“Reparation as Mitigation.”

Source: (1989) Criminal Law Review 461(524):463-480.

This study reports on two Home Office funded reparation programs in Wolverhampton and Coventry that enabled victims and offenders to discuss the offense and how the offender might make amends subsequent to an offender’s conviction and before sentencing. Data were obtained from interviews with 135 victims and offenders. Reparation involving the victim in private meetings with the offender was seen by both victims and offenders as something that should be kept separate from the public administration of justice and the quantification of punishment. In a few instances the meeting appeared to have a powerful deterrent effect on the offender. The strength and weaknesses of a postsentence mediation is considered.