Austria

Provides a listing of articles on restorative justice developments in Austria. Articles appear in the order in which they were added to the site with the most recent appearing first.

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.

Grafl, Christian. "Community service in Austria: Main results of a feasibility study"

This article discusses the main results of a study on community service as a diversionary measure in Austria. The study was carried out in 2003 at four regional court districts and includes analysis of quantitative data as well as evaluation of interviews with social workers, prosecutors and judges. Regional differences in the application of community service show that its scope as diversionary measure has been far from exhausted in Austria. A nationwide uniformity and agreement concerning the application of community service as a diversionary measure is suggested as a precondition for its introduction as an independent sanction. (author's abstract)

Löschnig-Gspandl, Marianne and Kilchling, M. Victim/Offender Mediation and Victim Compensation in Austria and Germany: Stocktaking and Perspectives for Future Research

Victim/offender mediation according to Austrian legal doctrine is the generic term for various ways of compensating victims. This includes compensation for any personal injury, loss, or damage caused, whether directly or indirectly, by an offense; reconciliation talks, apologies, and help for the victim; and community service or payments to public welfare institutions. In Austria, victim/offender mediation is a central feature of juvenile justice processing. Germany's criminal law provides for various forms and benefits of mediation for victims of juvenile and adult offenders. These include face-to-face meetings between victim and offender, as well as requirements that offenders compensate victims. From 1992 to the end of 1995, approximately 5,500 charges against adult offenders were settled through victim/offender mediation in Austria. In Germany, from 1977 to 1993 victim compensation imposed by public prosecutors declined from 1.5 percent to 0.7 percent of all dismissed cases. Compensation imposed in cases of court dismissals, however, remained constant at approximately 8.5 percent. In absolute numbers, this is approximately 5,200 cases a year. Evaluation research indicates that victims are most satisfied with victim/offender mediation programs that result in compensation for the victim. They are less committed to mediation that focuses on reconciliation and the resolution of conflict between the victim and the offender. 98 footnotes

Pelikan, Christa. Victim-offender mediation in Austria

Pelikan notes that Austria has a reputation as a conservative society with a punitive orientation in criminal justice. Yet through the 1980s and 1990s Austria has become a pioneer and leader in the field of victim-offender mediation. Pelikan details the conditions, innovations, and legislation that effected this transformation. The impetus came from a debate about juvenile justice in Austria, leading to changes in responding to offences through conflict resolution, with resolutions that could include victim-offender mediation, comprehensive compensation and reconciliation, and community service. The changes involved administrative arrangements, legislation, and experimental projects. Eventually, proposals were made to extend these changes to the general criminal justice system, including adult offenders and very serious offenses. This took considerable time and effort. Opposition came, for example, from the conservative sector and from the women’s movement (which, while supporting many aspects of the proposed changes, sought to exclude domestic violence cases from this approach based on victim-offender mediation as against established criminal prosecution). In time, though, legislation was enacted that began a process of moving the Austrian criminal justice system toward restorative alternatives, as seen in victim-offender mediation processes and outcomes. Pelikan details the legal context for mediation and mediators, policy and implementation structures and processes, and mediation programs in Austria. In the latter part of this paper Pelikan presents research statistics on the number of cases handled by mediation, types of offenses, characteristics of offenders, and outcomes.

. 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.

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. (excerpt)

. Diversion for promoting compensation to victims and communities during the pre-trial proceedings in Austria.

The idea to promote compensation by the offender to the victim has a relatively long tradition in Austria. Its two aspects -- the offender actively accepting responsibility and the victim simultaneously receiving compensation -- have played a role in Austrian criminal law for over 200 years. The institution of so called "active repentance" was established in the Criminal Code in 1787, and is still in force for offences explicitly mentioned in the Code (especially in the case of offences against property). If the offender manifests repentance by compensation or reparation of the overall damage resulting from the offence, no punishment shall be imposed. This act of repentance, based on its acceptance by the offender, must take place before the police authorities become aware of the ofender's guilt. (excerpt)

Government of Austria.. Jugendgerichtsgesetz 1988 - JGG.

The text of this legislation is in German. It contains references to the use of mediation in criminal cases.

Zwinger, Georg. Restorative justice practice and its relation to the criminal justice system

As Georg Zwinder notes, the victim-offender mediation program (VOM) in Austria began in the 1980s within the framework of juvenile criminal law by social workers working for the probation system. In 1992 VOM was extended as a pilot project to general criminal law for adult offenders. For social workers, all of this involved a new approach with a new perspective – that of restorative justice, with emphases on crime as harm and on the needs of victims. Zwinger explores what they learned in Austria about victims, the role of the mediator, the prime purpose of VOM, methods for conducting a mediation, the relationship between social workers and criminal justice authorities, and the future of VOM in the Austrian criminal justice system.

Hofinger, Veronika and Pelikan, Christa and Zetinigg, Birgit and Pelikan, Christa. Victim-Offender Mediation with Juveniles in Austria.

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 Austria.

Pelikan, Christa. Victim-offender mediation in domestic violence cases-a research report

In this paper, Pelikan examines the results of empirical research into the issue of victim-offender mediation in domestic violence cases, with emphasis on the situation in Austria.