|
in England.
Participants in the study were from the Coventry Reparation Scheme and the Leeds Mediation and Reparation Service. A total of 123 interviews were conducted, involving 70 victims and 53 offenders. 34 interviews were made in Coventry and 89 in Leeds. Coventry and Leeds as well as most other victim offender mediation services in England have, over a decade of experience, evolved to a practice where the majority of mediations are indirect. This is in contrast to North America where mediation is predominantly direct or face-to-face. Therefore, this difference was incorporated into the research design. Also, the use of a comparison group was considered critical. Thus, three groups were obtained for a comparative study approach: · Those who went through a direct mediation experience. · Those who went through an indirect mediation experience · Those who were referred to mediation but did not go through mediation.
Phone and in-person interviews with victims and offenders were conducted following either direct or indirect mediation, or the disposal of a case by a prosecutor, court, or related agency. In addition, interviews with key criminal justice officials and organizations were conducted, along with extensive review of program data and materials. Also, case examples from both services of direct and indirect mediation, both usual and unusual types, were included.
Conclusions. A number of conclusions and implications emerged from this study. They must, however, be viewed as only suggestive and cannot be generalized to all victim offender mediation projects in England. Because of the limited resources available to conduct the study and, particularly, the quasi-experimental design and small sample sizes, this study was largely descriptive and exploratory in nature. Nonetheless, the following conclusions are offered.
Victims and offenders who participated in mediation at the Coventry and Leeds projects were more likely to have expressed satisfaction and a perception of fairness in the justice system's response to their case than victims and offenders who were referred to the projects but never participated in mediation.
Victims who participated in mediation at the combined sites were less fearful of being re-victimized by the same offender than similar victims who were referred to the project but did not participate in mediation. Victims in direct mediation were even less fearful of re-victimization than those in indirect mediation.
Direct face-to-face mediation is not very frequently practiced at the two projects. During 1993 only 16% of the total cases involved in mediation (direct and indirect) were involved in direct mediation. When compared to the total number of cases referred to both projects in 1993, only 7% participated in direct mediation.
Whether this low participation in direct mediation is related to what some would consider a more reserved and less expressive English culture is not clear. Some in England have suggested it has little to do with the culture and more likely is related to case management and preparation procedures that are probably too passive in terms of encouraging participation in direct mediation, while still honoring the individual's free choice. A number of other factors are also likely to be related to the low rate of direct mediation. These include: adult age of offenders (high rates of direct mediation in the U.S. are based largely upon juvenile programs); many cases involve parties with a prior relationship (most programs in the U.S. involve strangers); and, more serious cases entering the process at a post-sentence level (many of the programs in the U.S. that have been reported on in research accepted case referrals at a diversion level).
|
|
