Victim Participation in Restorative Processes

Articles on the impact on victims of their participation in restorative justice meetings.

Stutzman Amstutz, Lorraine and Achilles, Mary. Victim Services and Victim-Offender Mediation Programs: Can They Work Together

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.

Strang, Heather and Sherman, Lawrence W. Repairing the Harm: Victims and Restorative Justice

A chief argument for restorative justice, write Heather Strand and Lawrence Sherman, is that "the jurisprudence of retribution" has ignored victims' interests. In contrast, restorative justice would include victims in ways that victims and the public prefer, and would focus on repairing and preventing the harm of crime rather than exacting a just measure of pain from offenders. With this in mind, Strang and Sherman examine key claims about what victims want and what the public thinks they should have in relation to the disposition of offenders. In this regard, they present evidence from randomized field tests comparing restorative justice to conventional justice. Their overall aim is to explore whether a new jurisprudence should be developed around a model of justice that treats victims more fairly without harming offender rights or public safety.

Cyr, Katie and Wemmers, Jo-Anne. Victims' Perspectives on Restorative Justice: How Much Involvement Are Victims Looking For?

As Wemmers and Cyr point out, there is considerable debate about whether restorative justice offers victims a better deal than the current criminal justice system. Many restorative justice advocates argue that restorative justice certainly serves victims better; many victims’ advocates are wary or critical of the impact of restorative justice on the needs of crime victims. In view of this debate, Wemmers and Cyr ask, “Who is right? Do victims want to participate in the criminal justice process, and if so, how?â€? To answer, they present data from a study with victims of crime who were invited to participate in victim-offender mediation. As part of this, Wemmers and Cyr discuss the issues in the debate, procedural justice theory, and recommendations for a victim-oriented approach to criminal justice.

Umbreit, Mark S and Coates, Robert B and Vos, Betty. The Impact of Victim-Offender Mediation: Two Decades of Research.

Innovation and reform in criminal justice often suggest more than they deliver. Sometimes an innovation is new more in name than in underlying program values and content, and sometimes a reform is embraced with enthusiasm but without scrutiny. As one of the oldest and most widely used expressions of restorative justice around the world, victim-offender mediation (VOM) has exhibited both of these traits at times and in places. Nevertheless, VOM is, the authors assert, one of the most empirically grounded of emerging justice interventions. Against this background, the authors offer an overview of thirty eight empirical studies designed to assess the growth, implementation, and impact of VOM programs. Umbreit, Coates, and Vos summarize and comment upon the research results with particular attention to client satisfaction, fairness, restitution, diversion, recidivism, cost, and VOM and violent crimes.

Gustafson, Dave. Exploring Treatment and Trauma Recovery Implications of Facilitating Victim Offender Encounters in Crimes of Severe Violence: Lessons from the Canadian Experience.

This chapter first describes research undertaken in 1989 with victims/survivors and inmates that led to the development of the program. A case study that involves an adult male survivor of child sexual abuse illustrates the process and the healing outcomes for this survivor, for the members of his family, and for the offender. Some of the issues raised by the case are explored, notably the nature of trauma and how guided communication between victims, offenders, and other involved parties can assist recovery. The presentation of the case study is followed by a review of the history of the program. There is growing evidence of the therapeutic impact of victim-offender mediation upon the participants. Victims often report that the mediation experience has helped in their recovery from trauma, including a diminishing of severe symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Participating offenders have also described the mediation process as healing. Therapists and prison program facilitators have reported observing significant increases in victim empathy and a commitment to relapse prevention in offenders who have participated. Other jurisdictions are implementing similar programs with technical assistance from FRCJIA staff. The first 15 years of the program have continued to show the value of mediation in helping to heal the harms caused by violent offenses. Well-conceived victim-offender dialog models, especially when informed by trauma recovery and offender treatment research, are apparently effective in bringing positive outcomes even for cases of violent crimes. Abstract courtesy of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.gov.

Szmania, Susan Jennifer. Victim Offender Mediation Media Coverage Has Both Potential and Pitfalls

Restorative justice initiatives such victim offender mediation (VOM) programs are currently enjoying increased national media attention. In the past year, several magazines and television and radio talk shows have devoted space to restorative justice programs. The journalist Jan Goodwin, for example, has published articles on victim offender mediation in the April 2004 issue of O Magazine and in the May 2004 issue of Marie Claire magazine. On television, coverage has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in November 2004 and on The Larry King Show in January 2005. Online discussions have also been held, such as one on Oprah’s discussion board (oprah.com). For advocates of restorative justice, this national media attention is exciting. It not only raises public awareness about restorative justice, but it also opens doors for sources of much-needed funding for new and existing programs. However, this increased media attention requires more scrutiny of how VOM is presented because of the misconceptions that may be inadvertently promoted through the media spotlight. To illustrate the potentials and pitfalls of media involvement in VOM, this article looks at three recent VOM television and online presentations. These sources include The Oprah Winfrey Show entitled. “Coming Face to Face with Your Attackerâ€? from October 25, 2004 on the topic of restorative justice, the Oprah After the Show program that subsequently aired the question and answer session following the main program on a cable television channel, and the oprah.com discussion board in response to the television show. (excerpt)

Cyr, Katie and Wemmers, Jo-Anne. Victims' Perspectives on Restorative Justice: How Much Involvement are Victims Looking For?

Under the Criminal Code of Canada, the crime victim is relegated to the role of witness to a crime against the state. Due to concerns over the possible threat to the rights of the accused, victim vindictiveness and sentencing severity, victim participation in the criminal justice system has been met with resistance. In relation to restorative justice, while victims are clearly considered to be parties with a stake in the offense, victim satisfaction is not always a goal of restorative justice. This leads to the possibility of restorative justice programs being insensitive to the needs of crime victims, thereby placing an additional burden on the victim. This paper presents data from a study of 56 victims of crime who participated in a victim-offender mediation program in Montreal, Canada and presents an understanding of the role that victims prefer to play in the criminal justice process. The data suggest that the majority of victims are well aware of the risk of introducing arbitrariness into sentencing if victims are granted decisionmaking power. Most victims are clear that while they want input, they are content to leave decision control in the hands of authorities. Victims seem to want recognition. They want to have a voice in the criminal justice process. Victims want a voice that will be heard, but where they won’t bear the burden of decisionmaking power. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org.

Szmania, Susan Jennifer. Beginning difficult conversations: An analysis of opening statements in Victim Offender Mediation/Dialogue

In this dissertation, I provide a discourse analysis of mediators, victims, and offenders’ opening statements in the Victim Offender Mediation/Dialogue (VOMD) program in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. VOMD is available to willing victims of violent crime who would like to meet with their convicted offenders with the aid of a mediator. Previous research indicates that participants are satisfied with the process and outcome of this newly emerging type of mediation, but little research has addressed the communication in these difficult conversations. A general practical question motivates this discourse-centered analysis: how do participants begin the Mediation/Dialogue sessions? Drawing from grounded practical theory, the analysis addresses two levels. First, at the technical level, I use action-implicative discourse analysis to transcribe participants’ opening statements in five cases. Second, at the problem level, I investigate the tensions that are inherent in initial moments of the dialogue, both at an institutional level and at an interpersonal level. The technical level finds that the participants in five cases display prosocial communicative practices in their opening statements. Mediators employ both procedural and orientational features that orient the participants to the ideology and process of the mediation session. Victims acknowledge the offender, equalize their position with the offender, discuss their spirituality, and may also express forgiveness to the offender in their opening statements. Offenders begin by talking about the difficulty of engaging in the mediation session, discussing their identity in relation to their crime, offering an apology, and responding to the victims’ forgiveness when forgiveness is granted. Author's abstract.

Umbreit, Mark S. The impact of victim offender mediation: A case study

abstract unavailable

Umbreit, Mark S and Coates, Robert B and Roberts, A. Impact of victim offender mediation in Canada, England and the United States

abstract unavailable

Buntix, Kristel. Mediation in Homicide Cases: Opportunities and Risks.

This brief article provides a brief overview of victim offender mediation in Belgium from early pilots in youth justice to the implementation of restorative justice programmes in Belgian prisons.

Sider, Nancy Good. Peacebuilders Healing Trauma: The Journey from Victim to Survivor to Provider.

Using grounded theory methodology (Glaser’s building theory from a data base), this research examines how peacebuilders heal violent trauma they have personally endured, with the aim of identifying common themes in their journeys from victim to survivor to provider. Using an appreciative interview format (Cooperrider and Whitney) designed to acknowledge traumatic experiences with the equally important need to identify the source of resilience; the interviews with selected peacebuilders show how, beyond surviving the trauma, they transcend it, choosing a vocation of peacebuilding in violent conflicts while risking secondary traumatization and compassion fatigue. The eight peacebuilders in this study suffered and transcended catastrophic traumas such as kidnapping, terrorism, bombing, war and physical assault. They work in trauma healing centers, restorative justice, international mediation, and relief and development work around the globe, including El Salvador, Ghana, Northern Ireland, Kenya, Bosnia-Herzegovina, New Zealand, United States and India. (author’s abstract).

Manozzi, Grazia. "Parallel Mediations:" Why Organised Crime Tends to "Mediate" Conflict and to Reject Institutional Victim-Offender Mediation

The article describes the phenomenon in Italy of mafia bosses organizing mediation conferences for warring parties at the behest of the police. It contrasts the differences in style between penal mediation and mafia style mediation and concludes with some of the implications for both types of mediation.

Umbreit, Mark S. Victim-Offender Mediation With Violent Offenders: Implications for Modification of the VORP (Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program) Model

Initially begun in Kitchner, Ontario, in the mid-1970's and then introduced in the United States in 1978, Victim-Offender Reconciliation Programs (VORP's) are now operating or being developed in approximately 100 U.S. communities. In VORP's offenders and victims are brought face-to-face with a trained mediator to express feelings, answer questions, and negotiate restitution. VORP was designed for use with nonviolent property crimes involving a restitution obligation. The findings reported in this paper, however, indicate the VORP model is equally if not more appropriate for selected violent crimes. Drawing on a fundamental element of the model, that of promoting reconciliation and healing within a context of viewing crime as relational, consideration should be given to modifying the VORP model to encompass some victims and offenders involved in violent crime. This initiative should include appropriate training for the mediators who will be involved.

Brown, Kathy and Vos, Betty and Umbreit, Mark S and Coates, Robert B. Victim Offender Dialogue in Crimes of Severe Violence A Multi-Site Study of Programs in Texas and Ohio

The authors of this study observe that an increasing number of victims of sexual assault, attempted homicide, and survivors of murder victims are requesting the opportunity to meet the offender to express the full impact of the crime upon their life, to get answers to questions they have, and to gain a greater sense of closure so as to move forward in life. A number of states in the United States are developing protocols for allowing such an encounter between a victim or survivor of violent crime and the offender. This study examines the development and impact of the programs in Texas and Ohio that work with cases of severe violence, including homicide. The report includes a summary of key findings, an explanation of the research method, statistics and participants’ responses, and analysis of the findings. According to the authors, the data that emerged from the study indicates that many of the principles of restorative justice can be applied in crimes of severe violence in terms of both healing the victim and holding the offender accountable.

University of Minnesota, Center for Restorative Justice and Mediation. Restorative Justice: Victim Empowerment Through Mediation and Dialogue.

The criminal justice system tends to be offender-driven. As a component of restorative justice, victim-offender mediation is designed to hold offenders accountable and to allow for victim input and involvement. Interviews with victims who have participated in victim-offender mediation are presented in which victims of burglary, home vandalism, and gang intimidation discuss their fears and frustrations. Benefits of victim-offender mediation are noted, including the positive impact on both victims and offenders of face-to-face contact, victim empowerment, greater victim satisfaction with the criminal justice system, reduced fear of revictimization, and an increased sense of fairness.

Pemberton, Antony and Groenhuijsen, Marc S. and Winkel, Frans-Willem. Evaluating Victims Experiences in Restorative Justice

This article is an attempt to contribute to the further understanding of the effects of restorative justice conferencing on victims. Taking Strang and Sherman's research as a starting point, it discusses various issues relating to research and theory of victims within restorative justice. (author's abstract)

Fellegi, Borbala. Explaining the impact of restorative justice: the '4-way interaction' of morality, neutralisation, shame and bonds

"This study will discuss whether these concepts and their possible interconnections can help us to understand the impact of restorative justice, and if so, how. Although any analysis of restorative justice should be at least as much about the victim as about the offender, the current article intends to focus mostly its impact on wrongdoers. Hence, it necessarily reflects only on some issues within restorative justice." (abstract)

Editor. Victims’ Perceptions of Fairness and Victim Offender Mediation.

Many studies have shown that victims who participate in restorative processes are highly satisfied that justice has been done. What about those processes contributes to this perception? This article is based on a paper from the Fall 2006 issue of the journal Applied Psychology in Criminal Justice.

Fraley, Stephen. The Meaning of Reconciliation for Prisoners Serving Long Sentences.

Prisoners who are serving long-term sentences face a unique challenge once they seek to reconcile with those whom they have harmed. This might be with the persons directly affected by an act of violence or the families and friends of the prisoner. There are few opportunities for prisoners to engage in victim-offender mediation programs while they are serving their sentences. Prisoners, therefore, must reach out to the extent possible to all those who are willing to reconcile in some way - the victim of the crime in question and those associated with the victim as well as family members and friends - so that the period of imprisonment can be a form of personal transformation as well as restorative community-building.