“This is a courageous book about a topic for a long time neglected in restorative justice research and reflection. A well designed empirical study provides the reader with a wealth of victims’ narratives and deep insights in the relational process towards forgiveness and how forgiveness contributes to justice experiences.”

—Ivo Aertsen, PhD, Professor of Criminology,
University of Leuven

“In Violence, Restorative Justice and Forgiveness: Dyadic Forgiveness and Energy Shifts in Restorative Justice Dialogue, Marilyn Armour and Mark Umbreit make a giant leap in the restorative justice discussion. Restorative justice practitioners have historically been reluctant to discuss forgiveness because it deflects the conversation from justice and it might place an emotional burden on victims or survivors of crime victims. Armour and Umbreit use the idea of a shift of emotional energy to reflect many of the emotional changes that can occur in victim-offender mediation dialogues. They develop a model of the flow of energy from preparation of participants to the dialogue to the aftermath. They create a new language for discussing the VOMD that will not fully please forgiveness researchers nor restorative justice practitioners, yet it makes a practical and conceptual leap that brings both communities into fuller contact with each other. The 20 cases are fascinating reading, and this is a truly new way of speaking about and thinking about the VOMD. This is well worth the read!”

—Everett L. Worthington, Jr.,
Author of Forgiveness and Spirituality in Psychotherapy:
A Relational Approach (with Steven J. Sandage; APA Books)