Offenders to face victims

[andrewducker]

This is a fantastic idea (in certain circumstances). It should help both victims and perpetrators to move on.

People who commit crimes could avoid prosecution if they agree to face-to-face meetings with their victims and see the impact of their offences, it has been suggested.

Both victims and offenders would have to consent to taking part in the scheme with the perpetrator admitting to the offence.

Restorative justice has so far been confined largely to young offenders but will be stepped up to include more adult offenders, school bullies and anti-social hooligans.

Mr Blunkett said: "Restorative justice means victims can get an apology from their offender, but it is about more than 'saying sorry' - it provides the victim with an explanation of why the crime was committed.

"This is something a prison sentence on its own can never do and can enable victims to move on and carry on with their lives.

"It also means that for the first time offenders will be personally held to account for the crimes they have committed."

Comments

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

I'd actually be very much up for facing the guy who assaulted me when I was a teenager: no baseball bat, just an interpreter and as much time as I wanted to explain what he did and what it meant. Yes, not made to, and I'm no longer a kid, but it's not out of the question. Perhaps an offender speaking to a volunteer who was the victim of the same type of crime? That's what I meant when I was wittering about broader concepts of restorative justice, actually: the aims are for the offender to understand what they did, and the victim to know that they know and that they accept responsibility. There's a few different ways to do that, and face-to-face is one of them.