ABSTRACT
Harm, care and responsibility are three places from which family members and other significant people may take part in restorative justice (RJ) and in Victim–Offender Mediation (VOM). While sexual violence may represent an important challenge for the practice of RJ, child sexual abuse represents an even bigger one. This chapter provides a reflection on the ways that victims' and offenders' closest social relationships (the 'community of care') can participate in RJ interventions. The families may react or feel demanded to react to sexual violence in three different ways: as a responsible community, as a care community and as a harmed community. Moreover, when a sexual violence case is disclosed, loyalties and conflicts within the family become evident, and the child might feel he or she bears the family division as one of the consequences of his or her revelation. In traditional interventions, sexual violence cases are seen in terms of the polarity victim–offender.
