This book explores the complexities and nuances of reparations for victims and survivors of settler colonial violence. It centres its analysis on the Independent Assessment Process (IAP), a financial compensation programme that was designed to address the horrific legacy of Canada’s Indian Residential School system, which was established to assimilate Indigenous children into settler Canadian society.
The reader of this book will learn about the impact of the IAP as a mechanism of redress for the physical and sexual abuse that Indigenous children experienced while attending Indian Residential Schools. Through the analysis of unique perspectives and first-hand accounts of survivors, lawyers, claims adjudicators, and health support workers who participated in the IAP, the book tells the stories of former Indian Residential School students’ struggle for justice. It invites the reader to explore several themes related to the IAP that engage with the idea of financial compensation as redress for acts of institutional child abuse in ongoing settler colonialism. By bringing insights from several theoretical frameworks to bear on empirical data in a complex yet accessible manner, it seeks to address the following questions: How does money compensate survivors of institutional child abuse? How does settler colonialism complicate state-sponsored redress for violence against Indigenous people? And, how might survivors problematize, resist, and contest individual reparations for settler colonial violence?
The target audience for this book includes scholars, educators, practitioners, students, and members of the general public whose research interests include settler colonial studies, history, reparations, transitional justice, Indigenous studies, and critical victimology.
By:
Konstantin Petoukhov
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9781032824772
ISBN 10: 1032824778
Series: Routledge Frontiers of Criminal Justice
Pages: 166
Publication Date: 30 May 2025
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Introduction - The Road to Reparations for Indian Residential School Abuse Chapter 1 - Theorizing Reparations for Indigenous People in Ongoing Settler Colonialism Chapter 2 - The Hierarchies of Victimization in the Independent Assessment Process Chapter 3 - Specifying the Parameters of Exchange of Money for Violence in the IAP Chapter 4 - The IAP as a violent Settler Colonial Legal Process Chapter 5 - Resistance, Contestation, and Refusal in the IAP Chapter 6 - Moving Forward: Concluding Remarks and Directions for Future Research
Konstantin Petoukhov received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University. His doctoral research explored the socio-legal constructions of ‘ideal’ and ‘non-ideal’ victims in the Independent Assessment Process that adjudicated claims of physical and sexual abuse among Indian Residential School survivors. Konstantin has also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology at the University of Liverpool, funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). As part of his postdoctoral research programme, he studied the constructions of ‘complex’ offenders in restorative justice – individuals who have committed crimes against their victims but who have also been marginalized through social injustice and structural violence. Konstantin’s research areas fall broadly within several categories. As a critical victimologist by training, he is interested in the socio-legal construction of victim status, victimization, and victimhood. In the area of transitional justice, his research programme focuses on reparations, with a specialization in financial compensation for human rights violations as well as reparations for settler colonial violence. His research in the area of restorative justice explores the complexity of victim and offender experiences with particular attention to structural victimization.
