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Victim-Offender Mediation in Canada: The Impact of an Emerging Social Work

Umbreit, Mark S
June 4, 2015

Source: (1999) International Social Work. 42(2): 215-277.

Mark Umbreit remarks that mediating conflict between crime victims and offenders is an emerging area of international social work practice. As community organizers, program developers, board members, staff, trainers, and mediators, social workers in North America and Europe are becoming increasingly involved in victim-offender mediation programs. In this paper Umbreit reports on a large-scale multi-site analysis of mediation of criminal offenses in Canada. Community-based non-profit organizations providing mediation services in cities in four provinces were examined. After an overview of the process of mediating criminal conflict, Umbreit summarizes the services in those cities, describes the research method, and presents the research findings in terms of immediate outcomes, client satisfaction, perceptions of fairness, and fear of re-victimization.

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