Reparation and Victim-Offender Conciliation and Aspects of the Legal Position of the Victim in Criminal Procedures in a Western-European Perspective (From European and North-American Juvenile Justice System, P 303-327, 1986, Hans-Jurgen Kerner, et al, eds.)

• NCJ Number: 105827
• Author(s): F Dunkel
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 25 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: West Germany (Former)

Annotation

A 1985 survey of 18 West European countries inquired about their pretrial victim-offender mediation, victim trial services, victim-offender mediation as part of sentencing, victim support organizations, and public attitudes toward victim-offender mediation.

Abstract

In recent years and in most of the countries surveyed, the public, the courts, and the probation services have become more aware of victim-offender mediation. In Great Britain, the Netherlands, and France, victim services and the resolution of victim-offender conflicts through meidation are increasingly being used within and outside of formal case dispositions. Most countries, however, have only had scattered experiments in these programs. The use of pretrial victim-offender mediation has been generally sparse and unsystematic. Although most countries have some victim support services for rape victims, battered women, and abused children, the support does not cover the trial period in most cases. Victim-offender mediation as part of sentencing is most often in the form of restitution, with community service used as a form of restitution. Victim support organizations exist in only a few countries. Overall, the victim's role in the trial and victim support services provided during the trial are weak. Several reform proposals designed to improve the victim's legal position are being discussed. 80 notes.