“Restorative Justice Conferencing: Guidelines for Victim Sensitive Practice – “Adapting Conferences, Mediations, Circles and Reparative Boards to People, Communities, and Cultures.”

Source: (1999) Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and St. Paul, Minnesota: The Balanced and Restorative Justice Project. A partnership between the Community Justice Institute (Florida Atlantic University) and the Center for Restorative Justice & Peacemaking (University of Minnesota).

The purpose of this monograph is to present guidelines for the practice of victim sensitive restorative justice conferencing, a term used here to identify all those processes that facilitate restorative dialogue and problem-solving among victims, offenders, family members, and other
support persons or community members. Umbreit refers specifically to four established expressions of restorative justice conferencing: victim offender mediation, family group conferencing, peacemaking/sentencing circles, and reparative community boards before which offenders appear. Umbreit addresses a number of questions concerning the nature of restorative justice conferencing. Using examples of cases and programs, he notes specific characteristics of a multi-method approach to victim offender conferencing. Then he identifies core principles and skills of restorative justice conferencing, including humanistic “dialogue-driven”mediation/facilitation, guidelines for victim sensitive conferencing, and multi-cultural implications.