Key women,key issues

Gillian Beer, George Eliot, Angela Leighton, Elizabeth Barrett Browning; Key Women Writers series (Harvester Press) Sussex, 1986.     

Restorative Justice: The Challenge of Sexual and Racial Violence

The paper reviews the theory and policy proposals of recent formulations of abolitionism and restorative justice. Challenges are posed to some of the assumptions of abolitionism by considering its applicability to acts of violence against women, children, and minority ethnic citizens. In particular, the assumptions that dangerous offenders are few, and that the 'meaning' of a harmful act is negotiable between perpetrators and victims, are called into question. The symbolic function of criminalization and penalization is discussed. The paper considers whether the strategies suggested by recent proponents of forms of abolitionism and restorative justice can satisfy doubts about the adequacy of earlier abolitionist formulations in relation to both the symbolic and instrumental functions presently served by criminal law.Whilst calls for further criminalization and penalization of racial, sexual, and domestic violence are understandable, the abolitionist case that retributive justice is more likely to increase rather than reduce such violence, and to leave victims unsatisfied, is defended.     

Justice of Conjugal Divisions of Labor—You Can't Always Get What You Want

The new intramarital distributions of 190 young parents in their third month of first parenthood were studied in a multifaceted distributive and procedural justice framework. For a large majority, justice was an important dimension in their intramarital distributions of household labor, child care, leisure time, breadwinning. Justice ratings of various principles in general were more liberal than the reported practice, in women even more than in men. The practice reported was mainly traditional, with a gender-segregated distribution of labor. A pattern of marked consistencies and inconsistencies between the principles rated as just and factual practice emerged. Inconsistencies occurred more often in women than in men.     

BEATING THE ODDS: MAYORAL LEADERSHIP AND THE ACQUISITION OF POWER

During a time of dwindling resources, Boston Mayor Kevin White acquired a significant amount of power. This was in contrast to the experiences of other mayors during the 1960s and 1970s and to the predictions for mayoral leadership in general. Examining the paradox of White's administration underscores the need for politically skillful executives. Effective political skills include the ability to perceive resource opportunities, to select the appropriate strategies and to choose the best arena in which to operate. While all mayors have access to resources, they do not always use them effectively. Resources must be conserved, protected, and pyramided. Focusing on White's role as a power accumulator, his use of federal money, and his shift from audience and media politics to constituent and organization politics, this article examines how a mayor expands his political capital in an environment of limited resources. The major themes that emerge are the importance of political skills and political organization to strong mayoral leadership.     

A STUDY OF CLIENT SATISFACTION WITH FAMILY COURT COUNSELLING IN CASES INVOLVING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

The Family Court of Australia provides conciliation counselling to couples who are involved in disputes regarding their children following separation. In situations where domestic violence has occurred, the appropriateness of providing counselling to such couples has been seriously questioned This study examines the experience of clients attending counselling at the family court. Two groups of clients are studied—one group who reports domestic violence as a significant issue and a comparison group who does not report domestic violence. The results indicate that the two groups do not differ in their expressed level of satisfaction with the counselling they have received and that both groups consider counselling to have been helpful in resolving their issues. The preliminary results of this study have implications for the provision of postseparation counselling/mediation to couples when domestic violence has occurred.     

WHO WILL MAKE THE PUBLIC AWARE OF MEDIATION?

Expanding on the issue raised by Meyer Elkin in the June 1986 issue of Conciliation Courts Review, Barbara Younger, a mediator in Massachusetts reviews some opinions of attorneys, therapists and mediators regarding whether referrals to mediation are actually made to their clients. She notes that because of what seem to be possible overlaps in services, conflict in services and perhaps even protection of territorial limits, professionals seem to make preferential judgments about which clients should be provided knowledge of the mediation option.