The Offer of Restorative Justice to Victims of Violent Crime: Should It Be Protective or Proactive?

Abstract

Restorative justice favours the participation of both victims and offenders and promotes dialogue between these two parties to deal with the consequences of victimization. Research has shown that victims are generally very pleased with restorative justice. The main question is, therefore, not whether restorative justice should be offered to victims but how this should be done. In general, two divergent approaches exist: the protective model, which seeks to protect victims from possible secondary victimization and the proactive model, which seeks to inform victims about their options so that they can decide for themselves what they want to do. The present study is a qualitative study with victims of violent crime who participated in restorative justice programs, which followed either of these approaches. Based on victims’ experiences and views, the authors present a model procedure on how to offer restorative justice to victims.