FGC seems to be a natural expansion of the dominant model of VOM currently used by most of the more than 300 programs in North America and an even larger number of programs in Europe. Like VOM, FGC provides victims an opportunity to express the full impact of the crime upon their lives, to receive answers to any lingering questions about the incident, and to participate in holding the offender accountable for his or her actions.
Offenders can tell their story of why the crime occurred and how it has affected their lives.
FGC primarily works with juvenile offenders who have committed property crimes, but it has also been used with violent juvenile offenders and adult offenders. This is consistent with the experience of VOM in North America over the past 20 years. Although their roles include mediation, they are more broadly defined, combining mediation with other methods of interaction and allowing for more directed facilitation. By involving a broader range of people affected by the crime, far more citizens become direct stakeholders in the criminal and juvenile justice processes. The full impact of victimization is more likely to be addressed in FGC because both primary and secondary victims are invited to participate.