VICTIM OFFENDER COMMUNICATION IN FELONY CASES: AN ARCHIVAL ANALYSIS OF OHIO’S OFFICE OF VICTIM SERVICES DIALOGUE PROGRAM

In this dissertation, I studied victim offender dialogue files archived by Ohio‟s Office of
Victim Services (OVS). The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction runs OVS. The
Office of Victim Services has processed 349 individual dialogue cases. The OVS director was
interested in knowing why only one in four initiated dialogue files complete actual face-to-face
dialogue. I conducted an archived data analysis on a sample (N = 212) of OVS completed and
will-not-proceed files. Victim offender dialogue programs are typically based on restorative
justice theory and, compared to traditional criminal justice processes, have been shown to
increase victim and offender satisfaction, decrease offender recidivism, and increase rates of
restitution. I posited two hypotheses regarding offender race and the effect of time on dialogue
completion. Chi square and Fisher‟s exact tests were conducted and indicate that neither
offender race nor the passage of time had a significant effect on dialogue completion rates.
However, a victim‟s relationships to the offender, victim sex, and the dialogue file initiator were
each found to significantly impact dialogue completion rates. I also include descriptive analyses
of victim motivations for seeking dialogue. This research has implications regarding relational
communication, conflict mediation, and restorative justice theory. Finally, I offer several
suggestions regarding OVS practices as well as other uses of restorative dialogue in the contexts
of severe crime and felonies.