Doing Unto Others - Disputes and Dispute Processing in an Urban American Neighborhood (From Neighborhood Justice, P 78-90, 1982, by Roman Tomasic et al - See NCJ-83472)

• NCJ Number: 83474
• Author(s): S R Thomas-Buckle; L G Buckle
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 13 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: German Marshall Fund of the US
• Sale Source: Longman Inc
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Although an analysis of dispute processing in Johnson Square indicated a preference for 'self-help' approaches, if the neighborhood-justice-center concept could be modified to fit existing patterns of disputing and resident values, it might represent an improvement in the nonjudicial processing of disputes.

Abstract

Johnson Square is a three-block area in a municipality of 100,000 located in a large Eastern metropolitan area. The Square has few institutions, such as governmental agencies, churches, or community groups, which might serve as important dispute processors. The Square is compact, racially and ethnically diverse, and composed of middle-class and working-class families. Interviews with residents yielded accounts of troubles and strategies for dealing with them that expressed common themes. First, entitlement to services is a strong principle in the neighborhood, and this feeling includes the right to have redress for grievances. Second, self-reliance in the handling of grievances is an important theme which appears to carry with it the belief that residents should initiate and control the process of resolving disputes, though they may turn to others (including those from whom they are entitled to receive services) for assistance. Finally, there is a strong sense that there is a proper order to follow in the pursuit of redress for troubles, moving from use of self-help to invocation of official intervention. In practice, most residents approach their troubles either by handling the dispute alone, by mobilizing networks of friends and neighbors, calling on city services, or in some instances turning to a 'neighborhood notable.' While neighborhood justice centers would not appear to fit naturally into the existing patterns for dispute resolution, it is possible that it could become of value if residents could see it as a means of approaching disputes when self-help efforts are frustrated and when the conflict is with an identifiable party. Six notes are listed.