Crime Victims' Experiences of Restorative Justice

The Listening Project is founded on a belief that a key step in the growth of restorative approaches is for systemic and community-based proponents of restorative justice to listen carefully to the voices and perspectives of victims/survivors and victim service providers, and to take these perspectives seriously in future policy and program design. [...] This means that the harm done to the victim takes precedence and serves to organize the essence of the interaction between the key players.4 International literature holds promising data for restorative justice and victims/survivors. [...] In the late 1990s for example, a group of early leaders within the restorative justice and victim assistance movements in the United States undertook a collaborative Listening Project “specifically designed to confront the significant deficiencies of restorative justice practice pertaining to victim participation and impacts for victims, their advocates and victim services generally.”7 As observed [...] The aim of this Listening Project is to provide a resource that can help to increase the understanding of both governmental and non-governmental decision-makers in Canada, and therefore to enhance the evolving field of restorative justice as a service to crime victims and survivors. [...] Of note however, participants frequently spoke in positive terms about the “dually partial” role of the facilitator; that is, they appreciated the support of the facilitator despite, or even related to, knowledge that the facilitator was also partial to the needs of the offender.