NCJ Number
84360
Date Published
1980
Length
37 pages
Annotation
This series of articles explains the nature and benefit of dispute resolution through mediation and describes and assesses several mediation programs.
Abstract
Mediation programs use an independent third party or panel to listen to all sides of the conflict and help the participants reach a satisfactory solution. The mediator does not impose a solution. Mediation is useful for problems involving families, adolescents, couples, school incidents, tenants and landlords, employees and employers, merchants and consumers, dogs, and neighborhood misdemeanors. The three kinds of dispute resolution programs are those involved with the justice system, those established by agencies, and those run by the community or neighborhood served. Referrals can come from the participants, the police, the court, local prosecutors, social and community welfare agencies, churches, community clubs, and neighbors. Program staff usually meet with the disputants individually to see whether a settlement can be reached without a hearing and whether the dispute is appropriate for the program. Mediation hearings are informal and often take place in the evening. The resolution is developed, written, and signed by the disputants. Mediators are rarely lawyers. Among criticisms of mediation are that low-income disputants are at a disadvantage and that settlements may be subtly imposed rather than agreed upon. Among mediation programs described are the Dorchester Court (Massachusetts), neighborhood justice centers; the Neighborhood Mediation Project in Portland, Oreg; and the San Francisco Community Board Program (California). Forms from the San Francisco program, addresses of dispute resolution programs, and a discussion of the use of volunteers in mediation programs are provided.