Benutzer:L Nico/Restorative Justice in Europe

Restorative Justice is an international commonly used term for alternative forms of conflict transformation aiming to repair harm and restore relationships. As a process-oriented approach the key principles of participation, empowerment and responsibility provide a basic frame for restorative activities.

Restorative Justice is not limited to the Criminal Justice System; the term is also used for describing various societal initiatives of people aiming to establish peaceful means for dealing with conflicts in a constructive way (e.g. in schools). A wider goal can be seen in strengthening our competences as society in order to be able to deal with conflicts in a self-reliant way oriented towards healing.

Restorative Justice provisions are by now to be found in practically all European legal systems. Form and extent vary considerably from one country to another.

Austria

main article: Restorative Justice in Austria

Restorative Justice in Austria takes the form of Victim-Offender-Mediation (VOM), called Tatausgleich, and is delivered through professional social workers employed at a private association ('Neustart') funded by the Ministry of Justice. It started with a pilot project for juveniles in 1985, and later was integrated into the Juvenile Justice Act (since 1988) and the Criminal Procedural Law (since 2000), now also extending to adult offenders. In recent years, about 8.000 cases per year were referred to VOM. 80% to 90% of all VOM processes end with the successful completion of an agreement between victim and offender.

The practice is exclusively pre-trial and diversionary. The state prosecutor, at his or her own discretion, can suggest cases for VOM, in which case victims and offenders will be asked whether they would like to enter a VOM process (otherwise, the case goes to the criminal court). Offences referred to VOM carry a maximum penalty of up to five years and include offences against physical integrity (e.g. assault, battery), offences against personal freedom (e.g. threatening behaviour, stalking) and offences against property (e.g. theft, fraud). In practice, most cases referred to VOM relate to physical injury. The Offender is required to own up to the offence, to be ready to repair harm and to refrain from similar behaviour in the future. A successful mediation ends with a written agreement, fulfilment being monitored by the mediating agency. If mediation efforts are not successful, criminal court proceedings resume. As most restorative justice procedures, VOM in Austria, too, has shown rates of recidivism that are often substantially lower, but certainly not higher, than those after court sentences. Currently, a pilot project for family conferencing is under way.

Belgium

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Germany

main article: Täter-Opfer-Ausgleich (just imagine this in English...)

three paragraphs summary here...

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Norway

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