After the crime: The power of restorative justice dialogues between victims and violent offenders.

Source: (2011) New York and London: New York Univeristy Press.

In the chapters that follow, I place the Victim Voices Heard program in a context of both its general and specific significance. In chapter 2, I explore the rise in popularity of restorative justice programs in the United States and other countries and draw the contours of some of the debates about using such programs for addressing the needs of victims/survivors of severe violence, particularly for the crimes of child abuse, domestic violence, and sexual assault. Chapter 2 also describes more specific details involving the nuts and bolts of VVH. In chapter 3, I describe the foundation and catalyst of VVH, as it was shaped by the tireless and compassionate efforts of its founder Kim Book, a mother whose teenage daughter was murdered. I emphasize the power of storytelling and how personal narratives can create life-changing moments for the people involved as well as for the people who hear the stories. Chapters 4 through 12 tell the stories of the victim offender pairings. Chapter 13 provides an analysis of the themes and patterns that emerged in the multiple data-collection sites — the interviews with participants, the case files, the interviews with the program facilitator(s), and the viewings of the victim offender face-to-face dialogue videos. The final chapter explores unfinished business related to VVH specifically as well as to therapeutic restorative justice programs more generally. It also offers an update on the victims’ and offenders’ lives since the completion of the VVH program and what transpired since my initial interviews with them. (excerpt)