Mediators' communication in victim offender mediation/dialogue involving crimes of severe violence: An analysis of opening statements

Abstract

This study investigates, through descriptive examples taken from actual mediation cases, mediators' opening statements in one victim offender mediation/dialogue program involving crimes of severe violence. Three distinctive elements of the mediators' opening statements are illustrated, and implications for the continued study of mediator communication are discussed.

Effects of race, sex, and victims' reasons for victim‐offender dialogue

“…Restorative justice program evaluations largely focus on broad statistical measures of participant satisfaction and outcomes (Latimer, Dowden, and Muise, 2001). At the same time, Szmania (2006aSzmania ( , 2006b argues that the dialogue between individual participants is vital to the restorative process. Unfortunately, the typical dialogue participation rate hovers around 50 percent, and almost no research focuses on factors that may influence participation in dialogue (Bradshaw, Roseborough, and Umbreit, 2006;Umbreit, Vos, Coates, and Lightfoot, 2006;Umbreit, Coates, and Vos, 2004).…”

A Qualitative Study of Victim Offender Mediation: Implications for Social Work

“…The current analysis provides some supporting evidence for the existing literature that argues that restorative justice practice helps offenders understand where the victims are coming from by putting human faces on the crimes (Bazemore & Schiff, 2005;Zehr, 1990). The communications between victims and offenders in VOM are often based on an assumption that restorative justice programs are victim-sensitive (Achilles & Zehr, 2001;Szmania, 2005;Zehr, 1990). However, restorative justice scholars also have warned of the possibility of some restorative justice programs delivered in victim-insensitive ways, in which victims are disempowered by the limited flow of information available to them, and how they are discouraged from expressing emotions, solving problems, and building relationships (Achilles & Zehr;Bazemore & Schiff, 2005;Umbreit, 1999).…”

Toward a Communication Perspective of Restorative Justice: Implications for Research, Facilitation, and Assessment

“…Interdisciplinary, engaged research is more difficult, for sure; yet, it is also richer. Second, a communication perspective privileges methods such as interviews, interaction analysis, and discourse analysis (e.g., Rossner, 2014; Szmania, ). Again, we are not saying that positivist research is unnecessary.…”