Restorative justice and serious crimes

The needs of victims of violence are numerous. Victims are looking for support and recognition as well as information about possible remedies. Often, they are left with questions following their victimization such why this happened to them. Empirical data reveal that restorative practices are able to respond to many of these needs. While not every victim is interested in participating in a restorative intervention, those victims who do partake in restorative justice programs are generally satisfied with their experience. Therefore, we can move beyond the question whether it is pertinent to offer restorative interventions to victims of violent crime, and instead examine how best to introduce victims to restorative justice programs. In this paper we compare the experiences of victims of serious violent crimes with a restorative intervention completed before or after a judicial decision was taken. Specifically, we ask : What is the role of a restorative intervention before and after adjudication ? What is the impact of a judicial response on the victims' assessment of the restorative intervention ? Is the availability of a judicial decision a condition for the appreciation of the bilateral nature of the restorative approach ? The findings also shed light on where victims of violence place the restorative offer in relation to the criminal justice system.