Abstract
This article concerns the screening processes of the police-based National Danish Victim Offender Mediation (VOM) programme. Depending on police district and individual police officers, my data point to large variations in practice in the programme’s routines of informing potential parties about VOM. The article’s analytical points of departure are research on police discretion – in Scandinavian police research known as the police gaze – as well as the Goffmanian framework of roleplay and stigma. On this basis, I look into how the police gaze interacts with ideals of impartial mediation in the screening of cases for the programme. My data indicate that both conscious and unconscious casting practices influence which potential VOM parties are informed about the possibility of VOM. In this regard, the police perception of and access to data on an offender can be decisive. The Norwegian Mediation Service is included as a source of comparison with more impartial inclinations.
Highlights
In some forms, restorative justice initiatives have a documented positive effect on desistance for offenders as well as recovery for victims (Sherman & Strang, 2007; Lauwaert & Aertsen, 2015).1the path to participating in a restorative justice initiative can vary immensely depending on the framework of the responsible organisation (Rasmussen, 2020a, 2020b).1
As an overall guideline, the European Forum for Restorative Justice offers the following definition: ‘Restorative Justice is an approach of addressing harm or the risk of harm through engaging all those affected in coming to a common understanding and agreement on how the harm or wrongdoing can be repaired and justice achieved’
Restorative justice is often presented as an antidote to the traditional, retributive penal system, which focuses on punishing the offender rather than repairing the harm
Summary
In some forms, restorative justice initiatives have a documented positive effect on desistance for offenders as well as recovery for victims (Sherman & Strang, 2007; Lauwaert & Aertsen, 2015).. I am interested in whether the police gaze might affect access to restorative processes such as (primarily) the police-based Danish VOM programme and (secondarily) the new Norwegian youth sanctions. As opposed to in the Danish VOM programme and the Norwegian Mediation Service, in these studies the more or less formalised restorative justice initiatives (for example so-called ‘street RJ’) are facilitated by police officers. In Norway, the police is involved in the screening for the two restorative youth sanctions administered by the Norwegian Mediation Service On this basis, I am interested in how the police gaze interacts with ideals of impartial mediation in the screening of cases in the Danish VOM programme. The term was coined by Finstad, 2000
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