Individual Project

Umbreit and Bradshaw (2003) conducted this study because there was need for the evaluation of victim satisfaction, so as to provide input into the restorative justice process for victims. The information collected about victim satisfaction provides feedback about program services, able to identify bottlenecks in the programme and provide information that helps to increase knowledge about the process of mediated dialogue aiming at victim services. The VSODS aims to measure victim satisfaction with offender dialogue through psychometric development of an instrument. The VSODS consists of 11 questions about various aspects of satisfaction of victims on a four point scale.

In this study the data were collected from 197 subjects from 4 victim offender mediation program sites in the United States about their satisfaction and their demographic data. The data were summarized using the descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation and analyzed using principal components factor analyses.

Scoring of the VSODS is done by simply adding the scores of each item on the scale. Scale scores range from 11-44 with higher numbers indicating higher levels of victim satisfaction. In general, scores between 11 and 19 indicate dissatisfaction with services. Scores from 20-27 indicate mixed levels of dissatisfaction and satisfaction. Scores from 28-36 indicate satisfaction with services. Scores from 37-44 indicate high levels of satisfaction with services.

The average VSODS score for the total sample as 32.74 (SD = 4.6). This indicates that on the whole victims were generally satisfied with the mediated dialogue services they received. The average VSODS score ranged from 31.34 to 33.29 for the four selected sites.

The authors also said it can be used to explore differences in victim satisfaction for different groups of clients (e.g. African-American, Hispanic, Caucasian; male/female; mandatory offender participation/voluntary offender participation) by framing the null hypothesis (Ho) that the mean VSOD score is similar for male and female victims and Alternative hypothesis (H1): the mean VSOD score is different for male and female victims. The authors concluded that results of this study show that the VSODS is a useful measure of general satisfaction with victim-offender mediated dialogue services and provides a standardized measure to assess victim satisfaction in victim-offender mediated dialogue and family group conferencing programs.

Is there any difference in Criminal justice satisfaction scores between the two type's offenses; mainly homicide and robbery offenders? The research question in this part of the paper is answered by framing the research hypothesis based on two populations: homicide and robbery offenders from a data set of criminal justice satisfaction survey conducted by American Intellectual Union (2004). In this study the purpose of testing of hypothesis is to help administrators and policy planners to give evidence about larger population group based on random samples.

State verbal and numerical hypothesis

A statistical hypothesis is a statement about one or more population related to statistical parameters like mean or proportion. In hypothesis testing we aim at rejecting or not rejecting null hypothesis based on the random sample data. Thus in this study a hypothesis is formulated regarding the criminal justice satisfaction score between the two types of offenders.

The hypothesis is tested based on the following two population groups as under:

Population 1: Homicide offenders

Population 2: Robbery Offenders

Hypothesis statement:

The criminal justice satisfaction score of homicide offenders is different from robbery offenders. In terms of numeric hypothesis it is stated as the mean criminal justice satisfaction score of homicide offenders is different from robbery offenders.

Let μ1 = Population mean criminal justice satisfaction score of homicide offenders

μ2 = Population mean criminal justice satisfaction score of robbery offenders

The above research hypothesis was tested using the five step hypothesis test (Aron, Aron, & Coups, 2009) based on AIU survey data set consisted of 25 offenders. This data set includes 9 homicide offenders and 7 robbery offenders. The data consisted of variables such as gender, type of crime, age group, length of sentence, satisfaction score regarding criminal justice system, legal services, and