Victim-Offender Mediation with Young Offenders in a Context of Judicial Reforms in the Russian Federation

This project is focused on analysis of existing discussions/discourses within official, professional, academic and NGO communities about victim-offender mediation (VOM) with young offenders in a context of judicial reforms in the Russian Federation. The aim of the study is to reconstruct a history of development of VOM with young offenders in Russia, to map the 'advocates' and 'opponents' of this practice and to link the case of Russia with a contemporary European discussions about VOM with juveniles. T he research will pay a special attention to the experience of well-founded practice of VOM with young offenders in Norway. Research analysis of the experience, lessons learned and methods of monitoring and evaluation results of VOM with young offenders us ed in Norway will be valuable input to the further critic analysis and development of VOM in Russia. What sorts of barriers (ideological, political, legislative, social and cultural) to VOM with juveniles exist in Russia? What sorts of resistances and ch allenges met VOM with juveniles in countries with 'well-founded VOM practice' like Norway? The methodological frameworks of the research project are the theories of social control (Cohen 1985, Garland 2001, Christie 2004). For the purpose of the analysi s of VOM with young offenders and currently discussion about it in Norway the results of Norwegian researches (Falck 1992, Paus 1999, Kemény 2002, Hydle 2008) will be used. The empirical part of the research will be based on the materials and Internet re courses of organizations conducting VOM with young offenders in Norway and Russia as well as interviews with Norwegian and Russian juvenile justice specialists and NGO's activists - participants of VOM with juveniles.