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Faculty of Humanities
School of Social Sciences
Department of Social Work and Criminology
Selected Highlights from Research Findings
Violence towards women forms an integral aspect of the societal inequality and power differentials that still exist between genders in South Africa. The prevalence of domestic violence is increasing and is largely characterised by female “victims” and male “offenders”. Restorative justice has been suggested as a possible method to deal with the effects and underlying causes of crime.
Restorative justice is a collaborative process that allows all concerned parties who have a stake in a specific offence to identify and address their obligations and the harm that was done, in order to form part of the healing process. Victim-Offender Conferencing (VOC) is one of the programmes in the process.
This research project was aimed at evaluating victims of domestic violence’s response to VOC, its efficacy and whether it has any future use in the criminal justice system.
Research findings were mixed in terms of responses relating to the content and structure of the mediation process from the victims as to the utility of VOC. Most of the female victims found that VOC was helpful in that it offered some resolution to the domestic problem.
Dr Jean Triegaardt of the Department of Social Work and Criminology found that in some cases VOC served as a deterrent to fighting as well as a motivating factor to follow through with the agreement. However, many of the respondents reported that they were beaten again.
The study further indicated that the involvement of families and communities as support structures in the mediation process was perceived by victims as empowering, since a feature of domestic violence is that victims are often isolated from their families and friends.
The respondents further highlighted that the VOC process provided them with temporary relief and the opportunity for self-reflection. They also perceived the process as valuable, but sustainability was an issue due to a lack of follow-up. Most of the respondents continued to be battered. Those who were no longer battered indicated that VOC had been helpful in interrupting the cycle of violence
Contact person: Dr JD Triegaardt.
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