Title
An Evaluation of Recidivism Rates for Resolutions Northwest's Victim-Offender Mediation Program
Sponsor
Hatfield School of Government. Division of Administration of Justice
First Advisor
Charles Tracy
Date of Publication
11-2000
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (M.S.) in Criminology and Criminal Justice
Department
Criminology and Criminal Justice
Language
English
Subjects
Recidivism -- Oregon -- Portland Metropolitan Area, Mediation -- Oregon -- Portland Metropolitan Area, Victims of crimes -- Oregon -- Portland Metropolitan Area, Reparation (Criminal justice) -- Oregon -- Portland Metropolitan Area
DOI
10.15760/etd.2288
Physical Description
1 online resource (59 p.)
Abstract
Victim-offender mediation, a component of restorative justice, has been a valuable tool for rehabilitating juvenile offenders since the late 1970s. Victim offender mediation brings crime victims and offenders together to reach agreements for restitution and community healing. Resolutions Northwest, a non-profit organization in Multnomah County, offers a victim-offender mediation program to juvenile offenders and their victims.
The purpose of this study was to analyze the recidivism rates for juvenile offenders who went through Resolutions Northwest's victim-offender mediation program as opposed to offenders who went through the traditional justice system. It was hypothesized that the participants in this program would have lower recidivism rates than the juvenile offenders who were not given this restorative justice option.
Records on juvenile offenders who successfully completed the victim-offender mediation program were collected from Resolutions Northwest. These records were then compared to a secondary data set. This secondary data was from the Tri-County Juvenile Information System database, supplied by the Multnomah County Department of Adult and Community Justice to Professor William Feyerherm as part of the Casey Foundation supported Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative.
It was found that 41.6% of the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative group reoffended within one year of their original arrest. In comparison, only 20.3% of the Resolutions Northwest group reoffended within a year of their victim-offender mediation program completion. It was also investigated as to whether the juveniles in both groups reoffended a second, third or even fourth time within a one year period. The explorations into second, third and fourth reoffenses yielded similar results in that the juveniles from Resolutions Northwest had significantly lower recidivism rates than those from the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative group.
Rights
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Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/15421
Recommended Citation
Stone, Karin Jewel, "An Evaluation of Recidivism Rates for Resolutions Northwest's Victim-Offender Mediation Program" (2000). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 2291.
https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.2288
Comments
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