Group Brings Criminals Face to Face With Victims

Pasadena church officials have launched a local chapter of an acclaimed program that brings criminals face to face with their victims to promote restitution and mutual understanding.

The Foothill Victim Offender Reconciliation Program last week had its first training sessions for volunteer mediators. Program director Timothy Cooper, 38, an associate pastor of Pasadena Mennonite Church, said the organization expects to begin handling cases this month.

Guided by a mediator, victims and offenders will meet to talk, sometimes at the scene of the crime.

“Burglary victims often choose their burglarized homes as the rendezvous locale,” Cooper said. “They walk the offender through the house, telling step by step how they felt.”

Then they agree upon some kind of restitution, often a work duty for a specific period of time.

Cases will be referred to the privately run program by the county Probation Department and the courts. The offenses must be nonviolent, such as theft and vandalism, and the criminals must be no older than 20. Offender participation, which is voluntary, can serve as a substitute for a prison sentence, or go along with one.

“With juveniles, it’s been extremely beneficial to both sides,” said Mike Lindsay, director of special projects at the Los Angeles County Probation Department headquarters in Downey. “Face to face, the perpetrator can see the harm that’s been done to the other human being, and the victim often gets to know the pitiful circumstances that led to a criminal outlook.”

The first Victim Offender Reconciliation Programs were established in the late 1970s. Today, there are about 60 of the programs in the United States, including chapters in Ventura, Orange and Fresno.

Ron Classen, 45, a math teacher-turned-minister who is director of the Fresno VORP, led the Pasadena training session for 15 participants.

VORP claims a high success rate; only 25% of its criminal participants go on to commit other crimes, program officials say.

Joan Petersilia, director of the Criminal Justice Program at the RAND Corp., said the recidivist rate for the offender population as a whole is 50% to 60%. But she cautioned against reading too much into the VORP statistics, because offenders who opt for the program tend to be less “criminal.”

The program, which is applying for nonprofit status, will operate out of the Pasadena Mennonite Church. For more information, call (818) 568-8850.