Victim Offers Mediation Programs: Fear & Low Self-Esteem - Essay Sample

Introduction

The victim offer mediation programs have been proven to be the best restorative justice approach for helping the victim overcome the long-term impact of the offence and agree with the offender on the steps that the offender must take to make good hostage or harm that the victim suffered. However, the VOM access and utilizing has been poor partly because of the personal reason and partly due to organizational reasons.

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Fear of the perpetrator and low self-esteem- In most cases, the victims still fear the offender because of the perception that adequate controls will not be in places to prevent the offender from reoffending. Loss of self-esteem has also prevented the victims from accessing the VOM because they do not consider the offence as serious.

Fear of stigmatization and prejudice-The society of vice has come to praise the offender and discriminate against the victims. Most victims of rape are stigmatized after rape ordeal because society believes that they intentionally put themselves on the harm's way (Ioannou, Hammond & Machin, 2017). To avoid stigmatization and discrimination, the victims keep quiet and fail to attend the sessions or report the incidences

Lack of knowledge of the existence of such program-Most of the offenders does not know about the location and range of services provided in such programs. Lack of knowledge can ab attributed to major obstacles to awareness (Paul & Schenck-Hamlin, 2017). For example, without stakeholder support within the criminal justices' systems, the funding for such programs is limited which hinders active participation in public awareness

Policy Changes

Social Policy changes policies should be formulated to help create awareness for such programs. For example, policies around such programs should include principles, guidelines, and legislation to legitimize, operationalize and fund such programs (Sommers, 2017). Government sponsorship should focus on how to dispel the misconception surrounding the restorative justice philosophy (Tamarit & Luque, 2016). The policies should also include how to operationalize the programs by choosing stable leadership to implement the plan, recruited social workers and psychologists to help implement the VOM and create awareness about the effectiveness of the VOM program.

Conclusion

Policy changes aimed at improving awareness of such a program should be considered. Restorative justice should focus on technical assistance and consulting, public education as well as offender victim medication and reconciliation program establishment in every authority.

References

Ioannou, M., Hammond, L., & Machin, L. (2017). Male-on-male sexual assault: Victim, offender and offence characteristics. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 14(2), 189-209. Doi: 10.1002/jip.1483

Paul, G., & Schenck-Hamlin, W. (2017). Beliefs about Victim-Offender Conferences: Factors Influencing Victim-Offender Engagement. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 35(1), 47-72. Doi: 10.1002/crq.21190

Sommers, Z. (2017). Fear Factor: Offender and Victim Characteristics and Perceptions of Terrorism. SSRN Electronic Journal, 21(11). Doi: 10.2139/ssrn.2994287

Tamarit, J., & Luque, E. (2016). Can restorative justice satisfy victims' needs? Evaluation of the Catalan victim-offender mediation programme. Restorative Justice, 4(1), 68-85. Doi: 10.1080/20504721.2015.1110887