Samenvatting

Victim-offender-mediation started in Belgium as early as 1993 and nowadays the Belgium landscape shows a variety of restorative practices, including conferencing with juveniles and mediation with adult offenders, on the basis of a number of legal arrangements. Progress can still be made in quantitative terms and qualitatively by harmonizing the various legal instruments that are available. The diversionary mediation that is possible at the level of the public prosecutor differs in a number of ways from the mediation that can be offered in subsequent stages of the criminal procedure. A variety of motives and reasons explain the reception and growth of restorative practices, such as the desire to offer victims a better service and to improve the delivery of justice. The willingness to experiment and to collaborate between protagonists of restorative justice and the agencies of criminal justice, and the strong scientific support from the Catholic University of Leuven, are amongst the key factors that promoted the integration and consolidation of restorative practices in the legal system.