Restorative justice provides opportunities for those most directly affected by a crime (victim, offender, families, and other community members) to be actively involved in the process of addressing harms, needs and obligations. Restorative Justice is about offender accountability, victim healing, and community safety, through mediation and dialogue whenever possible. While restorative justice is far more than a specific program and it is grounded in values that effect our entire way of understanding and responding to crime and victimization among individuals and communities, three types of restorative justice dialogue are particularly expressive of restorative justice principles and they are developing in numerous countries. These include victim-offender mediation, group conferencing, and circles. This article examines participation rates and reasons, participant satisfaction, participant perception of fairness, restitution and repair of harm, diversion, recidivism and cost. A total of 53 victim offender mediation studies are reviewed, including 3 meta-analyses.

Restorative Justice Dialogue
  THE PRACTICE OF VOM
  A LOOK AT THE EVIDENCE
  CRIMES OF SEVERE VIOLENCE
  CONCLUSION
  REFERENCES
  ABSTRACT

• Mark S. Umbreit(University of Minnesota, School of Social Work)