Victim-Offender Dialogue in violent cases: a multi-site study in the United States

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Date: 15 August 2019
• Author: Mark S Umbreit
• Pages: 22-39
• Published date: 15 August 2019
• Citation: 2007 Acta Juridica 22

Victim-Offender Dialogue in violent cases:

a multi-site study in the United

States

MARK S. UMBREIT, BETTY VOS, ROBERT B. COATES AND

KATHY BROWN*

University of Minnesota and the Ohio Dept. of Corrections

I INTRODUCTION

From its beginnings in Kitchener, Ontario in the mid–1970s, victim-

offender mediation in North America has been largely utilised in

situations of property crimes and minor assaults, and often focused on

juvenile delinquents. With thousands of cases in more than 1 500

programmes in 17 countries, victim-offender mediation with property

offences and minor assaults is the most widespread and empirically

grounded expression of restorative justice in the world.

1

Numerous

studies have found the process of victim-offender mediation in less

serious crimes to have a positive impact on victim and offender

satisfaction,

2

perceptions of fairness related to the mediation process and

outcome,

3

successful completion of restitution,

4

and reduction of

recidivism.

5

* Mark Umbreit (Professor and Director), Betty Vos (Senior Research Associate) and

Robert Coates (Senior Research Associate): Centre for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking,

University of Minnesota School of Social Work.Kathy Brown is a mental health administrator

for the Ohio Department of Corrections.

1

M S Umbreit The Handbook of Victim Offender Mediation: An Essential Guide to Practice and

Research (2001).

2

R M Davis et al Mediation and Arbitration as Alternative to Prosecution in Felony ArrestCases,

An Evaluationof the Brooklyn Dispute Resolution Centre (1980); R B Coates and J Gehm ‘An

Empirical Assessment’in M Wright and B Galaway (eds) Mediation and Criminal Justice (1989);

L Perry et al Mediation Services: An Evaluation (1987); T Marshall ‘Results of Research from

British Experiments in Restorative Justice’ in B Galaway and J Hudson (eds) Criminal Justice,

Restitution, and Reconciliation (1990); M S Umbreit and R B Coates Victim Offender Mediation:

An Analysis of Programs in Four States of the US (1992); C Carr VORS ProgramEvaluation Report

(1998); A Evje and R Cushman A Summary of the Evaluations of Six California Victim Offender

Rehabilitation Programs (2000); Umbreit (n 1); M S Umbreit, R B Coates and B Vos Juvenile

Victim Offender Mediation in Six Oregon Counties (2001).

3

Davis (n 2); J P Collins Final Evaluation Report on the Grande Prairie Community

Reconciliation Project For Young Offenders (1984); Coates and Gehm (n 2); Umbreit and Coates

(n 2); M S Umbreit and AW Roberts Mediation of Criminal Conf‌lict in England: An Assessment of

Services In Coventry And Leeds (1996); Evje and Cushman (n 2); Umbreit, Coates, and Vos (n 2)

2001.

4

Umbreit and Coates (n 2); Evje and Cushman, 2000.

5

A Schneider ‘Restitution and Recidivism Rates of Juvenile Offenders: Results from Four

Experimental Studies’ (1986) 24 Criminology 533–552; Umbreit and Coates, 1992; W Nugent

et al ‘Participation in Victim-Offender Mediation and the Prevalence and Severity of

22

2007 Acta Juridica 22

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As victims of more serious crime, such as felony assault, murder,

manslaughter and vehicular homicide began to request similar meetings

with the offenders who had harmed them or their loved ones, in the early

1990s local and state-wide correctional agencies in a number of

jurisdictions around the United States began to explore the possibility of

offering a similar service for victims of violent and serious crimes. In

1997, the Centre for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking at the

University of Minnesota, in collaboration with the National Organiza-

tion for Victim Assistance in the United States, received funding to

undertake the f‌irst in-depth study of victim-offender dialogue in violent

and serious crimes in the f‌irst two states to develop such a programme as

part of their state-wide Department of Corrections Victim Services

off‌ices: Texas (1993) and Ohio (1996). Today there are 19 states with

formal protocol for providing victim- offender dialogue in crimes of

severe violence.

Although the practice of offering facilitated dialogue in such cases is

still quite new, at the time of the present study there had been three

reports of research on such programmes in North America. Two of these

were small exploratory initiatives that each examined four case studies in

the U.S., and the third reported on a larger Canadian sample.

The f‌irst study

6

found that offering a mediated dialogue session in four

very violent cases – including a sniper shooting case – was very benef‌icial

to the victims, offenders and community members or family members

who were involved in the process. Three of these four cases (all adult

offenders) were handled by a police department in upstate New York

(Genesee County) that operates a comprehensive restorative justice

programme.

The second study,

7

involving four cases of severely violent crime

committed by juvenile offenders, found very high levels of satisfaction

with the process and outcomes, from both victims and offenders. The

offenders were inmates in a juvenile correctional facility in Alaska.All the

victims reported the mediation to be important for closure, and the

offenders noted that seeing the victim had personalised the event.

Subsequent Delinquent Behavior: A Meta-Analysis’ (2003) 1 Utah Law Review 137–165; W

Nugent et al ‘Participation in Victim-Offender Mediation and Severity of Subsequent

Delinquent Behavior: Successful Replications?’ (1999) 11 (1) Journal of Research in Social Work

Practice 5–23; W M Nugent and J Paddock ‘The Effect of Victim-Offender Mediation on

Severity of Reoffense’ (1995) 12 Mediation Quarterly 353–367; K Stone An Evaluation of

Recidivism Rates for Resolutions Northwest’s Victim-Offender Mediation Program (2000) Masters

Thesis (Portland State University, Portland, OR); J Katz VictimOf fender Mediation in Missouri’s

Juvenile Courts: Accountability, Restitution, and Transformation(2000).

6

M Umbreit ‘Violent Offenders and Their Victims’ in M Wright and B Galaway (eds)

Mediation and Criminal Justice (1989).

7

C Flaten ‘Victim Offender Mediation:Application with Serious Offences Committed by

Juveniles’ in B Galaway and J Hudson (eds) Restorative Justice: InternationalPerspectives (1996).

23VICTIM-OFFENDER DIALOGUE IN VIOLENT CASES

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