Victim Offender Reconciliation: An Incarceration Substitute?

Source: (1982) Federal Probation 46(4):63-68.

This study reports on the Victim Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP) operated by PACT, Inc. in Indiana and Ohio. In 1981, 180 cases were referred to VORP in Elkhart, Indiana, 85 percent of them involving juvenile offenders and 86 percent representing felony convictions (with theft and burglary the most common offenses). Nearly 70 percent resulted in restitution agreements. More than 75 percent of agreed-upon restitution is actually paid, an unusually high rate attributed to a higher level of personal accountability experienced by the offender. VORP can serve as a partial or total substitute for jail or prison incarceration, but care must be taken to avoid swamping the program with petty misdemeanor cases that would not otherwise lead to incarceration.