The role of criminogenic needs and emotions in restorative justice: Offenders’ experiences in victim–offender mediation

Abstract

Restorative interventions can deal with some criminogenic needs. They can address the offenders’ antisocial attitudes, lack of problem-solving strategies, empathy and self-control or, substance use problems (Moraleda et al., 2004; Raynor et al., 2012; Vanstone and Raynor, 2012). At the same time, restorative justice practices offer the possibility to express emotions and feelings, which are essential elements in a transformative process. The purpose of this article is to identify both, criminogenic needs and emotions expression through offenders’ experiences in Victim–Offender mediation (VOM). The research is developed in three phases and include qualitative and quantitative research methods. This article focuses in the second and third phases. The second involves non participant observation of VOM (40); and the third requires a post-analysis of the process (questionnaires 40), which includes an interview (12) occurring six months after VOM. General data give us a variety of results, and qualitative analysis exemplifies the different cases.