‘Joe everyday, people off the street’: a qualitative study on mediators’ roles and skills in victim–offender mediation

Abstract

This qualitative study examined multiple perspectives of participants who experienced a Victim–Offender Mediation (VOM) program in a Midwestern city in the United States. Of particular interest are the roles and skills of mediators. Data consisted of 34 face‐to‐face interviews with 37 participants including adult crime victims, juvenile offenders and their parents, mediators and representatives from referring agencies. Insider perspectives regarding the roles and skills of the mediators in restorative processes were revealed through personal stories. Although the majority of the participants reported that the roles and skills of mediators were consistent with restorative justice principles, this exploratory study also revealed that some roles and skills exhibited by mediators were inconsistent with restorative justice values, which shows the variance of ‘real world’ restorative justice. Recommendations are made to promote mediators’ roles and skills that are compatible with restorative justice principles.

Keywords:

• restorative justice
• juvenile justice
• victim–offender mediation, VOM
• case study
• mediator

Acknowledgements

This article is based on research for Jung Jin Choi’s dissertation. The authors wish to thank Allan Barsky for his helpful comments on an earlier draft of the article.

Notes