ARTICLE Family violence, fathers, and restoring person hood· Joan Pennell, Tia Sanders, R. V. Rikard, Joetta Shepherd and Leslie Starsoneck Joa11 Pennell, Professor and Center Director, Tia Sanders, R<1search Assistant, and R. V. Rikard, Assistant Director of Research, Center for Farnily and Community Engagement, North Carolina State University (USA); Joetta Shepherd, Dirf!t:tor of Safo Relationships Division, Family Services, Inc. (USA); Leslie Starsoneck, Consultant, Center for Child and Family Health (USA). Restorative justice holds those who abuse as 111orully rcspo11si/llc 1111d, thus, capable acknowledging wrongdoing, changing how they relate to others, 1111d reb11i/di11g th£'ir seme of Applyi11g restorative practices in sit11ntions of fi1mi/y violence, however, may e11d1111ger tlw participants 1111/ess they are prepared for the delibemtiom and s11jjicie11t s11feg111mls are in p/tlct!. A starting place for engaging some men who ab11se in restorative processes i.s through their role 11s jilfh!'rS. 'Strong Fathers' was a group programme for men who had committed domestic vio/mcc and were referred by child welfare. The men who persevered with the programme were p11llcd by their desire to be dose to their children and pushed by their sense of what it 111e1111s to be a 1111111and11fi1ther. The ojic11 p11i11f11/ process restored rather than punished the participants, and the r£'s11/ts point to how to interface treatment programmes and restorative practices. Introduction Restorative justice, as Archbishop Desmond Tutu (2009) explains, seeks 'to do justice to the suffering without perpetuating the hatred aroused' and focuses on 'restoring the personhood that is damaged or lost'. In situations of family violence, this restorative process requires identifying the suffering that men cause, hut simply condemning the men only perpetuates hatred and fails to rebuild their sense of pcrsonbood and that of Development, delivery and evaluation nf the pro!(r.1111mc were supported hr a rnntra.:t from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, (Jivbion of Soci.tl Servile•,, prime: l'amily Vio- lence Prevention and Services Act, US Department of I lcalth & l luman Scrvkc,, ( :umult;1tion on the programme design of Strong Fathers was provided b)' David Adarm, /u;111 < :.1rlo' Arc;in. l.onna llavis, l'cr- nando Mederos and Katreena Scott. Consultation on fatherhood in Nnrth ( :;irolin.1 w,!'i provided hy Ileric Boston. Correspondence concerning this article should be addrcs.,cd to Ji 1;111 l'cnncll, <:enter for Famil)• and Community Engagement, North Carolina State Univcr>ity, jpcnndlC·vni:>u.cdu. 261!