Victim-offender mediation on criminal justice system

Victim-Offender Mediation (VOM) which came into existance in America and Canada first time in 1970s, has finded opportunity to apply a lot of countries of the World shortly. VOM which takes its main philosophy from restorative justice idea, is a face-to-face meeting, in the presence of a trained mediator, between the victim of a crime and offender. In the meeting, the offender and the victim can talk to each other about what happened, the effects of the crime on their lives, and their feelings about it. They may choose to create a mutually agreeable plan to repair any damages that occurred as a result of the crime. The idea of bringing together a victim of a crime and the person who committed that crime is based on age-old values of justice, accountability, and restoration. In 1990, there were approximately 150 such programs; in 2000, there are more than 1200 programs world-wide. Through this process, crime victims have an opportunity to get answers to their questions about the crime and the person who committed it. They take an active role in getting their material and emotional needs met. Research has found high levels of participant satisfaction in victim-offender mediation. In this Thesis, I analysed this new criminal justice institution which came into effect with new Criminal Panel Code and Criminal Procedure Code in 1 June 2005. The main aim of this Thesis is to research the philosophical substructure of VOM and other countries VOM application models rigorously. And so I want to contribute to find a VOM model which can apply on our criminal justice system. This Thesis consist of three part. In first part, I investigate concept of restorative justice and main feature of VOM at large. In second part, I researched developments in international law and international documents about VOM. In last part, I tried to explain that where is VOM on our criminal justice system, how does VOM legislate and how is the application of VOM. Also in this part, I tried to find solution for difficulties which is encountered both legislation and application.