This article focuses on the particular cultural factors that affect South Asian women who are abused and immigrant South Asian women who are abused, in particular, in the restorative justice process. By exploring cultural practices and the icon of Sita, the mythological heroine of the Ramayana, this article demonstrates how the South Asian ideals of womanhood and wifehood help to create a mind-set whereby South Asian women are reluctant to advocate for themselves and are reluctant to leave. Such a condition is contrary to the conditions and abilities assumed by the restorative justice movement for dispute resolution, inside or outside of domestic violence. It is concluded that restorative justice options are ill-suited to application among immigrant South Asian communities for domestic violence cases.

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This chapter addresses Canadian sentencing circles in domestic violence situations. It is argued that Aboriginal communities expect sentencing circles to serve certain political goals in addition to the traditional restorative justice goals—such as educating the broader society about historical and social contributors to criminality, promoting Aboriginal self-governance and incorporating Aboriginal dispute resolution into mainstream dispute resolution. The tension between these political goals and the traditional restorative justice goal limits the effectiveness of sentencing circles. Aboriginal victims of domestic abuse might not criticize the sentencing circles’ failure to address their harms as victims because this might undermine the legitimacy of Aboriginal dispute resolution methods. However, if this tension is recognized, better methods can be devised, to improve the effectiveness of sentencing circles, and minimize domestic abuse in Aboriginal families.

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