Source: (2011) Montréal: Centre International de Criminologie Comparee.
Restorative justice favours the participation of both victims and offenders and promotes
dialogue between these two parties to deal with the consequences of victimization.
Research has shown that victims are generally very pleased with restorative justice. The
main question is, therefore, not whether restorative justice should be offered to victims
but how this should be done. In general, two divergent approaches exist: the protective
model, which seeks to protect victims from possible secondary victimization and the
proactive model, which seeks to inform victims about their options so that they can
decide for themselves what they want to do.
The present study is a qualitative study with victims of violent crime who participated in
restorative justice programs, which followed either of these approaches. Based on
victims’ experiences and views, the authors present a model procedure on how to offer
restorative justice to victims. (author’s abstract)
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