1. Purposes and Contents

This study empirically examined process and outcome of current victimoffender mediation system based on ideology and values of restorative justice, and investigated outcome and effects of the system to find out higher effectiveness.
The study has three subjects;
Firstly, process uation of victim-offender mediation is to be done: 1) use of victim-offender mediation system, 2) physical resource and human resource for operation of victim-offender mediation system, 3) operation of each stage of victim-offender mediation.
Secondly, the effects of victim-offender mediation shall be uated. Effects and/or results that can be obtained by joining current victim-offender mediation shall be uated. The study investigated effects of victim-offender mediation program, for instance, implication rate, concerned party's satisfaction with victim-offender mediation system, recovery of physical and psychological damage and relations, cognition on offender's responsibility, and control of future behavior.
Thirdly, the study investigated factors that had influence upon outcome and effects of victim-offender mediation. In such a way, basic material can be obtained to improve victim-offender mediation system having optimum effects in the future.

2. Operation of Victim-Offender Mediation System

1) Use of Victim-Offender Mediation
> Low submission rate : Number of the cases that were submitted to victim-offender mediation among all of criminal cases and criminal accusation increased every year. During three years from 2008 to 2010 when victim-offender mediation system was in force throughout the nation, submission rate on average accounted for 0.73% based on criminal cases and 3.6% based on criminal accusation to be low: Victim-offender mediation system accually vastly underutilized as of yee.
>High start rate : Start rate of the cases that were submitted to victimoffender mediation last four years accounted for 92% to be very much high. High start rate means that staffs in charge explained goal and purposes of the system to concerned victim or offender well to let them participate in the system and to be affirmative. But, outcome-oriented policy elevated start rate to give pressure to concerned victim or offender when checking participation ideas, and concerned victim or offender, in particular, suspects had difficulties at saying rejection considering position of the prosecutor at criminal procedure, and the prosecutor had rights to submit case without consent of concerned victim or offender that was misunderstanding of practical practice. Therefore, there was plenty of room to interpret critically.
>Selection of accusation oriented cases : The Supreme Prosecutors' Office enacted 'A rule of operation of victim-offender mediation' in 2009, and revised 'the Act on Protection of Crime Victim' in 2010 to expand cases of victim-offender mediation up to common types of criminal cases.
Nonetheless, accusation case still occupied 89.4% to have the highest ratio.
>High ratio of the cases having uncertain fact relevance : The case that offenders completely denied criminal facts among the cases that were submitted to victim-offender mediation occupied 51.2%, and the case that statement of offenders did not coincide with that of victim concerning behavior (crime) itself did 60.7%. So, many cases had not basic prerequisite for victim-offender mediation.

2) Human resource and physical resource for operation of victimoffender mediation system
>Excessive number of members of the committee of victim offendermediation comparing with criminal cases : As many as 2,301 members of the committee of victim-offender mediation worked in the nation at the end of 2010, and one member took 21.6 cases on average a year to be a little large comparing with cases that were submitted to victim-offender mediation.
>Gap of professionalism between members of the committee of victimoffender mediation : Law professionals such as lawyers, judicial scrivener and professor majored in law occupied 36.3%, and members who worked as arbitrator or mediacor at other fields did 25.0%.
>High education demand on members of the committee of victim-offender mediation :
After being appointed to be a member of the committee of victimoffender mediation, about 70% of the members were given education of victim-offender mediation and more than 30% of the members were given education 3 timers or more, and most of the members were given special lecture less than 2 hours at either prosecutors' office or crime victim suppore coucer or were given education of practical practice of victimoffender mediation six hours a day under sponsorship of the Ministry of Justice. So, the members were given insufficient education to develop professionalism of a mediator. 82.2% of the members of the committee said that maintenance education was needed, so that they were eager to be educated.
>Inferior physical resource : Most of prosecutors' office had conference room and/or meeting room for victim-offender mediation, and most of them had not standby room at caucus that allowed either party to wait for. The budget for victim-offender mediation was belonged to crime victim protection fund, and most of operating expenses consisted of allowance of the members, and budget of education expenses amounted to be 2.3 billion Won that was very much small amount considering professionalism of victim-offender mediation members as well as education demand.

3) Structural characteristics of victim-offender mediation
>Prosecutors office staff's attending in the meeting and roles : Prosecutors office staffs (or crime victim suppore coucer staff) were found to attend 55,8% of the meeting as a secretary. When prosecutors office staffs attended the meeting, they were likely to give pressure to either offender or victim and to lessen mediator's role by being involved much deeply.
>Use of caucus : Almost half of victim-offender mediation meetings made use of caucus that was often used when victim offender were unable to develop conversation and negotiation. 26.2% of caucus were held immediately after members gathered at the meeting room to mediate without inspection of facts and disputes to be close to shuttle mediation that differed from current victim-offender mediation subject to face to face meeting between concerned victim and offender.
>Time of victim-offender mediation : The time of victim-offender mediation meeting on average was 35 minutes to be short, and the time was influenced not by either crime type or members' mediation styles but by schedule of mediation meeting of each prosecutor's office. Some of prosecutors' office set meeting time with interval of either 20 minutes or 30 minutes so mediator's were given pressure of tight schedule. When a meeting was delayed, mediation of remaining cases was forced to be delayed to let concerned victim and offender wait blindly.

4) Operation of Victim-Offender Mediation at Each Stage

A) Pre-mediation
>Inspection of reluctant participation and explanation (autonomy of the participation) : A staff of prosecutors' office did not check whether or not victim (15.4%) wanted to participate in victim offender mediation and offender (12.1%) did, and victim (23.5%) and offender (21.2%) were not given explanation of the victim-crime mediation from a staff of prosecutors' office. A staff of prosecutors' office were act to put an emphasis upon either goals or purposes of victim-offender mediation system when explaining it, and he often skipped explanation on either actions against non-performance of agreement or failure of mediation: Victim (12.0%) and offender (12.2%) who heard explanation said that they could not understand the mediation system well.
>Inadequate supply time of information and low quality of the information : Most of case information was supplied before opening of the mediation, and it was supplied 20 to 30 minutes before opening of the meeting on the day when meeting was held. A member of the committee of mediation was given at least 2 cases and 5 to 6 cases at most in a day to have no time to understand case exactly. The s of case information that a member of the committee of mediation submitted consisted of petition and written opinion attached to submission of the mediation meeting that roughly wrote contents of the case according to five W's and one H not to be enough to understand contents of the case exactly.
>Inadequate preliminary discussion : In mojarity of mediation the committee members discussed the case in advance before meeting, and they mostly exchanged ideas on overall contents of the case and did not discuss roles and responsibility that might occur at meeting attended by many members having different point of view and mediation. And, the members had brief preliminary discussion immediately before mediation meeting to be difficult to discuss contents carefully and deeply.
>No preliminary mediation : Before revising the guideline, victim-offender mediation operation of crime victim supports concer prohibited a preliminary mediation. After revising the guideline, the members did not mediate a case in advance despite no regulation of prohibition of preliminary mediation.

B) Mediation Session 1 : Opening of the Meeting
>Opening of the meeting shall include greetings, introduction of mediation members, brief explanation on victim-offender mediation system and procedure, roles and attitude of mediation members and principles of speaking and behavior of victim and offender. But, most of mediation meetings skipped opening of the meeting, or included either brief greetings or brief introduction of mediation members.

C) Mediation Session 2 : Storytelling, and Issue Indentification
>Storytelling : Many victims and offenders said that they were satisfied with storytelling time that they could say a case from their point of view, and atmosphere of comfortable and safe discussion. And, they were not satisfied with fair allocation of storytelling time, and in particular, offenders were not satisfied. And, victims and offenders were satisfied with enough storytelling time, and atmosphere of comfortable and safe dialogue and were not satisfied with observation of the principle of mutual respect.
Apology and forgiving process : Many meetings were thought not to solve conflicts by apology and forgiving of both victim and offender because of either party's complaint against the other party's speaking attitudes. An offender did not give victim an apology or did not apologize from his or her heart (59.6%), and a victim accepted an offender's apology from his or her heart (30.1%).

D) Mediation Session 3 : Agenda Building, Neogtiating and Problem Solving
>Autonomy of making an agreement : Not only 33.0% of the victim but also 40.5% of the offender said that an agreement was made according to mediation members' judgment to make an agreement. Not only 9.5% of the victim but also 15.6% of the offender said that they were asked from mediation member to agree compulsorily. And, 13.8% of the offenders said that they were forced to accept unwillingly fencative agreement to avoid a serious punishment and 16.3% of them said that the mediation was not important and good.

E) Mediation Session 4 : Closure
>At agreement : Not only writing but also mutual inspection after secclement agreements was found to be done well. Most of contents of the agreement, for instance, payment methods of compensation, were included. When performance period was not mentioned or either victim or offender did not take action to put agreement into practice, the agreement often did not include actions clearly and definitely.
>At failure of agreement : At failure of mediation, most of the members notified either victim or offender of reasons of the failure. And, no more than 28.2% of the members recommended mediation meeting in the future to be very much low.

3. Outcome, Effects and Factors of Victim-Offender Mediation System

1) Outcome of Victim-Offender Mediation System
>Success Rate of Victim-Offender Mediation
- Success rate of victim-offender mediation on average accounted for 55.9% for last four years, and 57.0% in 2007, 56.6% in 2008, 56.1% in 2009, 53.9% in 2010 and 54.2% in the first half of 2011. The rate decreased year by year.
- In this study, success rate of victim-offender mediation on average accounted for 60.8% to be higher than average of the nation. Among success mediation 19.5% was made by an offender's sincere apology to the victim not by monetary compensation and in particular, in case of violence crime 33.4% was made by only an offender's sincere apology to the victim. Therefore, victim- offender mediation could help recover relations between victims and offenders of violence crime by making sincere reconciliation from their heart.

2) Factors having Influence upon Success of Victim-Offender Mediation
>Victim-offender mediation was influenced by following factors: amount of losses and damages of the properties, an offender's admission of offending fact. ages of offender, offender's motive of participating in the mediation, mediators' experience at activities of other areas of mediation (arbitration), mediators' prior cognition on contents of the case, mediators' improper communication attitudes, number of mediators' participating in the mediation, properness of mediation time explanation of progress of mediation meeting and of procedure after mediation, a victim's autonomy at negotiation and agreement decision, a victim's improper communication attitudes, and an offender's apology and a victim's acceptance of the apology.

3) Effects of Victim-Offender Mediation
>Recovery of damages and losses of a victim : Rating stood at 3-points or less except for the question of "I understood the other party's thought and position better than before." So, a victim's losses and damages were not recovered from point of view of psychology and relations.
>An offender's cognition on responsibility and control of future behavior : Victim-offender mediation was found to have more influence upon offender than victim. The study tested not only an offender's cognition on responsibility but also control over future behavior. All of the items of the mediation stood at 3-points or more on average to be affirmative, and the mediation had affirmative influence upon control of future behavior as well as observance of laws and regulations.

4) Factors having influence upon effect of victim-offender mediation
>Factors having influence upon recovery of losses and damages of the victim : A victim's recovery of losses and damages varied depending upon success of the mediation, and other factors than success of the medication also had influence. And, an offender's admission of wrong doing, sincere apology, storytelling time and comfortable and safe atmosphere had affirmative influence the most upon a victim.
>Factors having influence upon an offender's cognition on the responsibility and future behavior : An offender's motive of participating had affirmative influence the most upon an offender, followed by victim's acceptance of the apology.

4. Policy for Development of Victim-Offender Mediation System

1) Expansion of Scope of Victim-Offender Mediation Case
>Expansion of the scope from accusation case to common criminal case
- Reformation of legal systems : Article 41-1 of the Crime Victim Protection Act has regulated submission of all of the cases to victimoffender mediation. But, the ordinance of the Act as well as regulations of the Prosecutors' Office need to be deleted to get rid of misunderstanding that seems to be limited to accusation cases caused by personal disputes.
- Cognition conversion of the prosecutor having rights of submission : Prosecutors who are authorized to submit need to be given education of victim-offender mediation system. Prosecutors shall judge qualification of the case based on ideology of the mediation system, and background and needs of the system.
- Revision of the laws and regulations that can select and submit cases being suitable to the mediation among accusation cases of property crimes : Prosecutors shall submit accusation cases to victim-offender mediation not later than one week after being assigned. The regulation is much likely to submit a case based on deion of petition as well as evidence attached without enough investigation into suspicion to produce so many problems. Like accusation cases of the police, prosecutors shall be allowed to submit a case to victim-offender mediation not later than one month.
>Expansion of the scope from properties crime to violence crime
Crime type has not significant relations with victim-offender mediation, so that property crime only shall not be suitable to the mediation. And, violence crime had good effects of either recovery of damage feelings or recovery of relations after victim's mediation regardless of success of the mediation. Considering such a fact, cases for the mediation shall be expanded to violence crime.
>No submission of a case having uncertain fact relevance
No mediator can mediate a case having uncertain fact relevance that offender does not admit of offending fact strongly, and possibility of the agreement was very much low. Therefore, prosecutors shall submit case admitted by an offender to mediation procedure to regulate submission requirements clearly.

2) Autonomy of Victim and Offender
>Reformation of Laws and Regulations
When a prosecutor submits a case to mediation procedure not by application of either victim or offender but by prosecutor's rights, law and regulation that may produce misunderstanding of no consent of both victim and offender shall be revised to regulate consent of them that is requirement of the victim-offender mediation.
>Reformation of Investigation into Participation Ideas of Victim Offender
Prosecutors Office staffs need to make use of face-to-face contact or to send booklet of victim and offender mediation system as well as questionnaire of participation of the system by postal service despite time spending, and to give ideas by either phone or post. The mediator shall meet victim and offender separately prior to starting of the mediation procedure to share information on the case and to develop preliminary mediation of explanation of the mediation.
>Notice of mediation refusal righes and Mediation Suspension Rights
The committee members shall notify victim of not only refusal rights of mediation but also suspension rights of mediation under progress when inspecting participation ideas: The members shall mention those rights at operation regulations and job enforcement guide.

3) Conversion into conversation-oriented mediation model based on humanism
>Development of Preliminary Mediation
The mediators shall not meet victim and/or offender to do a kind of secret deal and to decide upon agreement in favor of either party. The preliminary mediation shall be done as follow: 1) Ask victim and/or offender to participate in mediation to let them understand purposes and contents of mediation program; 2) Collect information of the case and keep issues in order in advance; 3) Help a victim express his or her ideas clearly and definitely by emotional support and let victim be prepared emotionally. And, produce base of sympathy and reliability against a victim's pains and influence to recover emotionally and relationally by direct conversation of the mediation procedure, and to make a system. The procedure seems to be similar to secondary mediation and/or third mediation: But, preliminary mediation makes mediator meet victim and/or offender separately and to help victim and/or offender prepare for mediation carefully.
>Enough Mediation Time
All of victim-offender mediations consist of opening of the meeting, inspection into outlines of the case, storytelling, clarification of the fact and inspection into issues, negotiation and problem solving, preparation of the agreement and completion. The victim-offender mediation time shall be enough from initial planning stage to separate victim and/or offender and to have caucus in sequence.
>Professionalism of the Victim-Offender Mediation Members
- Education and training program shall be planned and put it into practice systematically to satisfy mediator's desire of education at national level and to help mediator's play role and function. Being free from current lecture and information supply 6 hours a day, professional and systematic education program that is based on practical practice shall be supplied.
- The committee of victim-offender mediation shall be separated from prosecutors' office from point of view of long term to establish independent and neutral organization that can play role of mediator of the mediation procedure, and it shall employ regular mediation members who have completed mediator training program. The committee shall appoint one to two full-time mediation member as well as one of foreign mediation member such as professor majored in law, lawyer and law professional to assure of fairness of the mediation, and foreign members shall be volunteer to follow current system.