The Three Dimensions of Victims’ Needs: The Key Message from Paul Kohler MP
This is a blog by our Volunteer, Printorn Kordumrong.
“Why me?” was the question that drew Paul Kohler MP to Restorative Justice after he and his family were attacked in their home. It was a question that embodied Paul’s need to understand why the people who beat him and traumatised his family did what they did. This question lingered with Paul even after the court case when the attackers were sentenced, making Paul feel like he needed answers.
On the 16th January 2026, Paul was interviewed about his experience of the attack and the Restorative Justice process he experienced with his attacker, facilitated by Why me?. What Paul observed was that while the answer to that question was what he needed, what Paul’s wife Samantha and his daughter Eloise needed were completely different. This is the story of how Restorative Justice addressed the three dimensions of their needs, and how one of those dimensions became important in Paul and his family’s Restorative Justice session.
The Three Dimensions
The first dimension is the past: The need for an explanation of the attacker’s past action to understand “Why me?”. Paul recalled how “I was expecting to find out why they’d done it” as a way to gain closure and move on with his life. It is a question that many victims of crime have asked and have received the answers to, however in Paul’s case he was unable to gain any clear understanding of the reason for the attacker’s actions other than it was a drug debt and a case of the wrong address.
The second dimension is the present: The need to express to the attacker how their actions had made the victims feel in that moment. Paul emphasised how Samantha needed to “tell the attackers what they had done to her…and how angry she felt about it”. Samantha was given the opportunity to express how she felt, however the attacker stopped her to say that he knew what she felt and apologized for his actions.
The third dimension is the future: The need to understand how the past and present would inform the attacker’s future actions. Paul’s daughter Eloise needed to know “how the attacker was going to change his life”. Although Paul and Samantha initially found this question to be “naive”, he later realized that “the only way to judge authenticity of his apology was to test whether or not he actually had plans to change his life”. Within the session, Paul found that the attacker’s sincere apology supported by his earnest plan to improve his life was what led Paul to be able to forgive the attacker; making the future dimension the most relevant to their Restorative Justice session.
Thinking Three Dimensionally
Paul’s experience introduces an intriguing method to categorise victims’ needs into past, present and future. Although being informed about the offender’s desired future is what many victims undertaking Restorative Justice find to be the most transformative, the ability to understand the actions of the past and to express the feelings of the present are also key to the victims’ process of moving on. Paul and his family’s experience demonstrates that, although it is not a guarantee that all three dimensions can be satisfied in Restorative Justice, these dimensions should all be addressed to help victims process the harm caused.
Ultimately, what these three dimensions have in common is the victims’ need to have agency in the process of dealing with the harm that was inflicted upon them. Paul maintained that Restorative Justice gave him and his family a platform to have control over their story and the process in which the harm they felt could be addressed; essentially “putting the victims at the heart of the process”.
In summary, the three dimensions of Paul and his family’s needs convey that Restorative Justice should be exactly that: three dimensional. Although victims’ needs can be broadly categorized, Restorative Justice programs are designed to be highly individualised where the victims’ needs are at the centre and the process is designed with those needs in mind. The goal of Restorative Justice is for victims to have agency; so that Paul, his family and all the
people who have been victimised can confidently say that “We were part of the process”.
