Penalty, punishment and repair in the juvenile judiciary trial. An evaluation of the victim-offender mediation

The juvenile criminal trial assumes in Italy a "special configuration", aimed at the recovery and rehabilitation of the minor and to avoid that the sanctions imposed produce destructive effects in its psychosocial evolution (DRP 488/88). For this reason the various institutes foreseen and the organization of the trial itself are inspired more by a reparative logic than by a punitive logic. This determines that only in a limited and extreme measure the process closes with the imposition and subsequent execution of a sentence and that instead it is mainly made use of other institutions that already in the course of the procedure favor the start of a rehabilitation process. In this framework, for a couple of decades, the practice of Victim-Offender Mediation has been introduced in numerous judicial districts. The paper presents the results of an evaluation research on the results obtained through an experimental intervention of Victim-Offender Mediation carried out in a judicial district of Northern Italy. The results of the research make it possible to identify some factors and conditions of exercise associated with the outcome of the intervention and also elements that contribute to delineating the specificity and the implications of a psychological nature. Two are the most significant results. On the one hand, the effectiveness of the interventions was verified, but - at the same time - some important problems in their implementation are found. Beyond the very limited amount of situations that despite being sent by the judiciary have never had access to the service (in 6.0% of cases the victim or the offender has not become available even to perform the informative and preliminary interview) was found that only in 57.1% of the cases initiated was it possible to complete the course (ie to carry out the direct meeting between the offender and the victim): in these situations the outcome was positive in 78.5% of cases. In 42.9% of cases, however, the intervention was interrupted after the preliminary phase (in which the victim and the perpetrator were individually met).

Keywords: Restorative justice, victim-offender mediation, socio-clinical intervention, evaluation research.

Giancarlo Tamanza, Ettore De Angeli, Marialuisa Gennari, Pena, punizione e riparazione nel processo penale minorile. Uno studio valutativo sui risultati degli interventi di mediazione in "RICERCHE DI PSICOLOGIA " 3/2018, pp 499-513, DOI: 10.3280/RIP2018-003011