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14 W. Criminology Rev. 6 (2013)
Victims as Stakeholders: Research from a Juvenile Court on the Changing Roles of Victims in Restorative Justice

handle is hein.journals/wescrim14 and id is 10 raw text is: Online citation: Wood, William R. 2013. Victims as Stakeholders: Research from a Juvenile Court on the Changing Roles of Victims in Restorative Justice. Western Criminology Review 14(1): 6-24. (http://wcr.sonoma.edu/vl4nl/Wood.pdf). http://wcr.sonoma.edu Victims as Stakeholders: Research from a Juvenile Court on the Changing Roles of Victims in Restorative Justice William R. Wood Griffith University Abstract: This research analyzes changes made by a juvenile court over five years toward the progressive inclusion of victims as stakeholders within the implementation and development of restorative justice practices. Beginning in 1999, the Clark County Juvenile Court (CCJC) in Washington State introduced a Victim Offender Mediation (VOM) program. Subsequently, the court altered diversion and probation practices in ways that provided several significant services to victims, and afforded victims increased decision-making capacity. In doing so, the court also amended how offenders fulfilled their diversion or probation requirements at the court, particularly in relation to its use of VOMs. This research follows the initial inclusion ofvictims as stakeholders within the use of VOMs beginning in 1999, and explicates how and where these stakeholder roles were amended over time until 2005, when the court had largely finalized the structure of victim involvement and participation. The ensuing discussion describes the rationale for the court's changes, and the effects of these changes on how victims were able to participate and make decisions in both diversion and probation cases. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of these changes as they involve the role of victims as stakeholders within restorative justice as used in formal justice settings, and in particular the possible limits of such roles when enacted through justice agencies such as juvenile courts. Keywords: juvenile justice, restorative justice, stakeholders, victims INTRODUCTION The term stakeholder is often used within restorative justice to both identify and legitimate the inclusion of victims into specific restorative interventions and justice processes (c.f. McCold and Watchel 2003; Schiff 2007; Zehr and Mika 1998). The questions of who or what constitute stakeholders, and exactly how victims should and can be involved as stakeholders, however, are more oblique within restorative justice (Ashworth 2002; Bazemore and Leip 2000; Miers 2001; Van Ness 1993). Empirical research on restorative justice interventions that involve victims as stakeholders is widespread (Bradshaw and Umbreit 1998; Coates and Gehm 1989; Griffiths 1999; Mika et al. 2004; Umbreit 1998; Umbreit, Coates, and Vos 2002), as is literature that looks more directly at the theoretical implications of involving victims as stakeholders (McCold 2000; Schiff 2007; Zehr and Mika 1998). Among practitioners, there is consensus that victims should be able to meet and address their offenders and should be entitled to the benefits of restitution or other remunerations.. There is decidedly less empirical research in restorative justice on how victims become stakeholders, what this entails in terms of the agency and decision-making abilities of victims, the relationship between victims and justice agencies, and the auspices under which victims are able to act as stakeholders. Thus, if victims are indeed stakeholders within restorative approaches to justice, they are not all stakeholders in the same way or to the same extent across differing restorative interventions, programs, jurisdictions, and agencies. 6 'ESTE IMINOLPY

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