Over the years, the traditional criminal justice system has emphasized the responsibility of offenders through punishment and stigmatization. The emphasis on retributive philosophy has made it difficult for the system to meaningfully assist and empower victims of crime. In the criminal justice system, victims often experience callous treatment with little or no opportunity to contribute to the prosecution of their case and report feeling voiceless in the process used (Choi, Gilbert, & Green, 2013:114). Victims, advocates, and practitioners have called for an expansion of victims' rights and community-based alternatives rather than punishment-oriented justice policies. What victims want from the criminal justice system is a less formal process, more information about case processing, respectful treatment and emotional recovery. Therefore, there is a growing need to progress towards the restorative justice (RJ) system. According to the RJ perspective, a crime is considered a conflict between individuals that causes harm to victims, communities and perpetrators, and therefore these parties are also involved in responding to it. One of the prevalent programs of the RJ system is the Victim-Offender Mediation (VOM) program. The VOM program is a process that offers affected victims the opportunity to meet the offender, in a safe and structured environment, with the aim of holding the offender directly accountable for their behavior while providing assistance and compensation to victims; mediators do not impose agreements. Over the years, the VOM program has proven to be beneficial to both the victim and the offender. Although the VOM program is extremely beneficial, it has its drawbacks. The crucial part of the VOM program is participation;...... half of the document ......l (Choi, Gilbert, & Green, 2013:129). Maximizing the sensitivity of RJ professionals to victims and offenders would involve carefully crafted mediation, a basis for realizing the promises of RJ.Works CitedAmstutz, LS (1999). Training problems in victim-offender mediation. Journal of Correctional Education, 50(2), 68-71Choi, J., Gilbert, M., & Green, D. (2013). Models of victim marginalization in victim-offender mediation: some lessons learned. Crime, Law and Social Change, 59(1), 113-132Gerkin, P. (2009). Participation in victim-offender mediation. Criminal Justice Review, 34(2), 226-247. Presser, L., & Hamilton, C. A. (2006). The micropolitics of victim-offender mediation. Sociological Inquiry, 76(3), 316-342.Reimund, M.E. (2004). Confidentiality in crime victim mediation: a false promise. Journal of Dispute Resolution, 401-427.