violence in India, as in much of the world, has been more criminal law: new offences, harsher sentences and faster trials. These reforms were hard won and remain necessary. Yet most survivors never approach the police, and many who do find that prosecution neither stops the violence nor meets their needs.
Objective: This paper asks whether restorative and transformative justice can offer survivors something the criminal system cannot, and under what legal conditions such approaches can be used without reproducing the coercion and silencing that feminist law reform set out to end.
Methodology: The study is doctrinal and analytical. “It examines Indian statutes and Supreme Court decisions, international standards including the Istanbul Convention and CEDAW General Recommendation No 35, survey data on help-seeking, and the theoretical and empirical literature on restorative and transformative justice”.
Findings: Carceral responses reach only a small share of survivors and often leave their practical needs unaddressed. Restorative processes show promise when they are voluntary, survivor-led and backed by safeguards, but become dangerous when used to push women into “compromise”. Indian courts have rightly refused to allow private settlement of serious sexual offences, while civil law under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 already contains quietly restorative features.
Conclusion: The paper argues for a complementary rather than substitutive model: survivor-initiated, risk-screened processes that run alongside the criminal law, supported by public investment in shelters, economic security and community-level prevention.