University of Twente Student Theses
Examining the Impact of Reoffending after Victim-Offender Mediation on the Public’s Opinion on Restorative Justice
Hamacher, F. (2022) Examining the Impact of Reoffending after Victim-Offender Mediation on the Public’s Opinion on Restorative Justice.
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| Abstract: | Nowadays, there is an increasing prevalence of alternative punishment methods to crime, such as restorative justice. The opinion of the public is of great importance to investigate, since lawmakers rely on the public in the form of norms, morals, and opinions. An important aspect of the public opinion towards restorative justice is the effectiveness of the approach and specifically whether a reoffense of an offender changes the opinion towards restorative justice. The present study investigated elements of the public opinion towards restorative justice before and after reading about a reoffense of an offender that was committed following a restorative justice intervention. Five factors were investigated, namely the respondents perception of leniency towards restorative justice, one’s orientation towards restorative justice, trust in legal authorities, confidence in sentencing, and attitude towards feminism. First, it was hypothesized that perceptions towards restorative justice become more lenient after reading about reoffending. Further, it was expected that restorative justice would be perceived as more lenient compared to retributive justice, especially in men. Further, it was expected that high trust in legal authorities, confidence in sentencing, and a high attitude towards feminism would be related to a more favorable sight of restorative justice. Lastly, it was suspected that one’s orientation towards restorative justice changed negatively after being confronted with an offender who reoffended after a restorative justice intervention. In the present study, a questionnaire vignette survey was conducted on a sample of participants ( N=102). Participants received a newspaper article of a case of gendered violence which was solved through victim-offender mediation. Participants further received a follow-up newspaper article of the same offender reoffending in another gendered violence case. Before and after the scenarios the five factors were measured. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Bachelor) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 10 humanities in general |
| Programme: | Psychology BSc (56604) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/89609 |
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