Transforming Justice Responses to Non-Recent Institutional Abuses

Over the last few decades, the issue of historical/ non-recent institutional abuses has resonated in a range of Western states and churches. Despite the recent proliferation of ’justice’ responses to such abuses including prosecutions and civil litigation, inquiries, redress and apologies, it is a subject which is insufficiently understood in the literature.

Set against the complexities of the legal, historical, cultural, and political realities of addressing non-recent institutional abuses, Transforming Justice Responses to Non-Recent Institutional Abuses critically examines these justice responses across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Bringing together the voices of victim/survivors of non-recent institutional abuses with legal actors, academics, media professionals, and church and state actors on their experiences of justice processes, this book reframes discourses on accountability and responsibility and considers how to improve justice processes at the level of praxis and increase engagement between victim/survivors and institutional actors.

Drawing on interdisciplinary literature related to restorative, transitional, and transformative justice and analysis of primary research, the book advances analysis of the role of innovative justice in this space and a new approach to justice which bridges the accountability gap between seeking and achieving justice for non-recent institutional abuses while improving outcomes for victims and survivors.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

Anne-Marie McAlinden, Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, Queen’s University Belfast, Marie Keenan, Associate Professor, School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin, James Gallen, Associate Professor, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University

Anne-Marie McAlinden is a full Professor of Law and Criminal Justice at the School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast. She is the author/editor of five books and over 70 articles/book chapters and reports on legal responses to sexual offending and the dynamics of abuse, including in institutional contexts. Her research has been supported by awards from the ESRC, AHRC, the British Academy and NOTA. She has provided advice to governments nationally and internationally on institutional abuses and has been interviewed by international media including The New York Times and The Economist. She was conferred as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Science in 2023.

Marie Keenan is an Associate Professor, at the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin. She is the author/editor of five books including Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church (OUP 2012) and Sexual Violence and Restorative Justice: Addressing the Justice Gap (with E. Zinsstag) (OUP 2022). She has held several high-level appointments nationally and internationally and is currently a member of the Advisory Group on Ending Sexual Violence and Harassment in Higher Education Institutions in Ireland. She is an accredited psychotherapist, restorative justice practitioner, registered social worker and regular media contributor.

James Gallen is an Associate Professor at the School of Law and Government, Dublin City University. His first monograph Transitional Justice and the Historical Abuses of Church and State was published by Cambridge University Press in 2023. He was appointed by the Irish government to advise on a transitional justice approach to the issue of Mother and Baby Homes and to the selection panel for the Collaborative Forum to enable victim/survivor engagement with government. He is co-editor of the Irish Yearbook of International Law. He was co-investigator on the AHRC funded project ＂Reparations, Responsibility, and Victimhood in Transitional Societies＂.