NCJ Number
172624
Date Published
1996
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This paper identifies and discusses impediments to reconciliation between offenders and victims in community conferences observed in Canberra, Adelaide, and Campbelltown in Australia in December 1994.
Abstract
Community conferences constitute a new forum for dealing with crime in Western societies. This procedure, which originated in New Zealand, diverts the offender from the court into an alternative system that uses a meeting between victim, offender, and other interested parties to reach a settlement of the case. In Australia conferences are being widely used for both juvenile and adult crimes and are also being used in educational settings for dealing with student offenses. The process of symbolic reparation is less understood than material reparation. There is a difference between aggressive emotions, such as anger and self- righteous indignation, which can be disruptive, and the expression of vulnerable emotions, such as shame, grief, and fear, which may be the key to reconciliation. Shame, in particular, is the master emotion that means the difference between conciliation and conflict; shame is related to the state of social bonds. Tactics can be used to overcome the impediments, leading to satisfaction on the victim's part and reintegration on the part of the offender. Regardless of who operates conferences, it is important that the police be included in the early stages of planning the transition from court to conference and that they become an integral part of the new program. Because the police are the first to contact offenders, they have the power to help or hinder conferencing by their degree of cooperation. This paper also recommends that the facilitators be given specific training in recognizing and managing emotions. 20 references