Sheffield Victim Offender Mediation Service's Two Hour Victim Awareness Programme
| Date | 01 March 2001 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455050104800108 |
| Published date | 01 March 2001 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
43
PRACTICE
NOTE
Sheffield
Victim
Offender
Mediation
Service’s
Two
Hour
Victim
Awareness
Programme
Carol
Fordham
describes
a
creative
brief
intervention
programme
which
involves
young
offenders
subject
to
indirect
reparation
orders
in
victim
awareness
work,
even
where
the
victim
does
not
want
to
engage
in
direct
reparation
or
mediation.
heffield
Victim
Offender
Mediation
Service
is
an
mdependent
voluntary
organisation
and
a
registered
chanty.
It
was
established
in
1996
and
is
affiliated
to
Mediation
UK,
an
umbrella
orgamsation,
which
co-ordinates
victim-offender,
community
and
peer
mediation
in
schools.
The
service
was
set
up
in
partnership
with
the
South
Yorkshire
Probation
Service
and
South
Yorkshire
Pohce,
and works
closely
with
Victim
Support
Sheffield.
Referrals
come
mainly
via
probation
officers
at
pre-sentence
report
stage
or
post-
sentence.
Special
arrangements
exist
with
local
chief
police
officers
to
provide
victims’
details
to
the
service.
Why
Develop
a
Two
Hour
Programme?
Sheffield
was
selected
as
a
pilot
area
for
the
Crime
and
Disorder
Act
1998
and
the
Head
of
Youth
Justice
approached
the
service
to
assist
m
the
development
of
mediation
and
reparation
for
the
pilot.
The
development
of
the
two
hour
programme
was
partly
a
result
of
frustration
that
efforts
to
engage
victims
following
the
charging
of
young
persons
were
bemg
undermined
by
the
speeded
up
sentencmg
process.
Sheffield
already
had
fast
trackmg
for
persistent
offenders
and
then
mtroduced
‘qmck
files’,
resulting
in
arrest
to
sentence
m
as
little
as
four
days
in
25%
of
cases.
This
left
little
time
for
the
victims’
views
to
be
sought
and
for
some
form
of
reparatme
element
m
the
sentence
to
be
proposed
to
the
court.
Victims
were
informed
that
a
young
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