Victim Order Mediation Effectiveness

During the 1990s, the emphasis and development of restorative justice perhaps reached its summit when both the federal government and the RCMP outwardly problematized conventional justice on the one hand, while they “championed” restorative justice on the other. Victims have generally expressed their satisfaction after participating in restorative justice programs. Moreover, while conventional justice has been plagued by significant reoffending rates, many scholars have found that restorative programs demonstrate success in this regard. Thus, we essentially have a failed experiment by Canada's leading and national police force on the one hand, but widespread academic support for restorative justice both in Canada and internationally on the

Fagliano, S. (2008, May 19). How Victim-Offender Mediation Impacts Juvenile Offenders. Retrieved from Stanford.edu: http://web.stanford.edu/dept/URBS/programs/documents/faglianothesis.pdf

Daly, K, & Marchetti, E 2011, ‘Innovative justice processes: restorative justice, indigenous justice, and therapeutic jurisprudence’, in Crime and justice: a guide to criminology, 4th ed., Thomson Reuters, Pyrmont, pp.455-481

In 2014, a mother/ex wife released her victim offender mediation story with the “Community Justice Initiatives Association”. This particular case was about her son’s father who was brutally attacked after being in an argument with the offender that is named “M” in the story. The ex husband died the next day due to a brain hemorrhage. The mother explained that her ex husband suffered from alcohol abuse and so did the offender. The ex wife found out before “M” was an offender before he was actually a victim and a product of a family that was part of residential schooling through his First Nation tribe. About a year past and the ex wife wanted to set up a healing circle with “M” so that her son can have some closure with his father’s death because he was having a hard time dealing with it. The son and his mother got to meet with the offender in a mediation circle to hopefully heal with all parties involved. At first this circle was hard for the son but later on opened up about the whole situation that led him to let all the weight off of his shoulders and got release some resentment off of his fathers killer. On another hand the mother had an opportunity to fully digest what the offender was saying and came to a conclusion that “M” is an oppressed person that had history of addiction and anger issues, which led to her forgiving the offender after the mediation process.

One particular positive is that plea bargains take into account the victims needs and include the victims throughout the plea-bargaining process. In the past, victims issues were not heard and often created secondary victimization. Erez and Tontodonato (1990) found that “The most consistent result emerging from the studies was victims’ frustration with and alienation from the system” (p.452). Listening to victims needs is important and has come to the forefront in recent years. Although prosecutors, Crowns, and judges do not have to take the victim's statement into account, it is important for their voices to be heard.

Through restorative justice, offenders come to realize what they have done through interaction with their victims and the crimes they committed against them. The experience also helps them cope with their criminal act. According to Mays and Winfree (2005), "Through individual counseling and group work, staff members helped offenders recognize the physical, psychological, and emotional consequences of their offense" (p. 11). Judged by a jury of their peers, defendants are only confronted with their actions in the courtroom. After they are found guilty, they are sent to a jail cell to do nothing but work out, read, and eat. This process initiates a thinking process and helps them realize what they have done is wrong in society, and it brings them face to face with their victims. According to Mays and Winfree (2005), "Finally, the staff worked to end the polarization between victim aid services and offender support services, to build bridges between them and to explore the possibility of victim-offender communications while the offenders were jailed" (p. 11).

The United States of America, long ago, founded a disciplinary system that was to keep law abiding citizens safe. Those who broke the law were to be adequately punished and reformed, so that when criminals were done serving time, they would be ready to become contributing members of society. Mandatory minimum sentences, high prison return rates, and overworked and underfunded public defenders are just some of the issues that plague the Criminal Justice System. It is astounding that an alternative has not been sought.Restorative justice, or Circle justice is a discipline system that involves mediation, honest speaking, and healing. It gets all parties to share their experiences thoughts and feelings to address what happened in the inciting

Restorative justice is a method of justice that emphasizes repairing the harm caused or revealed by criminal behaviour. It offers a solution that promotes the healing and strengthening of community bonds, by addressing the harm done to victims and communities. The criminal justice system has traditionally concentrated on detaining and committing offenders rather than examining the roots of their problems and providing community-based services that effectively addressed them. Crime rates continue to soar under the present system and the search is ever stronger for a solution to deal with a rising prison population, high costs, overcrowding and poor conditions, a legal process less and less concerned with the victim; but rather a focus on the

Victims also emphasised how they don’t always want their offender to be punished harshly, but instead want the Criminal Justice system to use more therapeutic justice practices to prevent further crimes happening in the future. This essay will argue that the process leading to an outcome is more important than the outcome itself to victims of crime. In saying this, it needs to be addressed that this is not the case for every victim. Victims have diverse needs and expectations of their Criminal justice process and many still do want punitive punishment as the main outcome. It needs to be noted that the views expressed in this essay are not the views of all victims of crime and it can never be assumed that all individual victims will want the same outcome or have the same definition of Justice (Williams,

In this research design, the purpose of the study will be to understand if there is a correlation between juvenile delinquency and victim offender mediation. In the adult criminal justice system, victim offender mediation has been something that has shown great success in situations where both parties are open to the program. In the instance of juvenile delinquents, the question is whether victim offender mediation will have a positive effect on the juveniles, therefore leading to a higher percentage of recidivism and lower amount of juvenile arrests and court cases. Victim-offender mediation is a process that provides interested victims of primarily property crimes and minor assaults the opportunity to meet the juvenile or adult offender,

Some of the strengths and benefits of the victim offender conferencing is that the victim can confront the offender and accomplish his or her reasons for participation such as in our textbook where the indirect victim had no other source of information about the offense. By participating in the program she accomplished the primary goals that most victims have such as having some human contact with the offender, the ability to show him the impact of the offense and the beginning of the healing process (Amstutz, 2009). The victim explains how her primary motive for the conference was to get rid of her desire for revenge that she had built up throughout her life; she accomplished her goal and is finally able to let go and move on (Amstutz, 2009).

An empirical research showed that both victims and offenders who experience a restorative justice program express high levels of satisfaction. Additionally, both victims and offenders are not satisfied with the traditional court system and believe that the restorative justice process is fair.

Our book states that, “rather than punish law violators harshly and make them outcasts of society, peacemakers look for ways to bring them back to the community. This peacemaking movement has adopted methods and applied them to what is known as restorative justice” (Siegel, 284). Howard Zehr, a leading restorative justice scholar, believed that society needs to “address the victims’ harms and needs, hold offenders accountable to put right those harms, and involve victims, offenders, and communities in the process of healing” (Siegel, 284).

Zehr and Gohar discuss several restorative justice practices, each with models that differ on who and how it is designed for as well as the goals of the particular rmodel. Victim offender conferences (VOC) is one model of restorative justice with a primary focus on supporting both the victim and offender on an individual basis before collaborating together with a trained facilitator. Healing or therapeutic programs can play a large role in this model as the goal provides beneficial outcomes to all parties involved. Moderately contrary to victim offender conferences is family group confereneces (FGC). Offender responsibility and behavior modification is the cornerstone of this model and, as a result, offenders, their family, victims, their family,

During this type of healing circle, the offence will be discussed as well as how it affected the victim and the community and the relationship between them and the offender (Justice Education Society, 2016). Not only does the circle attempt to heal community ties, the circle also focuses on the offender and the fundamental causes of their offence (Justice Education Society, 2016). Following a healing circle that is directed towards offenders and victims, a consensus is taken to decide the subsequent steps that should be taken by the offender to correct the harms caused by their actions (Justice Education Society, 2016). These steps could include specialized counseling or treatment programs, community work service, potlatch or other traditional remedies, direct restitution to the victim or community and in some cases, unique and creative solutions emerge (Justice Education Society, 2016).