The Little Book of Victim Offender Conferencing


Book Description

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.




Victim Meets Offender


Book Description

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.




Victims as Offenders


Book Description

Arrests of women for assault increased more than 40 percent over the past decade, while male arrests for this offense have fallen by about one percent. Some studies report that for the first time ever the rate of reported intimate partner abuse among men and women is nearly equal. Susan L. Miller’s timely book explores the important questions raised by these startling statistics. Are women finally closing the gender gap on violence? Or does this phenomenon reflect a backlash shaped by men who batter? How do abusive men use the criminal justice system to increase control over their wives? Do police, courts, and treatment providers support aggressive arrest policies for women? Are these women “victims” or “offenders”? In answering these questions, Miller draws on extensive data from a study of police behavior in the field, interviews with criminal justice professionals and social service providers, and participant observation of female offender programs. She offers a critical analysis of the theoretical assumptions framing the study of violence and provides insight into the often contradictory implications of the mandatory and pro-arrest policies enacted in the 1980s and 1990s. Miller argues that these enforcement strategies, designed to protect women, have often victimized women in different ways. Without sensationalizing, Miller unveils a reality that looks very different from what current statistics on domestic violence imply.




The Handbook of Victim Offender Mediation


Book Description

Written by Mark Umbreit, internationally known for his work in restorative justice, this indispensable resource offers an empirically grounded, state-of-the-art analysis of the application and impact of victim offender mediation, a movement that has spread throughout North America and abroad. The Handbook of Victim Offender Mediation provides practical guidance and resources for offering victim meditation in property crimes, in minor assaults, and, more recently, with crimes of severe violence, including with family members of murder victims who request to meet the offender.




After the Crime


Book Description

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-Offender Mediation with Youth Offenders in Europe


Book Description

This book documents the state of the art on Victim-Offender Mediation with youth offenders in 15 European nations (Austria, Belgium, England and Wales, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden). It provides an up-do date review of current theory and practice and presents a critical discussion of problems and benefits which may help guide future policy decisions and applications. The book informs both those who are interested in evaluating the current state of affairs of Victim-Offender Mediation with youth offenders in Europe, and those who would like to promote Victim-Offender Mediation in their own countries. The common format used in each chapter facilitates comparison across countries. Per country, five areas of investigation are explored and discussed: norms and legislation allowing for the implementation of victim-offender mediation programmes; values and theoretical frameworks of victim-offender mediation; organizational structure of victim-offender mediation services; professional characteristics of mediators; benefits, potential problems, and criticisms of current practice.




The Encyclopedia of Theoretical Criminology


Book Description

The Encyclopedia of Theoretical Criminology in zwei Bänden ist zweifelsohne das aktuellste Referenzwerk der theoretischen Kriminologie. Fachlich geprüfte Beiträge internationaler Experten machen den Leser mit wegweisenden Theorien, Konzepten und Schlüsselfiguren vertraut. Das Nachschlagewerk präsentiert klassische und zeitgenössische Themen zu den wichtigen Straftatbeständen, Zusammenhängen, fachspezifische (Soziologie, Biologie und Psychologie) und fachübergreifende Erklärungen zu Kriminalität, Kriminalitätsrate und Fragestellungen aus der Rechtssoziologie.




Restorative Justice on Trial


Book Description

Victim-offender mediation schemes have experienced significant growth in the last decade. They are seen as an important and innovative alternative to the traditional sanctions of the criminal justice system. After a critical look at mediation schemes in the United States and Canada, most European countries have also increased their efforts to develop informal strategies to deal with deviant behavior. In terms of their legal and organizational base, it turns out that type, extent, and capacities for development are quite different in the individual countries -resulting in a remarkable diversity of programs with different outcomes. The contributions in this book are revised and edited versions of papers presented at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop Conflict, Crime and Reconciliation: The Organization of Welfare Intervention in the Field of Restitutive Justice in April 1991 at Il Ciocco, Italy. The chapters document the present stage of restorative justice in the individual countries, critically assess legal constraints and public needs, discuss the organizational requirements of implementation, and also evaluate outcomes in a broader context of crime and social policy. In the long run, this book should encourage further debates in the field of restorative justice and help build valid guidelines for an international evaluation research.







The Psychology of Criminal and Antisocial Behavior


Book Description

The Psychology of Criminal and Antisocial Behavior: Victim and Offenders Perspectives is not just another formulaic book on forensic psychology. Rather, it opens up new areas of enquiry to busy practitioners and academics alike, exploring topics using a practical approach to social deviance that is underpinned by frontier research findings, policy, and international trends. From the relationship between psychopathology and crime, and the characteristics of catathymia, compulsive homicide, sadistic violence, and homicide victimology, to adult sexual grooming, domestic violence, and honor killings, experts in the field provide insight into the areas of homicide, violent crime, and sexual predation. In all, more than 20 internationally recognized experts in their fields explore these and other topic, also including discussing youth offending, love scams, the psychology of hate, public threat assessment, querulence, stalking, arson, and cults. This edited work is an essential reference for academics and practitioners working in any capacity that intersects with offenders and victims of crime, public policy, and roles involving the assessment, mitigation, and investigation of criminal and antisocial behavior. It is particularly ideal for those working in criminology, psychology, law and law enforcement, public policy, and for social science students seeking to explore the nature and character of criminal social deviance. Includes twenty chapters across a diverse range of criminal and antisocial subject areas Authored by an international panel of experts in their respective fields that provide a multi-cultural perspective on the issues of crime and antisocial behavior Explores topics from both victim and offender perspectives Includes chapters covering research, practice, policy, mitigation, and prevention Provides an easy to read and consistent framework, making the text user-friendly as a ready-reference desktop guide