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Crime and Punishment: Can Mediation Produce Restorative Justice for Victims and Offenders?

Price, Marty D.
June 4, 2015

Source: (2000) Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program. Information and Resource Center. (Camas, Washington, USA).

Victim-Offender Mediation Programs (VOMP), also known as Victim-Offender Reconciliation Programs (VORP), bring offenders face-to-face with the victims of their crimes, with the assistance of a trained mediator, usually a community volunteer. Crime is personalized as offenders learn the human consequences of their actions, and victims (who are largely ignored by the justice system) have the opportunity to speak their minds and their feelings to the one who most ought to hear them, contributing to the healing process of the victim. Victim-offender mediation, with its focus on restorative justice, cannot provide all of the answers to our crime problem, but it is an essential part of the solution.

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