Giving Women Their Voice: Domestic Violence and Restorative Justice in South Africa

This paper analyses the Victim Offender Conferencing (VOC) model, which aims to mediate between victim and offender in cases of domestic violence. This research paper is concerned with determining the impact of mediation in domestic violence cases, particularly from the viewpoint of the female victim. The paper aims to determine the extent to which the women's needs had sufficiently been taken into account, both during the mediation and afterwards, as well as looking at how the mediation itself was handled. The researchers contacted 21 women who had completed the mediation. A 45 minute telephonic interview was held with the women between 6 months and 18 months after the completion of the process.