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Moving Beyond Critique: Creative Interventions and Reconstructions of Community Accountability

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Mimi E. Kim at California State University, Long Beach
Mimi E. Kim
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Moving Beyond Critique: Creative Interventions and Reconstructions of Communi...
Mimi E Kim
Social Justice; 2011/2012; 37, 4; Alt-Press Watch (APW)
pg. 14
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... Based on this experience and the difficulty this group had locating other examples of similar processes, another project, StoryTelling and Organizing Project (STOP), emerged. STOP shared stories of community accountability alternatives, with reflections on the successes and pitfalls, as an approach to inspire like-minded, progressive groups seeking justice processes that better fit their values (Kim, 2011). This group reflected on the differences between accountability and consequences and the difficulty in moving past the role of punishment based on collective and social ideas of what accountability means (Kim, 2011). ...
... STOP shared stories of community accountability alternatives, with reflections on the successes and pitfalls, as an approach to inspire like-minded, progressive groups seeking justice processes that better fit their values (Kim, 2011). This group reflected on the differences between accountability and consequences and the difficulty in moving past the role of punishment based on collective and social ideas of what accountability means (Kim, 2011). Kigvamasud'Vashti et al. (2011) similarly discussed community accountability during post-screening discussions of the film "NO!," described earlier. ...
... Over time, this work resulted in downstream effects on the group, such as creating a culture of sexual responsibility. Like the above-described restorative approaches of the Korean drumming community (Kim, 2011), this work highlights the close linkage between the role of accountability and how survivors access accountability via participation. ...
Justice for Women After Sexual Assault: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis
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  • May 2024
  • TRAUMA VIOLENCE ABUS
Justice after sexual assault is often understood and enacted through the criminal legal system such that the outcomes are binary (i.e., justice is achieved or not achieved). Previous research indicates that survivors have specific wants and needs following an assault in order to experience justice, which may or may not align with current practices. We conducted a critical interpretive synthesis of 5 databases to create a sampling frame of 4,203 records; the final analysis included 81 articles, book chapters, and policy documents. Results indicate that justice is an individualized and dynamic process which may include the experience of voice, connectedness, participating in a process, accountability, and prevention. The experiences of safety and control are central to each of these domains. Survivors may seek and enact these justice domains through several avenues, including the criminal justice and legal systems, restorative justice, medical/mental health spaces, activism, art, and social media. Existing actors within currently available justice systems, including legal, medical, and mental health personnel should encourage survivors to identify and define their own experience of justice, including locating helpful behaviors rooted in safety and control, and resist a binary model of justice. Extant systems should therefore be flexible and accessible to help survivors realize their preferred modes of justice.
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... However, limited available research on RJ for sexual harm suggests that RJ more closely aligns with the expressed needs and desires of those who have been sexually harmed, and if implemented with safety at the fore, may offer a way to provide redress more successfully and supportively than conventional legal remedies (Burns & Sinko, 2023;Koss et al., 2006). Some scholars and practitioners have been interested in the formal use of RJ for addressing sexual and related harms for several decades (e.g., Coker, 2006;Hopkins et al., 2004;Kim, 2011;Koss et al., 2006). However overall, a dearth of research exists concerning best practices for such RJ responses or their effectiveness. ...
... Like other conceptual and empirical scholarship (e.g., Burns & Sinko, 2023;Coker, 2018;Kim, 2011;Koss, 2014), study findings revealed many potential benefits and positive outcomes of RJ processes when used for resolving sexual and other harms, particularly in contrast to punitive legal remedies. Informants described a range of potential individual, relational, and communal or societal benefits of engaging in these processes, from healing and skill-building to changing harmful social norms. ...
Using Restorative Justice to Respond to and Prevent Sexual Harm: A Qualitative Study of Formal Practices in Six Countries
Article
  • Oct 2024
Sexual violence (SV), which causes sexual harm, is a significant public health issue globally. In many nations, conventional legal remedies are the prevailing responses to SV. Restorative justice (RJ) shows promise as a potential alternative way to address sexual harm, given evidence that RJ better aligns with expressed needs and safety concerns of those directly impacted by SV. However, few empirical studies exist concerning best practices for and the effectiveness of using RJ for this purpose. This study helped address this research gap by conducting in-depth interviews to understand how organizations choose to use RJ to address sexual harm; how RJ is being operationalized to address sexual harm; how those involved in offering RJ to address sexual harm define success or positive outcomes; and factors that present challenges for or contribute to the success of RJ processes addressing sexual harm. We conducted 24 semi-structured key informant interviews with RJ practitioners and researchers in six countries. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and emergent themes were identified through a rigorous, iterative coding process. Informants discussed using formal RJ practices with a subset of sexual harm cases, typically instances of adult sexual assault or to resolve sexual harm adults experienced as children. These responses generally adhered to this sequence: referral, assessing appropriateness for participation, preparing participants, and conducting the process. Informants shared anecdotal examples of RJ benefits and measurable indicators of program success like participant satisfaction, increased coping skills, and signs that harm will not recur, although, most were not formally evaluating their programs. Challenges included limited resources, unsupportive RJ-related beliefs, and COVID-19. Factors that aid success include funding, partnerships, and positive RJ-related views. Study findings underscore the need for more research on using RJ to address sexual harm with exploration of best practices for delivering such services to diverse communities.
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... These initiatives offer tailored solutions that meet the unique needs of Black families, empowering individuals and fostering self-determination. By doing so, they promote accountability within systems, advocate for policy reforms, and provide essential support (Fuller & Russo, 2016;Kim, 2011). Understanding the role and impact of these initiatives is crucial for advancing the objectives of Black community accountability in child welfare. ...
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... In seeking accountability, researchers provide an opportunity for Black communities to name circumstances of oppression, define social issues, build capacity and operationalize strategies for change. Accountability reflects an acknowledgement of the historical harm and misrepresentation of Black populations in research and ensures that research will be used in creative social interventions beyond policy recommendations for empowerment, as defined by community members (Kim, 2011;Kelley et al., 2013). By enabling community-led initiatives of empowerment and innovative social interventions, accountability processes enable Black communities to enact Ubuntu based on research findings. ...
Designing afro-emancipatory qualitative research with and for Black people
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Full-text available
  • Apr 2025
  • Qual Res
Since the tragic death of George Floyd in May 2020, there has been increased interest in anti-racist research. Consequently, several scholars are instigating qualitative inquiries in Black communities with limited preparation or expertise. This article presents a reflection regarding essential principles that can guide general and afro-emancipatory health and social sciences qualitative inquiries in Black diasporas. We contend that it is essential that researchers engage in reflexivity and consider Black ontologies, axiology and epistemologies. Furthermore, we propose the application of the following deontological principles to fulfil an ethical afro-emancipatory research framework: (a) include critical theories, (b) target the liberation of Afro-descendant peoples to enable their full participation as their whole selves in society; (c) ensure their leadership and meaningful involvement throughout the research process; (d) implement accountability mechanisms towards community members; (e) embrace intersectionality, an asset-based lens, and aspirational stance and; (f) foster healing, growth and joy.
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... At the same time, a growing number of practitioners are prioritizing social justice as core to the values, practices, and outcomes of RJ (Shah & Stauffer, 2021), where RJ's unique approach to violence (Armatta, 2018;Sered, 2019;Shah, 2012) and accountability is taken seriously (Armatta, 2018;Kaba & Hassan, 2019;Kim, 2012Kim, , 2018Sered, 2019;Shah & Stauffer, 2021). In this commitment to social justice in vision and practice, RJ's work to address violence and to seek accountability has been significantly influenced by the work of other movements (Dixon & Piepzna-Samarasinha, 2020, Kim, 2011Kim, 2018;Sered, 2019;Shah & Stauffer, 2021). And it is this involvement and integration, indeed solidarity, with other movements for justice, that has positioned RJ as a movement in and of itself (Shah & Stauffer, 2021). ...
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From accounting to accountability: social and relational accountability among civic humanitarian actors in Uganda
Article
Full-text available
  • Jun 2025
This article examines how accountability is understood and practiced in refugee and community led assistance among South Sudanese refugees in Uganda. Although the humanitarian localisation agenda advocates greater support for local actors, accountability remains contested and complex. Dominant frameworks emphasise formal mechanisms such as reporting, audits, and compliance with donor requirements, rooted in a technomanagerial logic of control and risk management. By constrast, this article highlights how accountability is enacted through informal, socially embedded practices shaped by soft power, collective expectations, social standing, and relational responsibilities. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2020 and 2023, it explores accountability as it emerges in diaspora networks, community leadership, familial and neighborly assistance, and communal practices. The analysis is grounded in four main bodies of literature: African relational philosophies such as Ubuntu, scholarship on socialising forms of accountability, decolonial critiques of humanitarian governance, and literature on community driven development. Together, they offer a framework for understanding accountability not only as technomanagerial procedures, but as a dynamic, negotiated social process. Through ethnographic vignettes, the article shows that relational and technomanagerial forms of accountability are not necessarily opposites or mutually exclusive, but operate with different logics. This has implications for the humanitarian localisation agenda: when community and refugee led accountability is made legible to international actors, informal relational practices are often turned into formal indicators, distorting local meanings and reinforcing hierarchies. The article calls for redefining accountability in humanitarianism as a process attentive to context, culture, relationships, and lived experience.
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collaging carceral entrapments and reorientating to the imagination
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  • Dec 2024
In this article I interrogate the attachment to ‘the imagination’ as a site free from the weed-like tentacles of carceral systems and structures, and thus a solution to ‘stuckness’. Building on Lauren Berlant’s theorisation of ‘cruel optimism’, I draw on my own sticky, cruelly optimistic methodological engagements with the imagination in qualitative research, whereby collage was used to explore what participants wanted in response to the injustice wrought by sexual violence. Drawing on scholarship that seeks to examine the edges of the carceral imaginary, I instead suggest a gentle, yet significant, reorientation to imaginings and what I see as their weed-like capabilities. Thus, rather than holding on to the imagination as a solution for coining futures free from the violence of carcerality, I instead call for a deeper attention to, and staying with, the ‘stuckness’ that exists when utilising the tool of the imagination.
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Conclusions: Wearing Away the Stone
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  • Oct 2024
The final chapter describes programming that addresses intimate partner violence, either directly or indirectly, in low-income, tight-knit communities around the world. The initiatives described here drive the recommendations for future programming in these settings. The recommendations include (1) to empower and invest in women and girls through training and financing; (2) to educate men and boys, community leaders, and frontline workers to change the response to intimate partner violence; (3) to build collaborative, victim-centered, trauma-informed support services for survivors; (4) to use digital technology and social media to the extent possible for connection with other survivors, communication with support services, and educational programming about intimate partner violence. The chapter ends with a call for more research on violence against women in remote areas and support for community-based responses to intimate partner violence.
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The Cultural Context Model: Therapy for Couples with Domestic Violence
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  • Jul 1999
  • J MARITAL FAM THER
This article offers a brief analysis of heterosexual dominance within various cultures toward a larger understanding of domestics violence. It then describes the Cultral Context Model, developed over 15 years of experience treating domestic violence in its broader context, utilizing separate “culture circles” for men and women before and during couple therapy. It then identifies guidelines for assessment and intervention with a discussion of the special issues raised when substance abuse is involved.
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