"הרגשתי איך תופרים לי את הלב": החוויה הרגשית של נפגעות אלימות מינית בעקבות תהליכי צדק מאחה

Background: Recent years have seen a range of efforts to develop an alternative or addition to the criminal justice process to respond to sexual violence and meet the needs of its survivors. Restorative justice is one such mechanism, which may fulfill these needs and repair the harm done.Aim: The present study maps the range of emotions experienced by survivors of sexual violencefollowing restorative justice processes.Method: Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with a search population consisting of 30 participants. Twenty were survivors of sexual violence who initiated a meeting with the person who harmed them, five were their supporters, and five were facilitators of these restorative justice processes. The interviews focused on the various emotional processes experienced by the harmed person and were analyzed using the thematic-qualitative analysis approach.Findings: Most of the survivors described positive emotional changes which were targeted inwards,towards themselves, as well as some towards the offender. Limited emotional changes occurred towards the community, demonstrating the complex relationships between sexual violence survivors and their communities.Conclusions: The present study demonstrates that when sexual violence survivors want to engage in a safe and direct dialogue with those who harmed them, restorative justice provides a platform fora range of positive emotional transformations.Implications for practice/policy: The findings highlight the need to increase accessibility torestorative justice for all parties involved in sexual violence. Further attention should be placed inintegrating the community into restorative justice processes in such cases.