As a broad category of penological response that aims to repair the harms crime inflicts on victims, hold offenders accountable, and promote resilient communities, restorative justice has venerable roots. Nonetheless, the explicit application of restorative justice approaches within the USA’s criminal justice system is quite young – and all but unheard of as applied to crimes with animal victims: abuse, neglect, animal fighting, and animal sexual exploitation. Join Animal Legal Defense Fund criminal justice attorneys for an exploration – rooted in emergent scholarship – of the role restorative justice could play in our legal system’s response to animal cruelty.
This session will begin by summarizing the history and current use of restorative justice in the context of the USA’s criminal justice system. Next, we will examine the ways that a restorative justice framework focuses on animals as the inherent victims of animal cruelty—and therefore as the party who is most in need of an outcome that acknowledges their suffering and – to the extent possible – restores their well-being. Finally, we will outline what a restorative justice framework might look like as applied to animal cruelty cases – and how it could be drawn on as an option impactful for victims, offenders, and communities, building empathy, reducing recidivism, and increasing rehabilitation.
Presenters
Jessica Chapman
As a Criminal Justice Program Fellow for the ALDF, Jessica Chapman works with the department to address crimes against animals, partnering with stakeholders across the criminal justice system to resolve both the impetus and impact of animal cruelty.
Jessica earned a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley where she double majored in Slavic Languages and Literature and Native American Studies (honors). She earned a J.D. (cum laude) from Michigan State University College of Law, where Jessica received the 2020 Wanda Nash Award from the Animal Law Section of the Michigan State Bar. Jessica earned an Animal law L.L.M. (magna cum laude) from Lewis & Clark Law School. While at Lewis & Clark, she was awarded the inaugural 2021 Outstanding Animal Law L.L.M. Graduate Award and earned placement in the Cornelius Honor Society.
Jessica shares her home with two dogs named Patch and Landa. The brothers enjoy hiking through mountains, camping trips, and discovering the world together.
David Rosengard
As a senior staff attorney in the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s Criminal Justice Program, David Rosengard works with stakeholders across the criminal justice system to pursue justice on behalf of animal cruelty victims. One of his focus areas is amicus briefs, where he raises appellate-level arguments aimed at enabling courts to reach decisions that not only address the needs of the animals involved in individual cases, but to also better position animals as a whole within the law. David additionally helms the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s groundbreaking work helping animals who have been harmed by criminal cruelty achieve the legal status of crime victims, including efforts to expand Courtroom Animal Advocate Programs which allow pro bono attorneys and law students to act as counsel for those animal crime victims in court.
David co-edited and contributed to the second edition of Animal Law in a Nutshell and has published law review articles aimed at assisting prisoners in securing vegan meals (“Three Hots and a Cot and a Lot of Talk”: Discussing Federal Rights-Based Avenues for Prisoner Access to Vegan Meals) as well as illuminating the critical impact legal recognition of animal sentience has on constitutional considerations (A Dog is Not a Stereo: The Role of Animal Sentience in Determining the Scope of Owner Privacy Interests Under Oregon Law). David also teaches animal law at his alma mater—Lewis & Clark Law School, where he graduated twice with honors, as both a J.D. and an Animal Law LL.M. student. While a student at Lewis & Clark Law School, David clerked for the Center for Animal Law Studies, Co-Directed L&C’s Student ALDF chapter, worked in Kenya on wildlife and animal cruelty issues, was an Animal Law Review Editor-in-Chief, and represented the state of Oregon in criminal court on behalf of the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office as a certified law student.
Prior to embarking on his legal career, David earned a B.A. with honors in History and Gender Studies from Claremont McKenna College, and worked in higher education, where he focused on sexual assault prevention and response, peer counseling, crisis management, co-curricular education, sex-blind housing programs, and community justice.
David lives in Saint Helens, Oregon with his spouse and a bevy of rescue animals: two cats (Aldor and Papaya) and three dogs (Ace Octavus, Ellie May, and Puck).
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