Victim Meets Offender - An Evaluation of Victim-Offender Reconciliation Programs

• NCJ Number: 100773
• Author(s): R B Coates
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 50 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Florence V Burden Foundation
• Corporate Author: PACT, Inc
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This evaluation of Victim Offender Reconciliation Programs (VORP) in southern Indiana and Ohio finds that VORP not only involved victims in the criminal justice process, but also had considerable potential as an alternative sanction.

Abstract

Sources for the evaluation included a 1983 matched sample of 73 VORP and 73 non-VORP offender referrals drawn from three Indiana programs, 1984 interviews with victims and offenders who had participated in VORP, staff, mediators, and criminal justice officials. An overview of VORP covers goals, processes, characteristics of participants, and their satisfaction with the system. For 80 percent of the 1983 sample, VORP was part of the offenders' sentence. However, the program was also used to widen the social control net to persons who otherwise would have received less punishment. VORP programs were highly successful in obtaining written contracts involving financial or service restitution in face-to face meetings. Overall, VORP encouraged personal accountability in offenders while breaking down stereotypes of both victims and offenders. Tables and case studies.