ABSTRACT
In this article I wish to make the case that victim offender mediation (VOM) adheres to a kind of legal formalism characteristic of relations between lawyers, clients, and the courts. Legal formalism is conceptualized here as a systemreproducing steering mechanism (Jessop, 1991; Schehr, 1995; Bertramsen, Thomsen, and Torfing, 1991) employed by the state to assist unstable sectors of society (in this case, criminal justice) toward stasis. I contend that mediators guide restitution agreements toward activities consistent with dominant cultural interests. In doing so, mediators cajole offenders (especially juveniles) in engaging in secondary-sector labor market activities, and they demonstrate
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a commitment to dominant cultural norms and values (especially those relating to respect for authorit)~ hard work, property, merit, nationalism, and the like). When this process results in reduced recidivism, VOM has successfully served to promote systemic stability
Having established the system-reproducing aspects ofVOM, I conclude by arguing that there is a place for critical application of VOM to perennial social problems in our cities and rural communities. What it will take to transform the process ofVOM-from one imbued with the coercive power of criminal justice authorities to one that empowers offenders beyond the commission of nonnormative and criminal activity-is a two-stage process. I fully acknowledge the responsibility that must be borne by those who have brought fear, intimidation, hardship, injury, or other kinds of interpersonal violation of person or place onto others. However, like most who write in the "restorative justice" literature, I contend that punishment for those who violate standards of nonnative behavior must not replicate the violence of the initial act. That is, I share with Gilligan (1995) the belief that symbolic manifestations of punishment have real consequences for the perpetuation of cultural violence. If our criminal justice apparatus promotes violent resolutions to nonnormative actions, violence in the culture as a whole will result. In short, responses to nonnormative behavior must acknowledge tlie harm caused, and restitution must be made. The question that concerns us here is, how can this be accomplished?
