Juvenile Offenders and the Legal System: What We Have Learned from Victim-Offender Mediation

Abstract

The aim of this book was to document the state of the art concerning VOM practice within the European juvenile justice systems. Although there are differences in the extent and ways in which VOM is implemented, the similarity among different experiences is striking. A natural interpretation of this similarity is that restorative practice principles are so deeply rooted in individuals’ sense of justice, that they emerge in relatively similar fashion across countries and legal traditions. This would also explain why practices inspired by restorative principles have been carried out all over the world, sometimes to recompose such dramatic societal fractures as those produced by Apartheid in South Africa. Overall then, though aware that there are inherent constraints to generalized restorative practice (e.g., voluntariness of participation), and that it would be both naive and inappropriate to expect such generalized practice, it seems safe to assume that in the coming years Europe will witness further promotion and development of VOM and RJ practices.