ABSTRACT
157Almost twenty years ago in Nova Scotia a significant rift occurred between feminists in the Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) movement and feminists in the restorative justice (RJ) movement. This fracture resulted in the IPV movement successfully establishing a moratorium on restorative justice programming for intimate partner violence being processed in the criminal justice system. The split created such a division among those involved that no parts of the criminal justice system have since embraced restorative approaches on any issues connected to domestic violence, except for programming run by Nova Scotian Mi’kmaw communities (Archibald & Llewellyn, 2006; Clairmont & Waters, 2015; Rubin, 2010). The moratorium remains, as do the deficiencies of the criminal justice system’s response to women who experience intimate partner abuse. The pressure created by the inadequacies of the current system, and further developments in both fields in this province have encouraged IPV professionals to begin to dialogue in search of better interventions.
