This article aims to provide a general overview of victim-offender mediation with young offenders in Europe by focusing on organizational and practical features in the following nations: Austria, Belgium, England and Wales, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the Netherlands. This overview may be useful as European Union (EU) member States are not only requested by the Council of Europe to promote victim-offender mediation (Recommendation No. R(99)19), but were specifically urged by the EU Council to amend their legislation for this purpose by March 2006 (Framework Decision of March 15, 2001, arts. 10, 17).

Comparative information presented here deals with: concepts and regulations; the relationship between victim-offender mediation and the prosecution/court system; the organization of mediation services (including: distribution of the operative units, their funding and professional characteristics of mediators, contexts in which victim-offender mediation is applied), victim-offender mediation practices and coordination of mediation activities.