Sweden

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

Nehlin, Christina. Victim-offender mediation in Sweden: a nation-wide pilot scheme

On a theoretical level there has been significant discussion in Sweden about victim-offender mediation (VOM) for two decades. Several efforts were made in Parliament to introduce a government-run pilot scheme, but little came of those efforts. Meanwhile, practitioners began to grasp the idea of VOM and put it into use on their own. Eventually, in the late 1990s the Swedish government gave the National Council for Crime Prevention the task of introducing, supporting, and evaluating an experimental project employing VOM for juvenile offenders. Nehlin describes the origin, operation, and results of this one-year pilot scheme.

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.

Nehlin, Christina. VOM Trial in Sweden Provides Opportunity for Program Support and Evaluation

As Christina Nehlin notes at the beginning of this article, victim-offender mediation can be introduced and practiced in a great many ways. The variations can be confusing to the point of appearing almost to be different things. Against this background, Nehlin offers a description of the particular development of victim-offender mediation (VOM) in Sweden. She summarizes the history of VOM in Sweden, an overview of the pilot VOM project that began in 1998 at the direction of the Swedish government, and results and conclusions from the trial project. At this point, she observes, VOM in Sweden is in its early stages and in process of further development.

Wergens, Anna. Restorative Justice, the crime-victim paradigm and the COE guidelines for a better implementation of the Recommendation ‘Mediation in Penal Matters'

The first part of the presentation commented on the role of crime victims in the course of mediation in penal matters from a Swedish perspective... The presentation aimed to a cautious but not negative outlook on mediation in penal matters with the objective that the victim should not become ‘the forgotten person’ in the mediation process... In the second part of the presentation, an effort was made to introduce the Council of Europe guidelines for a better implementation of the existing recommendation concerning mediation in penal matters... The diversity of the restorative justice programmes in Europe was decisive for the development of these guidelines by means of a structure into three separate sections dealing with awareness, accessibility and availability. The presentation outlined how the guidelines relate to the conference theme ‘Co-operation between the public, policy matters, practitioners and researchers and the role of various professional groups in raising awareness on mediation... The specific aspects related to victims in the guidelines were accounted for and analysed, in particular the section on quality which stresses the power imbalance between the victim and the offender following a crime and it recommends member states to be aware that the needs of the victim require special consideration before, during and after the mediation process. (excerpt)

Tinworth, Kathleen and Merkel-Holguin, Lisa. Reviewing a Swedish Outcome Study on Family Group Conferences.

The conclusions of this Swedish study appear inconsistent with the majority of international research and evaluation on family group decision making (FGDM) and, therefore, it has generated significant discussion. The purpose of this Issue Brief is to summarize the Swedish study, present a wider understanding of it and its place within FGC policy and practice, and place its conclusions within the context of instituting FGC in national and international child welfare systems. The study’s findings, an analysis, and questions follow. (excerpt)

Wahlin, Lottie. 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.

Lind, Eleonore. Cooperation between agencies to facilitate VOM – the Swedish experience

The objective of this workshop is to identify prejudices and misperceptions concerning VOM within the judicial system, which can hinder an effective implementation of mediation in criminal cases and to find ways to increase the cooperation with our working agencies. We do not mean only police officers, prosecutors and judges, but also the social sector and the prison and probation authorities. When discussing these questions we have to keep in mind that the initial incorporation of mediation in criminal cases varies from country to country, due to cultural, socioeconomic and historical background. (excerpt)

Jacobsson, Maritha and Wahlin, Lottie. The development of victim offender mediation in Sweden.

Since the year 2008, it has been compulsory for all municipalities in Sweden to offer victim offender mediation (VOM) to young offenders below the age of 21. Work in the area of victim offender mediation was started in the late 1990s and has been expanding every since. In Sweden, VOM is regulated by the Act 445 of 2002 on Mediation. The aim of the act is to increase the offender's level of insight into the consequences of the increase the offender's level of insight into the consequences of the offence. At the same time, the victim is provided with the opportunity to deal with his/her experiences. The philosophy underlying the Swedish criminal system is retributive; and restorative justice can be described as a complementary method. Retributive justice is rooted in the idea that the offender should be prosecuted and punished by the state. Restorative justice provides a very different framework for understanding and responding to crime and victimisation. Instead of an offender-driven focus, restorative justice identifies three parties: individual victims, victimized communities, and offenders. Its main purpose is to bring together the parties involved who can meet and deal with the effects of the offence and its future consequences together. (excerpt)

Marklund, Linda. Resolving school conflicts through peer mediation in Sweden.

The use of mediation in Sweden is only starting up, although Norrbotten as a county has been widely applying it since 2004. Peer mediation work is not carried out all over the country homogeneously. In Norrbotten, a peer mediation scheme was set up at Lulea Technical University in cooperation with the mediation and negotiation courses held there and with the Association of Local Authorities in Norrbotten. Peer mediation in Norrbotten became the first organisation devoted to the use and promotion of mediation in schools in Sweden on this scale. Today approximately 125 schools and have more than 360 mediation coordinators are involved in the work. In 2010 these will be providing a 15-hour-long training session in mediation to over 1,500 students. All other students at these schools will participate in a day-long workshop that will give them an insight into what mediation is and how it can help them resolve their conflicts. (excerpt)

Jacobsson, Maritha. Victim-offender mediation in Sweden: Is the victim better off?

In this article we analyse recorded verbal interactions between victims and offenders in the presence of mediators. Our aim is to illuminate how victims interact, communicate and position themselves in relation to the offender. We inquire whether victims benefit from verbal interaction with offenders during a process of mediation. According to this study there are no easy answers. Victims act in diverse ways depending on their aims and the situation. They may act as moral entrepreneurs, adopt consensus-seeking strategies or take oppositional positions. This research may be informative for those who are interested in which benefits victims can achieve when they communicate with offenders in the framework of restorative justice. (author's abstract)

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.

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.