The Community Alternative Justices Hand Book
Create Solutions For Your Community
“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” — Maya Angelou
The Goal of this Handbook
The goal of this handbook is to empower communities to build their own processes around harm prevention & harm responsiveness ☸ To offer alternatives to government/state systems that are inherently flawed by rape culture, & uphold systems of oppression. ☸ To encourage communities and to experiment, deconstruct, transform cultures and practises in order to enhance freedom and end oppression for all. ☸ To encourage communities to look to the root causes of our violent culture ☸ To create a diverse range of solutions and approaches for the transformation of both the accused, the accuser and the community & social context which led to the harm in the first place.
Our ask to you, reader.
This information is never to be used to turn a profit or to be used for anything which is to be sold.
Getting better at doing consent 6
Working out what is right for your community 8
Designing your own processes & norms 9
Example Accountability Processes 11
Example Transformative Justice 11
Resources for people who have violated someone’s consent 13
A guide to stewarding hard conversations 14
Our Mission
// To empower communities to build pre-emptive harm prevention and harm responses such that we move to dismantle our culture of violence without relying on carceral processes to manage.
// The Alternative Justices Project is a decentralized collective that seeks to address harms in our communities by expanding consent cultures, abolishing prisons, experimenting with alternative systems, and freely sharing what we've learned.
// The approaches that we have attempted involve working with both harmed and harmers to find ways of reaching a shared understanding, and self-driven means of making amends.
Our Vision
☸ We imagine a world with alternatives to our current justice systems.
☸ We imagine a world where formerly incarcerated people are our teachers and collaborators.
☸ We imagine a world where Perpetrators of sexual assault and consent violation come forward and don’t leave that burden to survivors alone.
☸ We imagine a world where alternative justice systems satisfy the practicalities of our lived experiences.
☸ We imagine a world where you EXPERIMENT with our work In more ways than we could ever possibly imagine.
☸ We imagine a world where we all work to turn these imaginings into realities.
“You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.” - Angela Davis
Thanks to Brian Patrick Tagalog for sharing their work on Unsplash.
Our Philosophy
The Alternative Justices Project seeks to further the research, creation, and application of systems of justice that can transcend and transform the state and its flawed systems of law and justice. The theoretical basis for alternative justice systems generally considered to be: interdisciplinary research on restorative and transformative justice (Saulnier and Sivasubramaniam 2015; Nocella 2011; Ruth-Heffelbower 2011) and intersectional feminist perspectives on these systems and their state-sanctioned equivalents (Gilmore 2011; Daly 2006), alongside anarchism, criminal justice, and various combinations and collaborations between these fields.
As opposed to strictly adhering to one of these philosophies, perspectives, or methodologies, the general concept of alternative justices allows for adaptability, creatively, and broader applications of the shared values within these systems and for healthy critique of various methodologies, allowing for the most impactful results. Whilst these systems can often work both independently and in conjunction with the state sanctioned justice system, they also provide both theory and action which work towards future versions of justice that are fundamentally opposed to imprisonment, punishment, and oppression.
☸ Our writings and blogs // https://medium.com/the-alternative-justices-project
☸ Our website // www.alternativejustices.com
☸ We are closely affiliated with the Second Life Project // www.secondlifeproject.net
Our Shared Critiques
Rape Culture: We are critical of narratives that trivializes, rationalizes, and condones rape and other acts of sexual violence. We are critical of the treatment of rape as a type of sex, since sex always requires consent. We critique the treatment of rape as something necessarily or fundamentally distinct from violence and other physical harms and the application of standards that view sexual harms as sex.[1]
Victim blaming and re-victimization [2]: We are critical of societies that not only blame victims of rape and violence, but also expect them to treat/solve the problem, either through prosecution or the use of whatever social standing they may have to address the harms they have experienced. We also critique re-victimization that occurs in disbelief of victim/survivors, emotional reactions on behalf of victims/survivors, and the re-victimization caused by the social idea that all rapes are the same and all must be traumatizing to the victims survivor in order to be valid. [3]
Punitive measures: We critique the idea that punishment is a method of treating rape culture or violence. We are critical of communities that condone the use of punitive measures and retribution as a way of creating ‘justice’ or prevention of further harms or signifying atonement.[4]
Systems of oppression: We call into question all systems that exist for the maintenance of dominant power structures and/or are inherently racist, classist, and patriarchal. These systems include the prison system, the police, and the state-sanctioned justice system.These can also include our own systems. Even sex-positive or consent culture systems can be biased towards or against certain gender presentations, races, socioeconomic factors, ages, sexual orientations, or standards of attractiveness. We critique any system that does not actively reflect on its own biases, conscious and unconscious, and work towards more equitable solutions.[5]
Addressing symptoms not systems: We critique the society that is not actively working to change the system that produces rape and violence, but instead focuses on punishment as a way to treating symptoms of those systems. While the repercussions of gender and sexual violence can be immense, we critique societies that put the responsibility of rape culture on certain individuals alone. We are critical of the idea that a satisfying solution to rape culture is to police each other’s touch in increasingly fine grained manner without addressing the underlying causes of violence, rape and other forms of domination.
Individualism of harm: We are critical of the assumption that the only harm done in rape and violence is to those directly involved. We are critical of ideas and actions that fail to recognize the harm done to the wider community when these acts are committed, and/or ignores the self-harm committed by the actor in violating another human. We are critical of systems that do not support or prioritize measures community and social care as ways of protecting against the traumatic effects of harms done and the harms that led to those harms being committed. [6]
The “bad rapist” trope: We critique the false reality that people who care about victims/survivors do not associate with people who commit sexual, gender, or partner violence. We are critical of the perpetuation of the image of a rapist as irredeemable and individual, i.e. the idea that rapists are “bad people” we don’t know, when in fact they are statistically our friends and lovers. We critique systems that paint “rapists” as people outside of our communities, and systems that fail to ask “How would you want your friend to be treated if they raped someone?”. [7]
One-size-fits-all solutions: We are critical of the idea that any one action or solution will work to transform all harms. Viewing premeditated rape and unintentional rape as one and the same, assuming all victims/survivors desire retribution, or that it is possible to find the singular solution to all harms negate the plurality and complexities of humanity. There are many different forms of assault that surely need different treatments. [8]
Perfectionism of solutions: We are critical of the idea that systems for transforming harms are invalid unless they are perfect and/or created by paid professionals. While learning and knowledge sharing are vital, harms will not wait for the perfect solution. We are also critical of systems and strategies that do not incorporate iteration and learning from failure.
Getting better at doing consent
#1. Learn to know yourself & what you do want
If you don’t know what you do want, you can’t consent, and you will find it hard to know what you don’t want.
Ways to request support
#2. Learn to know yourself & what you don’t want
Your boundaries are not about placing limits on others or telling others what they can or cannot do - your boundaries are about limiting your exposure to behavior that doesn’t align with who you are, who you want to be or what you want to see for the world. Sometimes we don’t know that a boundary is there until it is crossed but part of being an active participant in the world is being aware of your personal boundaries, communicating them when needed. Boundaries change over time and context, they are fluid, they are not rules. You can reflect on your boundaries and ask if they are serving you and others well or need to be shifted.
Work out your boundaries
Reading on boundaries
A boundary exploration workshop
#3. Practice saying no!
12 ways to say no without saying maybe later
Learn to celebrate when someone says ‘no’ to you!
Notice when you are accidentally trying to persuade people into doing things.
#4 Practice Asking for Consent
- Use your words. Ask for consent. Ask for consent. Ask for consent.
- Give space for an answer after making an invitation.
- If there's no clear yes, treat it as a no. If your invitation is met with anything other than a clear yes, don't move forward. Instead, get curious about what might be going on for the person.
#5 Learning to Say No
- Respond gracefully to people's boundaries. We must all participate in creating a culture that celebrates people's boundaries. In the Bonobo Tribe, the appropriate response to a "No" is, "Thank you for taking care of yourself." Check out other ways to respond gracefully to someone's boundary.
If they give an inch, don't take a mile. Consent to engage in one level of intimacy (e.g., nonsexual touch) does not automatically give you consent to advance the level of intimacy.
Avoid inadvertent pressure. If someone says "not right now" or "maybe later" twice, assume that they meant no and don't ask them again. Be sensitive to all the different ways, verbal and non-verbal, that someone might be communicating "no" to you.
Check in frequently. "Are you enjoying yourself?" "Do you like it when I ___?" "Do you want it softer/harder/faster/slower/gently/etc?"
All of these are ways to elicit feedback to be sure that your partner is still consenting to what's happening, plus it gives you useful information about your play together.
Check out Marcia Baczynski’s blog for alternatives to asking "Is This OK?"
Working out what is right for your community
Here is a survey that you can use to:
☸ Collect data and get a sense of what your community cares about or wants
☸ Identify some of your own priorities
☸ Use the questions as stimulation/inspiration for a group discussion.
Designing your own processes & norms
These are some example of structures and processes set up to deal with sexual assault and violence in our communities. Having clear guidelines for people coming into your space is crucial so that they understand
i) the norms of your space,
ii) what to do if they experience harm in your space and
iii) what will happen to them if they commit harm in your space.
It also helps those in your space know what to do if they experience harm.
1. Defined external point person with a defined set of strategies:
Example: A community identifies a trusted external person and gives them a title. If anyone hears of sexual assault / violence (or other thing - this part is up to you), they are asked to contact this person. This starts a pre-decided upon process eg they might write to the entire community to let them know something has happened. They might ask one party to take space from the community while this is investigated. Etc etc.
2. Defined internal point person with a defined set of strategies:
Example: The buddy system - each person is pseudo-randomly assigned a buddy to go to in case they need help on matters pertaining to sexual assault / violence.
3. Zero tolerance
Anyone accused is asked to leave, no questions asked.
4. Two strike system
Tolerance is assumed for the first instance, but if a second takes place action is taken.
5. Incident Reporting
This is an example of our original incident reporting system. We have since been working to revise our original incident reporting system. The following document outlines the pros and cons of our original system.
6. Transformative Mediation
This is an example of alternative justice procedures for community conflict resolution. These are examples of email templates that we use to reach out to all parties involved in the alternative justice process. Feel free to use them by making a copy.
7. Community Tools
This is an example of a community accountable space policy that focuses on harm prevention. These are our shared agreements for our stewards
7. Accountability pods
“Having an Accountability Pod normalizes mistakes, promotes/models best practices, and reduces shame around consent incidents. It is a safety net for when you miss something or mess up. It eases the social friction in a community from the harm we inevitably do to each other. Since Accountability Pods are a specialized kind of accountability process, custom built for you, they show your community what kind of restorative justice work you’re open to do, and advertises benefits for people who report harm you’ve done so you can do the work and not do that harm again. It holds leadership to a high standard while encouraging the adoption of a restorative justice culture. Sustainability here means reducing negative impacts on the physical, emotional, and social safety of as many as possible in the community. It also means moving from a Disposability Culture of excluding those who are caught being harmful towards a culture of Accountability.”
Resources
https://www.akpress.org/making-spaces-safer-e-book.html
https://zarinahagnew.gitbooks.io/emotional-resilience-and-antifragility/content/autonomous-support-groups.html
https://zarinahagnew.gitbooks.io/emotional-resilience-and-antifragility/content/emotional-first-aid.html
Example Consent Policies
Consent Policy from the Foundation for Sex Positive Culture
Consent Violation Report Procedure from the Foundation for Sex Positive Culture
A reporting system used by an ALT J community (notes & learnings)
Consent violation policy from the Pan Eros Foundation
Here is “How Our Community Deals with Consent Violations”
Embassy Network Accountable Space Policy
# referral system & wrist bands
Bonobo Tribe sex positive accountability policy
Example Accountability Processes
This is our Transformation Pod Syllabus.
This is an example of a fully transparent accountability pod
Resources on how to set one up
This is an example of alternative justice procedures for community conflict resolution
An incident reporting system - A short list the pros and cons of this system are in this document.
We have also found that some communities find it helpful to have flowcharts to help people navigate their systems.
Example Flowchart
Resources for people who have violated someone’s consent
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
So you think you might have assaulted someone?
The Right Way to React If Someone Accuses You of Violating Their Consent
What To Do if You Are The One Accused of a Consent Violation
EMAIL US - altjustices@gmail.com We collaborate with people accused of violence, rape and sexual assult to help them you idenity thoughts, beliefs and attitudes that might be controbuteing to harmful behaviour.
A guide to stewarding hard conversations
Here is our guide to Community Mediation
Some Definitions & Terms
Consent:
The explicit or implicit expression made by a person that they are willing to have something done to them by one or more other persons, or that they are willing to perform an act at the request or order of one or more other persons.
1. Consent includes the ability to make that expression, the conscious understanding of what is being done or requested, and the active willingness to engage.
2. Consent applies to all persons involved in an activity regardless of role.
3. Consent may be withdrawn at any point, regardless of prior negotiations between participating parties.
Consent Accident:
Consent Accidents can happen. Misunderstandings, assumptions, internalized peer pressure or behavioral scripts can all lead to Consent Accidents. These don’t mean you are a bad person. Just as accidentally tripping on someone’s toes on a dance floor doesn’t mean you are a bully, pushing past someone’s boundaries. [from here]
Consent Violation:
An incident during which - a) a person is acted upon (or is coerced to perform an act) by another or by others in a manner not consented to in advance or b) a person is acted upon (or is coerced to perform an act) by another or by others after a withdrawal of consent is made by the acted-upon person.A Consent Violation may occur accidentally or intentionally, with or without malice, and may or may not have injurious consequences. A Consent Violation may be physical, emotional, mental, or social in nature. A Consent Violation may be obvious to all involved, realized by a subset of the people involved, or only be clear to a single individual.
Rape:
Often a legal term for sexual assult. Defined differently depnding on your locations as a criminal act, but commonly meaning unwanted and non-consentual penetrative or oral sexual acts.
Sexual Assault:
Acts of a sexual nature that are against someone’s will and violate their consent. Many definitions exist.
Spiritual abuse:
Any attempt to exert power and control over someone using religion, faith, or beliefs can be spiritual abuse. Spiritual abuse can happen within a religious organization or a personal relationship.
Gaslighting:
A specific type of manipulation where someone is trying to get someone else to question their own reality, memory or perceptions.
DARVO:
Darvo stands for Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender. It usually involves not just "playing the victim" but also victim blaming and is a type of manipulation
References & Resources
[1] Read: https://everydayfeminism.com/2016/07/when-we-say-rape-culture/
[2] Victim blaming culture includes:
- The idea that victims are to blame for sexual or domestic violence
- The idea that victims who want to remain in relationship with their harmer are not “real victims”
- The idea that victims who want to ignore the situation aren’t “real victims”
- The questioning of a the severity of a violation based on the reaction of the victim
- The re-victimization of victims perpetuated by the state
- Systems that prioritize the anger of friends, lovers, family members of victims over the desires of victims
- The re-victimization of victims by the assumption that they must necessarily be traumatized or destroyed by this experience and that life will never be the same again
[3] Read: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jan_Jordan2/publication/237969221_Beyond_Belief
[4] Punitive measures include:
- The idea that locking up, torturing, or isolating actors of harm will prevent them from committing future harms
- The idea that layering the harm of the carceral system on top of the harm of rape is an acceptable way to move forward
- Systems that can be manipulated to create more harm as retaliation for harm
- The idea that punishment is an effective deterrent
- The idea that the violence of prison doesn’t in fact perpetuate more violence in society
- The idea that calling the police causes no harm to anyone but the actor
[5] Read: http://www.dismantlingracism.org/uploads/4/3/5/7/43579015/whitesupcul13.pdf
[6] Failure to acknowledge harms as harms to the community, including
- The idea that sexual, gender, and domestic violence are individual acts between individuals
- The idea that communities are not responsible for the care of all members, not just victim/survivors
[7] https://everydayfeminism.com/2016/02/good-people-can-be-rapists/
[8] https://everydayfeminism.com/2016/05/non-traditional-rape-narratives/
Suggested Readings
Conflict is Not Abuse
We Will Not Cancel Us
Fumbling Towards Repair
Holding Change
Also check out our Alternative Justices Bookshelf
