Crime Victims' Perceptions of Restitution: The Importance of Payment and Understanding

The Office for Victims of Crime recommends that victims should be informed, consulted, respected, and made whole, rights that relate to informational, procedural, interpersonal, and distributive justice. We surveyed 238 victims in two Pennsylvania counties to test whether crime victims' satisfa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Violence and victims 2008-01, Vol.23 (6), p.697-710
Main Authors: Ruback, Barry R., Cares, Alison C., Hoskins, Stacy N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Analysis of Variance
Behavioral Sciences
Community Health Services - organization & administration
Community-Institutional Relations
Counseling
Crime Victims - economics
Crime Victims - statistics & numerical data
Criminal investigations
Criminal Justice
Distributive Justice
Female
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Knowledge
Law Enforcement - methods
Male
Marriage and Family Counselling
Middle Aged
Patient Satisfaction - economics
Patient Satisfaction - statistics & numerical data
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania - epidemiology
Perceptions
Police
Policy, Social Justice, and Human Rights
Procedural Justice
Psychology
Reforms
Restitution
Social and Personality Psychology
Social Perception
Social Work
Spouse Abuse - economics
Spouse Abuse - rehabilitation
Surveys and Questionnaires
Victims
Victims of crime
Citations: Items that cite this one
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Summary:The Office for Victims of Crime recommends that victims should be informed, consulted, respected, and made whole, rights that relate to informational, procedural, interpersonal, and distributive justice. We surveyed 238 victims in two Pennsylvania counties to test whether crime victims' satisfaction with the criminal justice system was related to their perceptions of the fairness of the process and of their outcomes in their case, particularly with regard to restitution. Results indicated that payment of restitution, perception of fair process, and good interpersonal treatment were positively related to victims' willingness to report crimes in the future but that satisfaction with information about the process was not. Victims' understanding of the restitution process was a significant predictor of willingness to report in a multivariate analysis.
ISSN:0886-6708
1945-7073
DOI:10.1891/0886-6708.23.6.697