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Walhin, Lottie. Victim-Offender Mediation with juvenile offenders in Sweden.

The European Commission’s Grotius II Criminal Programme initiated a project to address the need for better understanding of victim-offender mediation practices with juvenile offenders and justice systems in Europe. Under this project, studies were contracted and research papers produced to examine the situation in a number of European countries. Each study covered the following matters: norms and legislation allowing for the implementation of VOM programs; theoretical frameworks of VOM centers; organizational structure of VOM centers; categories and profiles of juvenile offenses; professional characteristics and job satisfaction of mediators; and advantages and criticisms of VOM. The papers were presented and discussed at a final seminar in Bologna, Italy, September 19-20, 2003. Within the categories mentioned above, this particular paper surveys victim-offender mediation with juveniles in Sweden.

Rytterbro, Lise-Lotte. Victim and Offender Viewed From the Perspective of Mediation

In Sweden and Norway, some types of crimes are handled through mediation between the victim and the offender. Only some types of offenders and some types of victims are deemed suitable for this type of criminal justice intervention, however. The author examined the way in which victims and offenders were described by analyzing written and oral statements of the target groups for mediation in Sweden and Norway. The author also examined quantitative data on the victims and perpetrators who usually take part in mediations. The analysis revealed that offenders who were regarded as suitable for participation in mediation tended to be young, first-time offenders. As such, suitable offenders are typically characterized by their age, the seriousness of their offense, and their criminal history. On the other hand, victims who were deemed appropriate for mediation were defined on the basis of whom the crime was committed by, rather than their own characteristics. Victims who were victimized by young people, and who were victimized by less serious offenses were deemed suitable for mediation. In this way, crime policy is affected by the way youthful offenders are constructed as responsible individuals who must be made to pay for their crimes. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service,www.ncjrs.org.

Victim Offender Mediation in Sweden

In Sweden, experiments with victim offender mediation began in the 1980s and gained legislative recognition in 2002. In this article excerpt, Lottie Wahlin of the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention provides an overview of the use of mediation in Sweden. The full text of the article is provided.

Crime Victim Compensation Program

This page is an abstract of a Swedish victim compensation program to provide financial compensation to victims of violent or personal crime.