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Victim-offender reconciliation schemes are viewed as an important and innovative alternative to the traditional measures of the criminal justice system. After a critical look at the United States, most European countries have also increased their efforts to develop informal strategies for dealing with deviant behaviour. In terms of their organizational base, it turns out that the type, extent, and capacities for development are quite different in the individual countries. The major objective of the present book is a critical examination of victim-offender mediation programmes. Research findings are reported in the areas of legal and public demands; organizational requirements and outcomes; and the mediation process. It is found that the implementation of victim-offender mediation depends to a great degree on particular context conditions. This applies not only to the peculiarities of national law and legislation in each country, but also to the special preferences of the institutions that encourage, support, or implement the programmes. It appears, nevertheless, that mediation is acceptable to a variety of backers, and that it offers a viable alternative when considering reforms of the criminal justice system. Despite their many successes, the mediation schemes are not without their failures and these are analyzed in context in order to provide a signpost for the future development of such schemes. Guidelines for such development are presented, with the aim of strengthening the preventive aspect of the schemes and increasing their utility to social and criminal policy.
