Description
Abstract
This article investigates how mediators in Hong Kong’s victim–offender mediation (VOM) pre-meetings contribute to moral regulation and the reproduction of social order within a Confucian cultural context. Drawing on Goffman’s dramaturgical perspective, Durkheim’s concept of justice ritual, Foucault’s notion of governmentality, and Freud’s account of internalised social control, the study analyses how mediators prepare victims, offenders, and parents for restorative encounters. Using qualitative interviews with 22 social workers from two church-based non-governmental organisations delivering VOM under the Police Superintendents’ Discretion Scheme, the article demonstrates that pre-mediation operates as a backstage arena in which narratives, emotional expressions, and role performances are carefully rehearsed. Confucian values, particularly filial piety and respect for authority, shape mediators’ practices as they seek to reconcile hierarchical family relations with restorative justice principles of participation and dialogue. The findings indicate that through techniques such as emotional coaching, role clarification, and the managed disclosure of information, mediators both facilitate social reintegration and foster theinternalisation of shared moral norms. The article argues that restorative justice in Hong Kong functions simultaneously as a ritual of repair and as a subtle modality of governance that produces responsible, selfregulating subjects in a hybrid Chinese–Western legal and cultural environment.
Keywords: Confucianism, filial piety, governmentality, justice rituals, victim-offender mediation
