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Summary

Stutzman Amstutz, Lorraine and Achilles, Mary (2002). Victim Services and Victim-Offender Mediation Programs: Can They Work Together The Crime Victims Report. 7(4): 51,60.

Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz is the director of the Mennonite Central Committee’s Office on Crime and Justice. Mary Achilles is the governor-appointed victim advocate for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. For years they have collaborated to offer workshops on bringing together victim service programs and victim-offender mediation programs. From their own experiences and perspectives, as well as those of others, Amstutz and Achilles know that victim advocacy and victim-offender mediation often do not easily coexist, much less work together. Yet Amstutz and Achilles both believe that, for justice to be truly restorative, victim service programs and victim-offender mediation programs must work together. In this article then they share their hard-won insights on misperceptions people in each sphere have of the other sphere, and they offer strategies for bringing together victim service programs and victim-offender mediation programs.

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