“We’ve Got History Now”: Victim and Justice-Involved Youth Experiences During Mediation Sessions

Victim-offense mediation (VOM) is the process by which victims of crime meet the involved youth, in the presence of trained mediators, to process and address the emotional and practical ramifications of the crime. We aimed to qualitatively understand the experiences of victims and justice-involved y...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCriminal justice and behavior Vol. 51; no. 9; pp. 1397 - 1412
Main Authors Strauss, Cailey, Cummings, Jorden A., Deleurme, Kendall
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.09.2024
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Crime
Criminology
Emotional disorders
Emotional experiences
Healing
Justice
Juvenile offenders
Mediators
Victims
Victims of crime
Youth
emotion
psychology
qualitative analysis
victimization
mediation
restorative justice
youth
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Summary:Victim-offense mediation (VOM) is the process by which victims of crime meet the involved youth, in the presence of trained mediators, to process and address the emotional and practical ramifications of the crime. We aimed to qualitatively understand the experiences of victims and justice-involved youth during mediation sessions. Participants were recruited from one American and one Canadian mediation center, We combined field observations, semi-structured interviews, and multiple case study analyses with reflexive thematic analysis to explore nine cases of VOM participants’ experiences of the process and its potential link with various desired outcomes immediately following VOM. We generated five themes: Attempting to Satisfy Mediation Needs, Apologies, The Gravitational Pull of Victims, Finding a Healing Connection, and Corrective Emotional Experience & Challenged Expectations. We discuss these themes, the importance of relational processes, the importance and potential burden of the compelling victim, corrective emotional experiences, and the potential role of the mediators.
ISSN:0093-8548
1552-3594
DOI:10.1177/00938548241237183