A positive approach to conflict resolution
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Victim-Offender Mediation

What Is Victim-Offender Mediation?

Victim-Offender Mediation is a process based on Restorative Justice principles which emphasizes:

  • The importance of holding offenders directly accountable to the people they have violated
  • Restoring the emotional and material losses of victims
  • Providing a range of opportunities for dialogue, negotiation and problem solving, wheneverpossible, that can lead to a greater sense of community safety, conflict resolution, and closure for all involved

    • This program gives victims of property crimes or minor assaults the opportunity to meet the juvenile offenders in a safe and structured setting. The impact of the crime is communicated offering participants the opportunity to ask and answer questions in developing a restitution plan wherein offenders take responsibility for their behavior, understand the full impact of what they have done, and develop a plan to make amends directly to the person harmed.



Why Does Victim-Offender Mediation Work?

  • The juvenile justice system is not always the most appropriate forum for resolving youth-related issues concerning minor crimes and/or first offenses.

  • Through mediation juvenile offenders are better able to understand the full impact of what they have done, and help to develop a plan to make amends directly to the individuals harmed, taking direct responsibility for their behavior and for repairing the harm.

  • In mediation, decision-making power rests with the parties, not with the judge or jury.

  • Mediation is informal and flexible compared to typical courtroom procedures.

  • Mediation is collaborative (parties generate solutions together) rather than adversarial (opposing parties contend against each other).

  • Mediation is confidential.

  • Mediation helps to provide closure for all involved, which might include family, friends and neighbors of the victim and the offender.

Potential Benefits of Victim-Offender Mediation:

 

Offenders:

 

  • Are held accountable in a very personal fashion and accept responsibility for the harm done

     

  • Have the opportunity  to repair the harm they have caused

     

  • Can display a more human dimension of their characters

     

  • Can offer direct apologies to the individuals they victimized

     

Victims:

 

  • Can become directly involved in the justice process

     

  • Can let the offenders know the full  impact that crime has had on their lives and can receive answers to any lingering questions

     

  • Can directly influence the manner in which the offenders are held accountable through negotiation of  mutually acceptable restitution agreements

     

Community:

 

  • Gains an increase in nonviolent conflict resolution

     

  • Becomes a safer and more compassionate environment

To make a referral to the Mediation Program, please complete a referral form and send it to the mediation advisor along with any documents that would provide additional background information. Referral forms can be downloaded here. All referrals and related documents are confidential and personal documents will be returned.
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