Martin Wrightís original ground-breaking and influential analysis of the defects of the adversarial system of justice, plus the arguments in favour of a more constructive and victim-oriented approach. A book that has had a major influence on victimsí issues and restorative justice - and that is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand these developments. One of the most compelling arguments about the need for change in relation to victims and offenders. A critically acclaimed and key work in the annals of criminal justice.

Victim offender dialogues have been developed as a way to hold offenders accountable to the person they have harmed and to give victims a voice about how to put things right. It is a way of acknowledging the importance of the relationship, of the connection which crime creates. Granted, the relationship is a negative one, but there is a relationship. Amstutz has been a practitioner and a teacher in the field for more than 20 years.

This book examines a victim-offender dialogue program that offers victims of severe violence an opportunity to meet face-to-face with their incarcerated offenders. Using interview data, it follows the harrowing stories of crime and violence, ultimately moving beyond story-telling to provide both an accessible analysis of restorative justice and evidence that the program has significantly helped the victims. It also looks at how the program has impacted offenders, many of whom have also experienced positive changes in their lives in terms of creating greater accountability and greater victim empathy.

Victim Meets Offender (1993) is truly a seminal publication in the restorative justice movement. It represents the first multi-state empirical study of the impact of restorative justice dialogue through the first and most widely used restorative justice practice, namely victim offender mediation (also referred to as victim offender reconciliation, victim offender conferencing, or victim offender dialogue). Examining programs in California, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Texas, this book provides comparison group data on client satisfaction, victim perceptions of fairness, and completion of restitution. Recidivism data is also included. After more than three decades, Umbreit's seminal publication remains the most widely cited restorative justice study and has influenced policy development and practice in North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

This book analyzes the practicalities of setting up and running restorative justice schemes, the costs involved and the key professional and ethical issues involved such as victims' and offenders' needs and expectations, community and desistance.

This book analyses the rights of crime victims within a human rights paradigm, and describes the inconsistencies resulting from attempts to introduce the procedural rights of victims within a criminal justice system that views crime as a matter between the state and the offender, and not as one involving the victim. To remedy this problem, the book calls for abandoning the concept of crime as an infringement of a state’s criminal laws and instead reinterpreting it as a violation of human rights. The state’s right to punish the offender would then be replaced by the rights of victims to see those responsible for violating their human rights convicted and punished and by the rights of offenders to be treated as accountable agents.

Annotation Draws on data from a study of police behaviour in the field, interviews with criminal justice professionals and social service providers, and participant observations of female offender programs. Offering critical analysis of the theoretical assumptions, this book unveils a reality that looks different from what statistics on domestic violence imply.

Restorative justice aims to address the consequences of crime by encouraging victims and offenders to communicate and discuss the harm caused by the crime that has been committed. In the majority of cases, restorative justice is facilitated by direct and indirect dialogue between victims and offenders, but it also includes support networks and sometimes involves professionals such as police, lawyers, social workers or prosecutors and judges. In theory, the victim is a core participant in restorative justice and the restoration of the harm is a first concern. In practice, questions arise as to whether the victim is actively involved in the process, what restoration may entail, whether there is a risk of secondary victimisation and whether the victim is truly at the heart of the restorative response, or whether the offender remains the focal point of attention. Using a combination of victimological literature and empirical data from a European research project, this book considers the role and the position of the victim in restorative justice practices, focusing on legislative, organisational and institutional frameworks of victim-offender mediation and conferencing programmes at a national and local level, as well as the victims’ personal needs and experiences. The findings are essential reading for academics and students engaged in the study of justice, victimology and law. The publication will also be valuable to policymakers and professionals such as social workers, lawyers and mediators.

Grounded in the latest clinical and developmental knowledge, this book brings together leading authorities to examine the critical issues that arise when children and adolescents become involved in the justice system. Chapters explore young people’s capacities, competencies, and special vulnerabilities as victims, witnesses, and defendants. Key topics include the reliability of children’s abuse disclosures, eyewitness testimony, interviews, and confessions; the evolving role of the expert witness; the psychological impact of trauma and of legal involvement; factors that shape jurors’ perceptions of children; and what works in rehabilitating juvenile offenders. Policies and practices that are not supported by science are identified, and approaches to improving them are discussed.

Restorative justice has developed from a barely known term to a central role in debates on the future of criminal justice. But as it has moved into the mainstream so new tensions and issues have emerged as it becomes increasingly integrated into normal practice, and part of broader legal and judicial systems ­ both in common law countries and those with centralised legal systems. The purpose of this book is to explore this developing relationship between the concepts and practice of restorative justice on the one hand, and the law and legal systems on the other. Amongst the questions it addresses are the following: how are informal processes to be juxtaposed with formal procedures? what is the appropriate relationship between voluntarism and coercion? how can the procedures and practices of restorative justice be combined with legal standards, safeguards and precepts?