Mediation Between the Victim and the Offender in Austria: Legal Ramifications and Practice (From Juvenile Offender-Victim Mediation, P 51-59, 1999, Beata Czarnecka-Dzialuk and Dobrochna Wojcik, eds. -- See NCJ-198129)

• NCJ Number: 198132
• Author(s): Christa Pelikan
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 9 pages
• Sale Source: Oficyna Naukowa
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Description
• Language: English
• Country: Poland

Annotation

This paper provides examples of offender-victim mediation in Austria, with attention to specific issues regarding the relationship of mediation to the courts and the respective roles of persons involved in such mediation, followed by a discussion of some significant theoretical issues.

Abstract

Victim-offender mediation as practiced in Austria focuses neither on the offender nor on the victim exclusively. Rather, it addresses the interaction between the two and how the victim has been harmed by that interaction. The two cases of mediation provided as illustration in this paper show that mediation focuses on the dispute and the damage or loss incurred, rather than on the abstract concept of guilt as defined in the penal code. In victim-offender mediation in Austria, traditional criminal justice processing is suspended while the victim and offender are given the opportunity, with the help of a mediator, to talk about what has occurred, the harmful consequences to the victim, and how the harm can be repaired. In Austria, mediation has been used in 10 percent of the total number of responses to juvenile offenses. Currently, a draft law on diversion containing victim-offender mediation for adult offenders is in the process of parliamentary debate. It is probable that Austria will have penal mediation in cases that involve adult offenders available on a nationwide scale; however, victim-offender mediation that involves adult offenders is not likely to match the caseload percentage of juvenile offenders, given the higher percentage of serious offenses committed by adults in Austria. The mediation report is relatively short and focuses on the outcome of the procedure rather than the reasons why a particular result was or was not achieved. The exceptional situation arises when the mediation agreement is not reached because of significant reservations by the victim, despite the offender's desire to repair the harm done by the offense. In this case, the prosecutor might nevertheless drop the charges even though no mediation agreement was reached.