A restorative justice approach to addressing sexual misconduct in colleges and universities.

Written for college and university practitioners and administrators, The Little Book of Restorative Justice for Campus Sexual Harms combines explanation, justification, and contextualization for the application of restorative justice for sexual misconduct, including for alleged Title IX violations. This book outlines considerations, action steps, and best practices for campuses who are interested in exploring the successful implementation of RJ for sexual misconduct. The opening chapter explores the “why,” while the final chapter examines the “how” of RJ for sexual harms and Title IX for college and university campuses. The authors' backgrounds as practitioners within the higher education context grounds this work with personal reflections, experiences, and stories. 

The 2020 passage of the Final Rule of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 redesigned the law, ceding extensive authority to individual educational institutions to customize their approach to Title IX compliance. While some argue that the Final Rule may leave students less safe, there are now emergent opportunities, as federal Title IX regulations have also made allowances for the augmentation of investigative/adjudicatory Title IX processes with additional “informal” resolution options. These options can be designed to more specifically and appropriately address the harms, meet the needs, and attend to resultant obligations for those involved in situations of campus sexual misconduct.

This book provides a primer for colleges and universities who seek to move campus culture in a more restorative direction generally, and specifically for practitioners interested in exploring the possibility of amending existing sexual misconduct policies, including investigative/ adjudicatory Title IX policy and procedures, through a restorative justice informed adaptive lens. Readers will explore why it makes all the difference (both for students and administrators) to add adaptive resolution options, from both cognitive and moral development standpoints, and for purely practical reasons.