Restorative Justice on Ear Hustle
Ear Hustle is a podcast that describes the lived experience of incarceration. Episode #13 in Season Two, “Dirty Water”, featured an interview with L.A., a man convicted of sex trafficking, and Sara Kruzan, a sex trafficking survivor and restorative justice activist. Restorative justice is a response to criminal behavior that brings the survivors of crimes face-to-face with the perpetrators of those same crimes to share their stories about how crime has impacted their lives. The restorative exchanges in this podcast are honest and intense.
I have listened to several Ear Hustle podcasts and this one remains with me. Sara began experiencing abuse as a child: Her mother was emotionally volatile and violent. Sara’s first incident of sexual assault was as a teenager when she was gang raped. The violence she experienced throughout her life then escalated. A man who was close to her mother, who she considered a father figure, raped and trafficked her. Sara was groomed by this man for two years and sexually trafficked for three years. She finally reached her breaking point and shot him in an attempt to escape. At 16, Sara was charged with murder and spent 19 years in prison. This is when Sara’s restorative justice work began.
The podcast recognizes that the sex trafficker interviewed in this episode is also a survivor of sexual abuse. When L.A. was 6 years old, his sister and her friends molested him. L.A.’s father and mother, who had been sexually exploited since she was eight years old, introduced him to sex trafficking and encouraged him to find vulnerable young girls to exploit. His description of targeting and grooming young girls sent chills down my spine. L.A. received a prison sentence of 229 years and admits to inflicting violence on young girls. He forgives himself for his crimes but does not believe that he deserves forgiveness from the survivors.
Using a restorative justice framework, Sara offers the perspective that it would help the survivors in their healing process if he would ask them for forgiveness. When the podcast host asks L.A, “What message would you want to leave with someone who’s in the position that you were once in as a trafficker?” L.A.’s response is that men should reconsider becoming traffickers because nobody in prison likes them, the crime carries a long sentence, they will become a registered sex offender, and people will forget about them in prison. Sara’s response to LA is a courageous and powerful piece of restorative justice: She confronts his lack of care about sex trafficking survivors and invites him to consider his own journey of healing and self-awareness. “What really broke my heart listening to you was your three points were about yourself. How your actions and the consequences that you have is about you still. I didn't hear you once mention the impacts of how it affects another person. And I think that that is the beginning of another journey. Just know that I hear what you're not saying.”
There was so much to reflect on from this podcast. Using a restorative justice framework to respond to crime offers space to have trauma-informed discussions among people who may have never gotten the opportunity to share their experiences. Restorative justice also recognizes the complex histories of people who commit crimes, and challenges the perpetrator-survivor binary. Restorative justice renegotiates power in ways that helps shift victim narratives to stories of survival. The SHAWN project embraces a restorative, harm-reduction approach that meets people where they are and gives them the opportunity to share their story. In these ways, the process of conducting the interviews may be as valuable as the data collected.