192 7 Court and the Legal System—Civil Forensics
and wife batterers. Women's rights advocates believe restorative justice may re-
duce progress battered women have made. However, the appropriateness of victim-
offender mediation programs for certain populations does not appear to be much
of a debate. Even Mark Umbreit, the director of the Center of Restorative Justice
and Mediation does not recommend mediation for some sexual assault cases and
for all domestic violence cases (Evers, 1998). Proponents argue that in some cases,
mediation can be beneficial for sexual assault incidents, and many programs require
that sexual assault cases be victim initiated.
Despite evidence which supports victim-offender mediation programs, these
programs have not gone without dispute. There are few examples of cases which
went wrong; however, they are sure to exist. For example, imagine if Geiger met the
man who shot him and the man showed no remorse, guilt, refused to apologize,
and did nothing but make excuses for his behavior. It is questionable whether
Geiger would have experienced the closure he desired. In fact, such a meeting
could have forced Geiger to relive some of the pain he had dealt with over the
past 1 1 years. Clearly, there will always be problems with mediation programs, and
there will always be instances where the program is unsuccessful. The question is
whether the problems warrant giving up completely on such initiatives or warrant
changing programs to be more effective. Because restitution programs threaten to
alter the way in which some criminals are punished, there are clearly some policy
implications for the existence of such programs.
Forensic Psychology and Policy ImplicationsA problem with victim-offender mediation programs is that they are run by many
agencies. As a result, there are no set criteria about who can mediate, how offend-
ers will be selected, and how the process of mediation should take place (Severson
& Bankston, 1995). Currently, most mediation programs rely on trained volun-
teers who know little or nothing about psychology or sociology. Several researchers
suggest using trained professionals as mediators for these programs and that laws
are needed to require mediators to have advanced training (Severson & Bankston,
1995). In addition, there is a need for policies based on research to be adopted for
victim—offender mediation programs. Although some researchers have suggested
policies that should be adopted, there is a need for research to be conducted in
order to determine what guidelines create the most effective programs. One policy
that most researchers do agree upon is a provision against mediation for domestic
violence cases (Evers, 1998). It is essential that research on mediation programs
and procedural guidelines be adopted immediately; the concept is becoming more
popular and lawmakers are passing legislation to create restorative justice programs
in states such as Vermont and Maine. The programs, however, are diverse and there
are few guidelines that indicate how the programs could be successfully run. As
demonstrated by the opponents of restorative justice programs, the negative effects