by Mark S. Umbreit, Betty Vos, Robert B. Coates, and Katherine A. Brown. Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press. ISBN. 1-881798-45-3.

Many modern processes of victim-offender dialogue, mediation, and even reconciliation have roots in the early 1970s in Canada. There, at first in a small and informal way, a victim-offender reconciliation program emerged as an alternative and creative way to respond to the actions of juvenile offenders. While many questions have been and continue to be raised about interactions between victims and offenders in cases of violence, there has been some movement since the 1980s to develop and apply victim-offender dialogue, mediation, and reconciliation in such cases when the affected parties desired to meet in the wake of the offense.

According to Umbreit, Vos, Coates, and Brown, correctional departments and other agencies in more than a dozen states in the United States are developing protocols for the implementation of interactions between victims and offenders in cases of violence. This book, in fact, represents a study undertaken by the authors of pioneering efforts in two states: Texas and Ohio.

The first section of the book introduces restorative justice and victim-offender mediation. The second section details the method and findings of the research study. This section covers the case studies of mediation and dialogue between victims and offenders in the programs in Texas and Ohio. The third section of the book contains analysis and conclusions by the authors based on their research findings.


Gregory Strong
September 2005