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Restoring balance: Power, emotion, and participation in victim-offender mediation

Description

Multiple responses to crime exist. Most familiar is the retributive system, in which offenders get punished after a wrongdoing. However, in recent years, the application of restorative justice is rising. Restorative justice doesn’t focus on punishment, but on restoring material, emotional and relational damage. To this end, most often a dialogue is organized. An example is victim-offender mediation (VOM). In VOM victim and offender have a conversation in presence of a trained mediator and together try to come to an agreement to restore the harm that has been done. Participation in VOM is shown to be beneficial for both victims and offenders (Zebel et al., 2017).

However, not every victim and offender is willing to participate in mediation. Previous research indicates that victims often hesitate or refuse participation due to feelings vulnerability and fear towards offenders (Hansen & Umbreit, 2018). Offenders on the other hand, can be reluctant to participate due to feelings of guilt and shame. These feelings could be linked to subjective perceptions of power imbalance, but empirical research connecting these feelings to perceived power imbalances remains limited.

This project aims to gain more insight into the psychological and emotional barriers of parties to participate in mediation, which might offer not only new theoretical insights but also valuable insights for practitioners to mitigate the role of power imbalances.

Different research questions are possible in this project. You’re input and ideas are very much appreciated.

Research questions

  1. How does perceived power imbalance affect victims’ willingness to participate in victim-offender mediation?
  2. What role do feelings of guilt, shame, or vulnerability related to perceived power imbalance play in offenders' decisions to participate in mediation

Type of research

Experimental research.

Key words

Restorative justice, victim-offender mediation, power imbalance, conflict asymmetry.

Information

Please contact Steven Watson (s.j.watson@utwente.nl) when you are interested in this assignment.

Start

Available anytime

Literature

Adams, G. S. (2016). Asymmetries between victims' and transgressors' perspectives following interpersonal transgressions. Social and Personality Psychology Compass10(12), 722-735.

Hansen, T., & Umbreit, M. (2018). State of knowledge: Four decades of victim‐offender mediation research and practice: The evidence. Conflict Resolution Quarterly36(2), 99-113.

Zebel, S., Schreurs, W., & Ufkes, E. G. (2017). "Crime Seriousness and Participation in Restorative Justice: The Role of Time Elapsed since the Offense." Law and Human Behavior