| Summary: | Abstract
This article concerns the screening processes of the police-based
National Danish Victim Offender Mediation (VOM) programme. Depending
on police district and individual police officers, my data point
to large variations in practice in the programme’s routines of informing
potential parties about VOM. The article’s analytical points of departure
are research on police discretion – in Scandinavian police research
known as the police gaze – as well as the Goffmanian framework of
roleplay and stigma. On this basis, I look into how the police gaze
interacts with ideals of impartial mediation in the screening of
cases for the programme. My data indicate that both conscious and
unconscious casting practices influence which potential VOM parties
are informed about the possibility of VOM. In this regard, the police
perception of and access to data on an offender can be decisive.
The Norwegian Mediation Service is included as a source of comparison
with more impartial inclinations.
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