By the early 1980's in England, there was a small and increasingly vocal body of interested persons and organizations that promoted action research programs in reparation and mediation in both community and court settings. Some had visited programs in the United States, exchanged ideas prior to their publication in articles and books, shared platforms at conferences, or belonged to a common interest group. The debate on the relationship between a victim's need and an offender's accountability was further strengthened at the local level by legislative and social factors, including the 1982 Criminal Justice Act, which enabled courts to impose a compensation order for crime victims as a sentence in its own right. Programs include the Coventry reparation scheme begun in 1983, the Wolverhamptom victim/offender reparation project begun in 1985, and the Sandwell mediation and reparation scheme begun in 1984. The chapter concludes by identifying some of the problems confronted by the programs and the issues that must be addressed in the future. 21 references.