Little Book of Victim Offender Conferencing: Bringing Victims and Offenders Together in Dialogue

Victim offender dialogues have been developed as a way to hold offenders accountable to the person they have harmed and to give victims a voice about how to put things right. It is a way of acknowledging the importance of the relationship, of the connection which crime creates. Granted, the relationship is a negative one, but there is a relationship. Amstutz has been a practitioner and a teacher in the field for more than 20 years.

Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz is Director of Mennonite Central Committee’s (MCC) Office on Crime and Justice. In this capacity, she provides consulting and training for agencies and communities seeking to implement programs of restorative justice which specifically include a Victim Offender Mediation/Conferencing component. Lorraine has provided technical assistance and consulting for numerous programs throughout the United States. She has worked in the victim offender field since 1984 when she began working in Elkhart, Indiana, the site of the first Victim Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP) in the United States.

Lorraine has co-authored the Victim Offender Conferencing in PA’s Juvenile Justice System curriculum, a manual focusing on the application of VOM/C within Pennsylvania, as well as numerous articles. She has served on the international Victim Offender Mediation Association (VOMA) Board and currently serves on the Board of the local victim offender program in Lancaster County, PA.

Lorraine received her B.S. in Social Work from Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, VA (where she was awarded the Distinguished Service Award for 2002), and her Master’s in Social Work from Marywood University, Scranton, PA.