Source: (2008) Report of the fifth conference of the European Forum for Restorative Justice, Building restorative justice in Europe: cooperation between the public, policy makers, practitioners and researchers, Verona.
In Italy there are no institutional initiatives concerning victims (with the exception of some particular situations), and the experiences in community mediation are experimental, and not really formalised. Only recently in Italy some steps concerning victims are developing and new debates are getting deeper. The victim as a social subject expressing needs has almost always been kept in the shade: the right of recouping, but not of help is recognized for victims. Today the focus is on those victims’ needs that cannot be answered by the juridical area by itself, but only in tight connection with the social resources… There is still a problematic ‘knot’ in the Italian situation: strategies of damage reduction raise an ideological problem. Resources in this area, and in particular the area or security, refer to a failure of the preventive and repressive system. Objections rise. Do this kind of actions reducing damages for victim and the community not give injustice for granted? Does it not hide the ineffectiveness of the system that should guarantee legality? Does it not pass anger towards crime over in silence? (excerpt)
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