Facing Violence: The Path of Restorative Justice and Dialogue

A young woman is murdered at a car wash. An entire family is killed by a drunk driver. The victim of a violent assault survives but spends years struggling to heal physically and emotionally. Offenders in these crimes are apprehended, convicted and sentenced. But it is not enough. Across the U.S., in increasing numbers, these and other victims of violent crime have sought direct, personal encounters with the offenders who have harmed them.

"Facing Violence" tells the stories of courageous victims and offenders who have participated in facilitated dialogue in the aftermath of violent crimes. The book reports findings by a University of Minnesota research team that such victim/offender dialogue programs, when carefully supervised by trained facilitators, have usually resulted in life-transforming emotional healing for both parties. The book distills results of interviews with victims, offenders and staff members in two pioneering victim/offender dialogue programs in Texas and Ohio.

What kinds of benefits result from such programs? One parent said: "My daughter's dead. But I know I'm better, I can sleep at night. I know it's a good feeling not to hate some monster."

An assault victim commented: "This anger was deep witghin me, and now there's a lightness of my whole soul. It was transforming."

And an offender convicted of assault explained: "I wanted to tell her how sorry I was... I always felt like I had the duty to at least try to make things right with her."