Concerned by the high attrition rates for sexual crime and the secondary victimization experienced by victims during their participation in the criminal justice system, this book analyses the extent to which restorative justice can address the justice gap that exists in current justice provision. Building on clinical experience and earlier research on sexual crime the authors engage with the complex dynamics and traumatic impact of sexual crime as a critical starting point for their research and examine whether restorative justice can contribute to a more enhanced justice response. The book presents extensive new data on restorative justice as applied in sexual violence cases across the globe. It engages with feminist concerns regarding the traumatic impact of sexual violence and the power imbalances that characterise these offences, as well as the potential for re-traumatisation and re-victimisation during the judicial process. While there is a risk of coercion of the victim to participate in the process, and manipulation of restorative justice by the offender, restorative justice has the potential to lead to the reprivatisation of sexual crime and ultimately to its decriminalisation. Having examined these topics in detail, the book concludes there is an important role for restorative justice in addressing the justice gap that exists after sexual crime and offers guidance on how this can be achieved. 1. Understanding Sexual Violence: Victims, Offenders, and Society 2. Sexual Violence, Criminal Legal Frameworks, and the Need for Reform 3. International Policy Drivers and Contexts: Restorative Justice After Sexual Crime 4. Restorative Justice Practice After Sexual Violence: Reviewing Selected Empirical Research 5. Restorative Justice After Sexual Violence: Mapping the International Field of Practice 6. A Thematic Analysis of Policies and Practices in Five European Countries: Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Norway 7. Past and Current Initiatives: Examples of Programmes from Six Jurisdictions 8. Four Personal Narratives of Restorative Justice Practices Following Sexual Violence 9. Training and Guidelines for Restorative Justice Practice After Sexual Violence Marie Keenan (PhD) specialises in public policy and therapeutic responses to crime. Her research interests focus on sexual trauma and abuse and on restorative and transformative justice. She is a systemic and forensic psychotherapist, a lecturer in the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, a member of the Advisory Board of UCD's Criminology Institute and a restorative justice practitioner. She is a member of the International Academic Board for a review of the literature for the Australian Royal Commission into the sexual abuse of children in Australia. She was recently co-principal researcher on a European Commission funded (Daphne III) project entitled 'Developing integrated responses to sexual violence: An interdisciplinary research project on the potential of restorative justice' and principal investigator on 'Sexual trauma and abuse: restorative and transformative possibilities?'. Estelle Zinsstag (PhD, MSc) is a senior researcher at the Leuven Institute for Criminology, University of Leuven (Belgium). She has recently finalised as the coordinator and co-principal researcher a European Commission funded (Daphne III) project entitled 'Developing integrated responses to sexual violence: An interdisciplinary research project on the potential of restorative justice'. She has previously been awarded an F+ KU Leuven Post-Doctoral Fellowship to work as part of the team of the FP7 Project ALTERNATIVE (on RJ in intercultural settings). She publishes in the fields of sexual violence, transitional justice, and restorative justice. She is founding member and managing editor of Restorative Justice: an International Journal (Routledge). She has been a stipendiary visiting fellow at Cornell Law School and been invited to present her work in the USA, Hong Kong, Iran, France, Germany, Poland, Hungary, the UK, Belgium, Spain and Portugal.