The Brooklyn mediation field test |
| |
Authors: | Robert C Davis |
| |
Institution: | (1) RAND Corporation, 1200 South Hayes Street, Arlington, VA 22202, USA |
| |
Abstract: | This paper describes an experiment in which 465 felony arrest cases in Kings County, NY, USA, were, randomly, either filed
in court and prosecuted or sent to a dispute resolution center for adjudication. The cases all involved persons who were acquainted,
and nearly half were either intimate partners or in other immediate family relationships. The results indicated that the mediation
process was perceived more positively by complainants than was prosecution and that going through mediation enhances complainants’
perceptions of their relationships with defendants to a greater degree than going through the court process. However, there
was no evidence that mediation was no more effective than prosecution in preventing recidivism. Not surprisingly, in cases
involving intimate partners or immediate family members, the offenders were most likely to experience continuing problems
whether they were sent to mediation or were prosecuted. One of the values of this study is that, in the late 1970s, when this
research was conducted, mediation was considered by many to be a legitimate alternative to prosecution in family violence
cases, including cases arising from intimate partner violence. The data that we collected would be difficult to replicate
in today’s political climate. While our study did not find that mediation reduced the odds of recidivism in these cases, neither
did we find that mediation made victims less safe. Thus, it partially supports the sentiments of researchers such as Braithwaite
and Strang (Restorative justice and family violence. In Strang H, Braithwaite J (eds) Restorative justices and family violence.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp 1−22; 2002), who argue that—given the evidence for success of restorative justice in reducing re-offending in cases other than family
violence—it is worth testing whether similar beneficial effects could be found in applying restorative justice approaches
to family violence cases.
Rob Davis
is Senior Research Analyst for the Rand Corporation. He has directed more than 35 projects on victimization, domestic violence,
policing, crime prevention, immigrations, courts, prosecution, and parole reentry for federal and state governments, and private
foundations. A distinguishing feature of his career is that he has conducted 11 randomized experiments on criminal justice
interventions from batterer intervention programs to prisoner reentry initiatives. His current work includes projects on reducing
repeat victimization, victims’ rights, measuring police performance, and the role of police in peacekeeping operations. He
is the author of two books on crime prevention, editor of five books on crime prevention and victimization, and author of
more than 100 journal articles and book chapters. |
| |
Keywords: | Mediation Restorative justice |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|