Victim-Offender Reconciliation With Adult Offenders in Germany (From International Victimology, P 321-327, 1996, Chris Sumner, Mark Israel, et al., eds. - See NCJ-169474)

• NCJ Number: 169507
• Author(s): U I Hartmann
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 7 pages
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: Australia

Annotation

This paper is an overview of research on a pilot victim-offender reconciliation program for adult perpetrators in Hannover, Germany.

Abstract

The research project found that the practical realization of the mediation concept was not as successful as expected; only a few non-petty cases were successfully settled. Prosecutors were not prepared to apply the criteria as predetermined. This is perhaps indicative of the nature and scope of their education, which seems to concentrate too much on punishing the offender and ensuring the performance of proceedings. The paper concludes that an intransigent prosecutorial attitude can impede efforts to resolve conflict and stabilize the victim-offender circumstance. Criminal justice practitioners as well as participants must want the process to work if restorative justice is to occur. Reconciliation will not become an integral component of a criminal justice system unless criminal justice practitioners themselves accept it as a worthwhile contribution for both the legal and social resolution of criminal victimization. References