Restorative Justice and Victim Offender Mediation (VOM): A New Area for Social Psychological Inquiry?

Source: Princeton University

The realm of restorative justice in general, and victim offender mediation (VOM) in particular, has been unexplored thus far by social psychologists; this study takes the first steps toward mapping it. Through the use of a web-based survey, the study assesses the kinds of offenders and offenses that get sent to VOM, as well as the characteristics of people who are most likely to choose VOM as an acceptable alternative to traditional criminal justice processing. The study also assesses the impact of pressures on victims to attend VOM with offenders.
The paper suggests that understanding restorative justice and VOM could shed light on forgiveness and apologies, retribution, and procedural justice.