Resumen de III. Victims of Crime Finding MeaningThrough Participation in Restorative Practices
Experiencing victimization can be distressing. Victims of crime may seek support from family, friends and victim support services - they might also expect to find support for their emotional recovery in the procedures dealing with the crime they suffered, including restorative justice processes. This paper examines whether victims particularly choose to get involved in restorative interventions because they expect it to contribute to their emotional recovery. Qualitative, unstructured interviews were conducted with 30 victims of property or violent crime who agreed to participate in victim-offender mediation or restorative conferencing in England and Belgium. With most respondents an interview could be done before and after the conclusion of the restorative intervention. These narratives unveil that there are multiple reasons why victims get involved in a restorative intervention, including, but not exclusively, for self-relevant, therapeutic purposes. Many also adopt other oriented concerns for their participation in RJ, such as encouraging the offender to turn their life around. In helping to achieve self-relevant and/or other-oriented purposes, RJ seems to be conducive to meaning making, which could ultimately be therapeutic.
