Catholic church prays for abuse victims and abusers

from Thelma Etim's article on BBC News:

While the victims of abuse at the hands of Roman Catholic clergy continue their fight for justice and reparation, bishops in the Church have invited parishioners in England and Wales to make the four Fridays in the month special days of prayer for children abused by priests.

May 27, 2010 Policy, Country:England&Wales, Region: Europe, Case:Sexual

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On the efficacy of victim-offender-mediation in cases of partnership violence in Austria, or: Men don’t get better, but women get stronger: Is it still true? Outcomes of an empirical study

from the study by Christa Pelikan:

Put in a nutshell, the core finding of this study reads thus: The efficacy of VOM in cases partnership violence is to a large part due to the empowerment of the women victims, but partly, albeit to a smaller percentage, also due to an inner change, to insight and following from that a change of behaviour on the side of the male perpetrators. These achievements cannot be understood except as part of a comprehensive societal change – a change of collective mentalities, or in other words: change of expectations1 regarding the use of violence in intimate partnerships.

May 11, 2010 Policy, Country:Austria, Case:Domestic Violence, Region: Europe

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Best Practice Guidance for Restorative Justice Practitioners and their Case Supervisors and Line Managers (Scotland)

from the Introduction:

The primary aim of restorative justice is to address or repair the harm caused by an incident or offence. The processes used to achieve this objective can intersect with formal systems or institutions in a number of ways. But it is worth remembering that restorative justice processes can arise naturally and (more or less) spontaneously, without the need for third-party intervention. Expressions of remorse, making amends, healing and reconciliation happen all the time: relationships, families, organisations and society would quickly break down if this were not the case.

There are cases, however, where the incident or offence is so serious or complex that it comes to the attention of someone in authority: for example, a parent, teacher, supervisor, manager, police officer, children's reporter, procurator fiscal, sheriff, and so on.

The restorative justice ideal is that, whatever else needs to happen, the authority in question gives consideration to what can be done to address or repair the harm that has been caused.

May 06, 2010 Country:Scotland, Practice, Manual, Region: Europe, Policy

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UK restorative justice pre-election special report from Restorative Justice Consortium

from RJC's April e-Bulletin:

In the first televised election debate the party leaders were asked how they will make our country a safer place to live and work. Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: “What I’ve seen in my city of Sheffield is that you get these youngsters not when they have done serious crimes, when they are first starting to get into trouble to face their victims, explain why they have done what they have done to their victims, apologise for what they’ve done, make up for what they have done in the community, cleaning up parks and streets. It has a dramatic effect on their behaviour. I want to change people’s behaviour before they become the criminals of tomorrow.” (ITV Player 19mins:16sec)

May 03, 2010 Policy, Politics, Support, Country:England&Wales, Region: Europe

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