Restorative Justice is a framework for responding to crime which
focuses on the injury resulting from the crime and works to repair
that injury to the degree possible. Crime is an injury against a
victim and community, and holds offenders accountable for their
actions and requires them to repair the harm. There are many
restorative justice practices such as reparative accountability
boards, victim impact panels, family group conferencing, circle
sentencing, and victim-offender dialogue.
The Mediation Center offers victim-offender
dialogue. The process is victim-sensitive, confidential and
voluntary and supports victims and offenders as active participants
in dealing with the crime. Victim-Offender Dialogue offers victims
the opportunity to ask questions only the offender can answer,
express the full impact of the crime on his or her life, define a
method of restitution which is meaningful to him or her and feel as
healed as possible about the experience.
Victim-offender dialogue affords offenders the
opportunity to understand the human impact of the crime, provide
victim-defined restitution, be accountable for their actions and
not repeat the crime.
Victim-offender dialogue is not a
substitute for judicial proceedings. It is a voluntary process in
which extreme care is taken before, during and after the session to
insure that all participants are supported through the
process.
