A MODEL FOR TELEPHONE MEDIATION

A unique mediation service using the telephone to help parents resolve conflicts over visitation ("access") is described. The program presented special advantages of low cost and high responsiveness to parents and their children and was designed to particularly benefit families that lacked the mobility or financial resources to participate in traditional face-to-face mediation. Because the service featured highly educated and experienced mediators and a child-focused, principle-based mediation approach, family members received reframing, refocusing, informative, and empathic assistance in understanding and dealing with their parenting disputes. Some 700 families and nearly 900 mediation cases were handled during the service's 19 months of operation, and some features of the families and the cases are described. Recommendations and directions for future research are included.     

The New Research on Civil Wars: Does It Help Us Understand the Colombian Conflict?

The article synthesizes contributions from the recent comparative research on civil war and the case‐specific literature on Colombia to argue that too often, commentators on this conflict overlook some of its key dimensions. A comprehensive analysis shows that no fewer than six factors are fueling violent conflict in Colombia: economic forces, state weakness, landscape, U.S. policies, long‐duration and spin‐off violence, and malicious opportunism by non‐combatants. The first three are the ones that matter most. The case made here is that when analysts disregard the range and interrelat‐edness of the factors involved, the result is a distortion of reality and a tendency to support policies that will not enhance the prospects for peace.     

Perceptions of global inequality: a call for research

In light of media attention to and growing public awareness of the globalizing economy, a case for the expanded empirical investigation of public perceptions of international income distribution and inequality is presented. Theoretical issues to be illuminated by such studies are considered; exploratory qualitative data are provided to illustrate the rich potential of such research; and a variety of issues that must be addressed when conducting future research in this area are reviewed.     

Duress and criminal responsibility

While the plea of duress is generally accepted as a defense against criminal prosecution, the reasons why it exonerates are subject to dispute and disagreement. Duress is not easily recognizable as either an excusing or justifying condition. Additionally, duress is generally not permitted as a defense against criminal homicide, though some American jurisdictions allow the defense in felony-murder cases. In this paper, I present an argument for how and why the presence of duress can defeat a finding of criminal responsibility. This is intended to establish the philosophical foundation for the legal acceptability of the duress defense, even though I conclude that the defense does not qualify as either an excuse or a justification. I also argue that the duress defense should be allowed in cases of homicide.     

WOMEN'S AND MEN'S VIEWS OF MEDIATION IN VOLUNTARY AND MANDATORY MEDIATION SETTINGS

This article reports findings regarding women in mediation from a combined group of 184 persons who received mediation services from the Alameda County Superior Court Family Court Services or the Northern California Mediation Center. This empirical study refutes many of the criticisms of mediation by some feminist critics of the process.