Listening to crime victims: North Carolina restorative justice conference

by Lisa Rea

When crime victims speak about the effect violent crime has had on their lives you have to listen. On June 9th I moderated a crime victims roundtable during the 3rd Annual Restorative Justice Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina coordinated this year by Campbell University Law School. The roundtable called "Listening to Crime Victims: Their Journeys Toward Healing" was sponsored by the Journey of Hope: From Violence to Healing. The four victims of violence who told their stories were Bill Pelke, chair, Journey of Hope: From Violence to Healing (Alaska), Stephen Watt, Stephen Watt Ministries (Wyoming) , Bess Klassen-Landis, musician and teacher (Vermont), and Kim Book, executive director, Victims Voices Heard (Delaware). No matter how many crime victims panels I have moderated the stories are always riveting and often what I hear the victims say is new even when I am familiar with the stories. I learn something new as the victims move along in their lives---their own personal journeys.

Jul 25, 2011 Story, Practice, Victim, Correspondent:Lisa Rea, Mediation, Other, Case:Violence, Region: North America and Caribbean, Case:Sexual, Case:Homicide, Forgiveness, Country:USA

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I just hugged the man who murdered my son

told by Mary Johnson and Oshea Israel on National Public Radio's StoryCorps:

While most StoryCorps interviews are between family and friends, this conversation comes from two people who easily could have been enemies.

In 1993, Oshea Israel was a teenage gang member in Minneapolis, Minnesota. One night at a party Oshea got into a fight, which ended when he shot and killed another boy.

Now 34, Oshea has finished serving his prison sentence for second-degree murder.

May 25, 2011 Region: North America and Caribbean, Practice, Victim, Case:Homicide, Forgiveness, Country:USA

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