The study examined 'the day after' the #MeToo protest, and proposes channeling the outcry of millions of women toward developing and establishing alternative mechanisms for dealing with sexual offences, focusing on restorative justice conferencing. A mixed-methods design (quantitative and qualitative) was employed to empirically examine the public's attitude toward the #MeToo movement and restorative-justice in sexual offence cases. The findings (n = 252) revealed that the majority of the public supports the #MeToo movement, but not publications that name alleged offenders. Higher levels of support were found among women and people who define themselves as sexual offence victims. A positive correlation was found between support for the #MeToo movement and support for restorative-justice in sexual offence cases. To better understand the quantitative findings, indepth interviews were conducted with 30 participants. Analysis of the interviews showed that the public acknowledges the importance of the movement, especially due to the widespread discussion on sexual offences and their implications, giving voice to victims, and the possibility that this will help their coping and healing process. Similarly, proponents of restorative justice view the process as an opportunity to conduct a meaningful dialogue, allowing victims to sound their voice and act in a way that suits them.

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In the present study, we conducted an empirical experiment to examine whether exposure to a victim awareness procedure would affect inmates’ attitudes toward participating in a restorative-justice process. In addition, the study sought to evaluate whether there are differences between inmates serving their sentences in prisons with different therapeutic orientations. The findings indicate that participants who were exposed to a victim awareness procedure were more aware of the harm caused to the victim and showed a higher level of positive attitudes toward participating in restorative-justice process than those who were not. Contrary to our hypothesis, no differences were found between the prisons.

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