Real People Harmed by Crime

BreakPoint WorldView » November 2008

With all the headlines about crime, it often is easy to forget that crime harms real human beings, and they may need our help. Victims of crime are often ignored in our justice system. In the last 30 years, victims’ rights have gained greater traction, but there is still much that should be done to meet their needs. It is part of our duty as Christians to assist victims.

It is important to remember that crime is far more than law breaking – it is victim harming. Yet, our criminal justice system narrowly focuses on the legal aspect rather than the victim’s needs. That’s because our criminal justice system defines crime as an offense against the state, not against the victim. You can see this in the way criminal cases are titled: State v. Defendant. Crime is defined as “law breaking”. Regrettably, our system’s limited view of crime as a broken law causes it to focus on punishing offenders for breaking the law and trying to ensure that they do not break the law again. Unfortunately, this leaves the victim out in the cold.

The Church should fill this void left for victims in our system. In the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37), Jesus made it clear that crime victims are our neighbors; that it is our responsibility to bind their wounds and care for them until they are healed. Victims may sustain physical injury, monetary loss, and emotional suffering. The crime may disrupt their lives temporarily—or for as long as they live. To be victimized is to feel powerless, and victims often need help regaining an appropriate sense of control over their lives. Victims also need to be vindicated—declared “not guilty” of being victimized.

However, victims often want to meet with their offenders and are sometimes even moved to forgive them. There are several excellent programs that prepare victims and offenders for such an encounter. These Victim-Offender programs are called by various names: reconciliation, mediation, or dialogue. Victims who choose to participate are given the opportunity to express their true feelings about what occurred, ask questions of the offender, and suggest ways that the offender can begin to make things right. According to assessments of several programs in the Midwest, victims’ goals were to recover some losses, help the offenders stay out of trouble, and have a real part in the criminal justice process. This is something to be encouraged but not rushed. Careful groundwork needs to be laid lest an insincere or unapologetic offender cause further damage to the victim.

On the other hand, when the victim and offender are ready, the opportunity for healing is miraculous. One of the most moving stories is that of Arna Washington and Ron Flowers. Mrs. Washington’s daughter, Dee Dee, was waiting for her boyfriend, who unbeknownst to her was buying drugs. Her boyfriend and the dealer got into a struggle, and as the dealer, Ron Flowers, ran out of the building, he pulled a gun and shot Dee Dee Washington as she sat in the car. Dee Dee died, and Ron Flowers went to prison for murder.

For 14 years, Ron denied murdering Dee Dee. Then he was admitted to the InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI), the prison program launched by Prison Fellowship in Texas. IFI applies restorative justice principles by working to confront offenders with the harm they have done to their victims. During one of these victim awareness sessions focusing on victims, Ron admitted that he did, in fact, murder Dee Dee Washington and prayed that his victim’s family would forgive him. He wrote a letter to Mrs. Washington expressing his deep remorse.

For her part, Mrs. Washington had written angry letters to the parole board every year of Ron’s sentence, urging them to deny him parole. However, the same week that Ron confessed, Mrs. Washington felt an overwhelming conviction that she should meet with the man who killed her daughter. As she said later, she had no intention of forgiving him. Instead, she wanted to tell him how much pain he had caused her. She contacted her pastor and requested to meet with him.

Her pastor tracked Ron down at IFI. After Prison Fellowship staff met with Mrs. Washington and Ron Flowers separately several times to prepare them for the meeting, Mrs. Washington, her pastor, Homer Williams, IFI director Jack Cowley, and Ron Flowers got together. She had the chance to ask the questions that virtually every victim wants to ask: “Why did you do it?” “Was my daughter involved in some way?” “How did it happen?” Ron filled her in on the details and reassured her that her daughter had no idea that a drug deal was taking place. As Ron told her the story of the day he killed Dee Dee, Mrs. Washington took his hands in hers and said, “I forgive you.”

I was in Houston for Ron’s graduation from IFI. As Ron crossed the stage to receive his diploma, a tall, elegant woman rose from her seat and walked up meet him. Mrs. Washington embraced Ron, the man who had murdered her daughter, and told all of us in the audience, “This young man is my adopted son.”

After his release, Mrs. Washington helped Ron adjust to the community, invited him to sit with her in her pew at church, had him over for dinner at her home, and even stood by him for his marriage. This beautiful ending to a very sad story could only happen through God’s grace. Only He can bring about such reconciliation and healing.

The majority of inmates do not have the opportunity to participate in a program such as IFI and therefore have not acknowledged the harm they have done to their victims, nor have they taken any steps to make things right with them. Whether or not the court has required restitution for the crime, morally speaking offenders should take steps, as appropriate, to repair the harm they have done. Consider Luke 19:8-9: “Zacchaeus [the corrupt tax collector] stood up and said to Jesus, ‘Look, Lord . . . if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house.’”

This is the soul of Restorative Justice: in the face of devastation wrought by crime, God calls His people to restore, to rebuild, and to facilitate right relationships. You and your congregation can be agents of this healing grace by participating in one of the programs listed below.

RESOURCES

Justice Fellowship’s website has many issue papers, legislative updates, and resources related to Restorative Justice. While at the website please subscribe to the Justice eReport, an e-mail update on criminal justice issues, legislation, and resources.

Restorative Justice Online, Prison Fellowship International Centre for Justice and Reconciliation
This site has numerous resources on Restorative Justice, both in theory and in practice, from around the globe.

Office for Victims of Crime,
U.S. Department of Justice
810 Seventh Street, NW
Washington, DC 20531

Office of Justice Programs,
U.S. Department of Justice
This site offers material on programs about victim-offender reconciliation.
810 Seventh Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: (202) 307-5933

National Organization for Victim Assistance
Responds to disasters and provides publications, training, and assistance for victims of crime.
510 King Street, Suite 424
Alexandria, VA 22314
Phone: (703) 535-NOVA

Center for Peacemaking and ConflictStudies,
Fresno Pacific University
1717 S. Chestnut Ave. #2202
Fresno, CA 93702
Phone: (559) 453-2000
Fax: (559) 252-4800
Toll-free: (800) 909-8677
E-mail: pacs@fresno.edu

Center for Justice and Peacebuilding
Eastern Mennonite University
1200 Park Road
Harrisonburg, VA 22802 - 2462
Phone: (540) 432-4000
Fax: (540) 432-4444

Criminal Justice Chaplaincy
Provides church and community outreach services and ministers to individuals, families, and groups involved in the criminal justice system.
207 Fulton Street E
Grand Rapids, MI 49503-3210
Phone: (616) 454-4925
Fax: (616) 454-8835

The Justice and Reconciliation Project
P.O. Box 2051
Loomis, California 95650
Phone: (530) 368-2026

Restorative Justice Ministry Network of North America
1229 Avenue J, Suite 360
Huntsville, TX 77340
Phone: (936) 291-2156

Victim Offender Mediation Association (VOMA)
An international membership association that supports and assists people and communities working with restorative models of justice.
c/o Center for Policy, Planning and Performance
2233 University Ave W, Suite 300
Minneapolis, MN 55114
Phone: (612) 874-0570
Fax: (651) 644-4227

Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program Information and Resource Center (VORP)
Brings offenders face-to-face with the victims of their crimes using the assistance of a trained mediator.
1007 NE 118 th Avenue
Portland, OR 97220
Phone: (503) 255-8677

Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation (MVFR)
2100 M St NW, Suite 170-296
Washington, DC 20037
Phone: (877) 896-4702

CrimeSurvivors for Community Safety,
Partnership for Safety and Justice
825 NE 20 th Avenue
Portland, OR 97232
Phone: (503) 335-8449
Fax: (503) 232-1922

Tariq Khamisa Foundation (TKF)
7490 Opportunity Road Suite 202
San Diego, CA 92111
Phone: (858) 565-0800
Fax: (858) 565-0818

Victims' Voices Heard
P.O. Box 638
Dover, DE 19903
Phone: (302) 697-7005