That's a big question, but that's something LEAF has been engaged in a lot of research on this past year.
What we're talking about is restorative justice and transformative justice models. These can take a variety of different shapes, and they can exist within the legal system or outside the legal system.
Many of these take place in the community and involve a survivor who has access to the resources and has been able to seek out a resource in which they feel safe and which can give them some sort of resolution to their situation of violence.
To be honest, I think this is perhaps difficult to imagine in a situation in which there is imminent harm, but I think this is the kind of resolution we are hoping to move towards for survivors who are seeking validation and recognition.
Based on a lot of research that we've done, experiences of going through a restorative justice process can mean something as simple as writing letters to the person who is accused and sharing thoughts through that. There can be a facilitator, or it can be a long process involving therapists. Oftentimes you don't even have to see the other person. You don't have to come face to face.
These experiences have often been shown to provide survivors the validation that they don't get in the legal system. They feel much more as though their perspectives and experiences have been recognized, and that the person who harmed them has become accountable for their actions. There's a sense that they feel healed in a way that the justice system often does not provide. That's kind of what I'm speaking about.
LEAF actually released a very lengthy report this past year, if you're interested, specifically about alternative and restorative justice models for sexual violence in particular.