NCJ Number
126469
Date Published
1990
Length
16 pages
Annotation
Data on pilot victim-offender reconciliation projects (VORP's) in the West German cities of Braunschweig, Cologne, and Reutlingen cover such topics as program goals, case criteria and procedure, and results of the program activity.
Abstract
The three VORPS structure a personal encounter of victim and offender in the presence of a mediator to discuss the offense, its effects and aftermath, and restitutive settlement. The VORPS aim to provide an alternative to formal and residential forms of social control by focusing on solving conflicts between victim and offender, such that a formal procedure and further punitive sanctions are unnecessary. All of the programs operate under the Juvenile Court Act and involve juvenile offenders between the ages of 14 and 18. Victim willingness to participate in a settlement with the offender was high in all three programs, and material compensation for the victim was the most common single requirement for all three VORP's. These pilot VORP's are on the cutting edge of informal and formal social control, but they are still dependent on referrals from the criminal justice system, are designed as a pretrial or even precharge diversion program, and aim toward the earliest possible conflict resolution. The juvenile justice system has been reluctant to refer serious cases to VORP's, out of the belief that the public desires more punitive dispositions. Surveys, however, suggest that crime victims are more interested in reparative responses to crime than in the punishment of the offender. 35 references