Is now the time for restorative justice for survivors of sexual assault?

It is almost a cliché to begin an article on sexual violence by noting the dreadful statistics about its global prevalence and frequency, the huge proportion of survivors that do not access the formal justice system, and the well-known justice gap resulting from failures of criminal justice systems in relation to such cases (Cossins, 2020; Lonsway & Archambault, 2012; Temkin & Krahé, 2008). And yet here we are. As each year passes, and the data and research pile up, it becomes ever more clear that the criminal justice system and social and cultural institutions, more broadly, are failing survivors every single day.