Developing Reparation Plans Through Victim-Offender Mediation by New Zealand Probation Officers (Restorative Justice: International Perspectives, P 417-428, 1996, Burt Galaway and Joe Hudson, eds. -- See NCJ-172607)

• NCJ Number: 172630
• Author(s): B Jervis
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 12 pages
• Sale Source: Criminal Justice Press/Willow Tree Press
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper reviews the content and implementation of that portion of the New Zealand Criminal Justice Act of 1985 that introduced the sentence of reparation, thus allowing compensation to be paid to crime victims.

Abstract

The act was amended in 1987 to allow reparation in cases in which the victim suffered emotional harm. These provisions, together with the provision for payment of part or all of a fine to crime victims who suffered physical or emotional harm as the result of a criminal act, created in law an expectation that offenders should pay compensation to their victims. A further amendment to the Criminal Justice Act in 1993 allows a court imposing a sentence to take into account any offer of compensation, whether financial or by means of the performance of any work or service made by or on behalf of the offender to the victim. The Criminal Justice Act of 1985 was clearly in favor of reparation as a sentencing option, but research undertaken in 1989 showed that reparation was poorly used. There has been some increase in the use of reparation ordered without a reparation report. Victim-offender mediation is rare, as is reparation in the form of service to victims. 2 references