Applying Transformative Justice to Stop Sexual Abuse Inflicted on Bone

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Applying Transformative Justice to Stop Sexual Abuse Inflicted on Bone
In the autobiographical novel Bastard out of Carolina, Allison narrates the story of Ruth Anne “Bone Boatwright”, the illegitimate daughter of a 15 year old unschooled waitress, Annie. Annie, very young herself, is in desperate search for love and family stability, something she lacked in her large unorthodox family. Her desire for love and stability is so strong that she turns a blind eye on the abuse, physical, emotional and sexual inflicted upon Bone by her second husband, Glen. By the time she is 13, Bone has experienced life’s fill of discontent, resentment, self-hatred and abhorrence of her mother.
Child sexual abuse is one of the social issues of the contemporary world. In Allison’s novel, Bastard out of Carolina, child sexual abuse is evident against the main character, Bone. Bone is sexually, physically and, emotionally abused by her step-father. Transformative justice can be implemented in such situations to put a stop to this vice as well as cultivate transformative principles within the community. This paper presents a transformative justice model that could be implemented to put to a stop the child sexual abuse that Bone’s step father put her through while also nurturing transformative principles in to the community in question.
For most victims of child sexual abuse, the pursuit of justice is a tricky path to navigate. This is because of the many complex contexts and relationships that are usually involved in such cases. In some instances, the personal feelings of justice are not consistent with the traditional modes of punishment which are often viewed as the only path to justice (generationfive.org). For example, in the novel under review, the victim, Bone, was sexually abused by her step-father making it complicated to deliver justice. It is in such instances where transformative justice comes in handy as it can be applied to respond to and ultimately prevent child sexual abuse. Generation FIVE, a non-profit organization that champions the use of transformative justice to end child sexual abuse, defines transformative justice as “an approach that seeks healing, justice, and accountability for child sexual abuse, while also transforming the ongoing social conditions that allowed the abuse to occur. It is rooted in an understanding of trauma and resilience, as well as an understanding of how oppression and systemic injustice both create and encourage child sexual abuse” (generationfive.org)
The first step into a transformative justice model is building a ‘collective’, tasked with analyzing the situation to develop a response founded on transformative principles. A collective is a group of individuals selected from the community, who are either privy to the situation requiring transformative justice or have ideas of implementing transformative justice. In Bone’s case, a ‘collective’ would ideally include Bone, Glen, her mother, obviously because of her unique knowledge of the situation and the potential impact the solution would have on her future, her Aunt Raylene who was also privy to some details o...