Victim-Offender Mediation: Defining the Research Agenda

• NCJ Number: 119718
• Author(s): S D Lelewer
• Date Published: Unknown
• Length: 35 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This document examines the history, theory, and practice of victim-offender mediation (VOM), and addresses its hopes and uncertainties.

Abstract

VOM is a new approach to criminal justice which provides a low-cost alternative to incarceration. In this approach, a convicted criminal, his or her victim, and a mediator meet and discuss the crime and work out a restitutionary agreement. VOM was first practiced in the US in the early 1970s by the Minneapolis Restitution Center and later dropped due to a decline in referrals and a shift in parole board policy and leadership. A more successful program was incorporated into the juvenile justice system in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the mid-1970s. By the end of the 1970s, there were at least 13 such restitution programs in the US, and by 1987, 67 such programs existed. VOM is an innovative approach which, with greater informational and financial resources, can reduce recidivism, compensate victims, and satisfy the public sense of criminal justice. Footnotes, supplementary bibliography.