Essay On Victim Offender Mediation

Victim-offender mediation and restitution or restorative justice is a form of conflict resolution, whereas, mediation and restitution is implemented if the crime is a petty crime. This form of conflict resolution is often used instead of the court system, to help both party’s fix the issue, and/or crime. There is must research and case studies done on the subject and often show greater beneficial results then punishment in the criminal justice system. In the article on the subject of victim’s needs and empowerment by Jung Jin Choi they refer to the stigma of punishment for offenders. The state takes the place of the victim and pursues judicial proceedings, to find guilt and impart fines and/or incarceration. Some of these lesser crimes can be resolved by mediation between the victim and the offender. This offender restitution is often referred to as restorative …show more content…
The victim must explain the effects of the loss and what reparations can be made to fix the victimization and compensation for the loss that occurred. The offender must also explain their motivations behind there crime and offer the proper compensation to satisfy the victim. A scenario where these aspects of restorative justice would be fully understood would be; a young boy steals an elderly man’s dog, breaking his fence in the process. If mediation was applied then the elderly man might express that his dog was all he had and the loss devastated him, also he does not have good health to repair his fence. The victim would have stated his emotion state from the loss and that there needs to be compensation for the fence. The offender should start with an apology sometime just the words I’m sorry can help facilitate openness in the victim. The young boy might explain his motivations with being a trouble youth. Perhaps his dog passed away, and his parents are divorcing and the dog was all he