Source: (2003) The Crime Victims Report. 7(4): 51,60.
Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz is the director of the Mennonite Central Committee’s Office on Crime and Justice. Mary Achilles is the governor-appointed victim advocate for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. For years they have collaborated to offer workshops on bringing together victim service programs and victim-offender mediation programs. From their own experiences and perspectives, as well as those of others, Amstutz and Achilles know that victim advocacy and victim-offender mediation often do not easily coexist, much less work together. Yet Amstutz and Achilles both believe that, for justice to be truly restorative, victim service programs and victim-offender mediation programs must work together. In this article then they share their hard-won insights on misperceptions people in each sphere have of the other sphere, and they offer strategies for bringing together victim service programs and victim-offender mediation programs.
Your donation helps Prison Fellowship International repair the harm caused by crime by emphasizing accountability, forgiveness, and making amends for prisoners and those affected by their actions. When victims, offenders, and community members meet to decide how to do that, the results are transformational.
Donate Now