NCJ Number
99589
Journal
Conciliation Courts Review Volume: 21 Issue: 1 Dated: (June 1983) Pages: 25-36
Date Published
1983
Length
12 pages
Annotation
The use of mediation in divorce cases is examined from the standpoint of the forces leading to its increasing use and the current needs relating to making divorce mediation an identifiable profession.
Abstract
Lawyers and mental health professionals have found themselves in the position of increasing their divorcing clients' conflicts, because neither profession is equipped to deal with all the needs and traumas involved. Widespread agreement exists regarding the need to make dispute resolution procedures more humane and to give those in conflict the responsibility for resolving their problems. Mediation appeals to basic senses of fairness, equity, decency, and even genorosity. However, mediation currently is not a distinct profession. Its practitioners have mostly been trained for and work in other professions. Yet family law, family therapy, and divorce mediation differ substantially in their basic professional assumptions, the clients served, the usual professional objectives, the professional strategies involved, and the general professional orientation. In the long run, professional graduate education programs are needed to develop mediators. In the interim, existing courses and programs can meet the need. Knowledge and skills are needed in three areas: family law and finance, human development and family relations, and conflict resolution. Those interested in divorce and family mediation must reach out to others in a variety of professions and use meetings and professional journals to expand their views, working together to develop effective family mediation. Charts, a checklist of knowledge and skills essential to divorce mediation, and 20 references are supplied.