Peacemaking and sentencing circles

Domain XV · Nature, philosophy, social & rites of passage · Barry Stuart, Pranis, Wedge · 1992 · Yukon

What it is

Peacemaking and sentencing circles are not a psychotherapy. They are community justice processes in which the people affected by a harm, the person responsible, their supporters, community members and (in sentencing circles) justice officials sit in a circle without tables, speak in turn using a…

Format

• NSW Circle Sentencing (Australia). Operating since 2002 for eligible Aboriginal people found guilty of non-excluded offences (excluded offences include sexual offences and grievous bodily harm assault, among others) at participating Local Courts. Steps: the magistrate refers for suitability…
• Navajo Nation peacemaking. Referral from courts, schools, social services, prosecutors, probation or self-referral; sessions held at home, a chapter house or a court facility; participants work with a Peacemaker or Traditional Program Specialist, discuss events and their impact on everyone, and…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• The four stages of a circle process
• Follow-up. Goal: check whether obligations are being met; if not, find the cause and next steps; adjust the agreement; celebrate success. One training example sets a check-in two weeks after a juvenile sentencing circle.
• Inside the convened circle the same materials describe four elements in sequence: getting acquainted; building understanding and trust; addressing issues or a vision; developing plans and unity. A sample agenda runs: opening, introductions, explaining the talking piece, discussing values, developing guidelines, the focal content, outcome, follow-up arrangements, closing.

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Core idea of change, as its practitioners hold it: harm damages relationships and community; when those affected tell their stories and are heard in a structured, values-based space, understanding, accountability and repair become possible, and the community takes a share of responsibility for the…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• self-blame; community pressure to reconsider. Working: the client holds the decision without excessive guilt.
• the client experiencing the alternative as second best imposed on them. Working: the client chooses the format.
• retraumatising detail; scripted performance. Working: the client can say the core of it with tolerable distress.
• a victim feeling unable to object to an outcome supported by respected figures. Working: the client has words for dissent.
• the client planning to push through no matter what. Working: the client can describe the plan and believes they can use it.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.