The Early History: Overview of Mediation
Mediation in one form or another has been practiced for many centuries.
Cultures throughout the ancient world practiced traditional means of peacemaking, some of which are resurfacing today. Examples include the Arabic practice of sulha mediation, the Navajo practice of restorative justice known as hozhooji naat'aanii, and a variety of reconciliation rituals practiced throughout Africa. In many cultures, a respected elder played the role of the mediator, encouraging disputing neighbors or families to resolve their differences for the good of the community. The ancient Greeks and Romans utilized a judicial mediation system that can best be described as a blend of mediation and arbitration.
During
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Department of Justice supported by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 established the Community Relations Services (CRS) to resolve disputes related to discriminatory practices. In addition the U.S. Department of Justice and the American Arbitration Association (AAA) collaborated to establish the National Center for Dispute Settlement in Washington D.C. Thus was born the concept of community mediation using the basic principles of labor Negotiation, Mediation and the science of Human Development. The concept was born out of the need for a process that encouraged social justice and supported parties’ empowerment, recognition and self-determination. The orientation of the mediation process had a heavy underpinning that was based on providing parties the opportunity to change their interaction, to be held accountable for their behavior and to build/re-build relationships if they so choose.
A pivotal point in the evolution of community mediation and the expansion of mediation and ADR in general was the Pound Conference held in 1976. The Pound Conference -- formally known as the National Conference on the Causes of Popular Dissatisfaction with the Administration of Justice -- took place April 7-9, 1976 in Minneapolis, Minn. The event was a meeting of some 200 judges, legal scholars, and leaders of the bar who had gathered to examine concerns about the efficiency and fairness of court systems and their
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The concept reveals the transformative potential of mediation, showing what that potential is, why it is important, and how it can be realized in practice.
The late 1990’s was exciting and brought a new wave of interest to the field as the use of facilitative and transformative mediation moved into the workplace, mental health, agricultural community, foster care and adoption, and police community disputes.
2000’s
The thrust to expand mediation processes and skills within American schools became the theme for the next millennium. The ADR field, led by community mediation centers and other conflict resolution agencies and organizations, collectively committed to promoting and providing comprehensive youth initiatives that included conflict resolution education, peer mediation and peaceable schools programs to address the growing school violence. Report after report from the US Department of Education and US Department of Justice on school violence noted the importance of teaching students conflict management skills; teaching students how to resolve disputes peacefully; and peace
Results from the interviewing the justice members and the community stakeholder showed positive responses. Several showed a concern with the process being lengthy, not offering good enough treatments for the mental health, no help with financial issues and lack of communication between criminal and domestic violence courts which can affect the decision and be a risk to a victim. One positive outcome that has been proven by domestic violence courts is having a peace bond. There is a decrease in the number of trials showing that accused are willing to take advantage of the treatments they are being offered
The balanced and restorative approach provides a significant change in toles and image of the juvenile justice system from a revolving door to a resource. The resource makes juvenile offenders accountable and enhances the quality of life within communities by community restoration using preventive services to help improve the safety of the community. 2-Compare and contrast the different types of restorative justice (i.e., VOM, FGC, NRB, peacemaking/sentencing circles)
The Youth and School Resource Officers School Resource Officers (SROs) are sworn police officers trained to serve and protect the community. As such, they have a duty to serve and protect schools within their jurisdiction as part of a total community-policing strategy. Research has shown that the youth with healthy relationships and “protective factors” have a reduced chance of becoming involved in serious delinquency. These “protective factors” include adding school resource officers to school campuses with the growing number of at-risk students. It is important for schools to have SROs because the SRO’s role on school campus is keeping students safe and supporting the education mission not only as law enforcement officer but also as a teacher and a counselor.
It is important to keep the groups small for mediation because smaller groups are more likely to be successful in mediation talks (Klerman and Klerman 692). While reducing the number of people at the table inevitably reduces the amount of voices that can be represented, the committees will still be large enough as to not marginalize significant voices. Each mediation must also have somebody controlling the discussion. In this instance, legislators in Florida will pass a bill allocating $200,000 to pay for professional mediators from the United States Department of Justice directing the discussion. A professional mediator can analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each case before setting expectations for the results (Klerman and Klerman 691).
(n.d.). Retrieved May 19, 2017, from https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/411/778 Latessa, E. J., & Smith, P. (2015). Corrections in the Community (5th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 92 S.Ct.
Alex Frost Values: Law & Society 9/23/2014 The Hollow Hope Introduction and Chapter 1 Gerald Rosenberg begins his book by posing the questions he will attempt to answer for the reader throughout the rest of the text: Under what conditions do courts produce political and social change? And how effective have the courts been in producing social change under such past decisions as Roe v. Wade and Brown v. Board of Education? He then works to define some of the principles and view points 'currently' held about the US Supreme court system.
Courts prove unsuccessful in achieving social change due to the constraints on the court’s power. Rosenburg’s assessment that courts are “an institution that is structurally challenged” demonstrates the Constrained Court view. In this view, the Court’s lack of judicial independence, inability to implement policies, and the limited nature of constitutional rights inhibit courts from producing real social reform. For activists to bring a claim to court, they must frame their goal as a right guaranteed by the constitution, leading to the courts hearing less cases (Rosenburg 11). The nature of the three branches also creates a system of checks and balances in which Congress or the executive branch can reverse a controversial decision, rendering the Court’s impact void.
Also, some critics of specialized courts are in favor of traditional adjudication and prefer to go “back to basics” even though evidence shows that specialized courts are effective in their goals in the criminal justice system. Upon an evaluation of the benefits that specialized courts has on a community by way of promoting positive change in individuals to better themselves and the community as a whole, it is recommended that the court administrator move forward with efforts to create specialized courts and support ongoing funding to sustain these types of problem solving
Conflict resolution as a field of study as indicated has formed hypothetical bits of knowledge into the nature and source of conflict and how conflicts can be resolved through peaceful systems to effectuate a dependable settlement. Morton Deutsch, was the first to form and understanding into the helpful results of collaboration as a scholastic enquiry. In his view, various variables like the way of the debate and the objectives every group in a conflict goes for are crucial in deciding the sort of introduction a group would convey to the negotiation table in its endeavor to unravel the conflict (Morton Deucth, 1985, p.24). To him, two essential orientations do exist. These are competitive and cooperative.
Sandel, Michael J. (2009). Justice: What’s the right thing to do? New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Introduction & Background Information In the book, Justice:
Youth violence in America Kimberly Grooms Liberty University February 3, 2018 Topic Sentence There has been rampant violence among the young men and women across all states in USA Thesis statement The increase in the violence among the youths has been associated with several changes in the social and the political formations. The formations encourage the youths to take strong stands against issues they do not love especially if they feel that they are victimized. Urgent actions should be taken to avert the rising crisis and enhance sanity amongst the youths.
Overall, I recognized that mediation is a much better choice than adjudication (Bishop, p. 38). Mediation not only restores relationships but it settles disputes and facilitates understanding, learning and growth (Bishop, p. 6). Additionally, the in class mediation made me realize that mediation is not linear. In a mediation, the mediator has to constantly adapt in order to move the parties closer to a solution. Furthermore, through the four in class mediations I realized that mediation could be applied to a wide variety of scenarios.
These skills are very important in solving the future problems. School is a place that can hold a lot of tension and pressures for kids of all ages. It is also one of the first places (after the home) where a child begins learning how to interact with peers. This can, of course, lead to many conflicts. In order to help students not turn into bullies or become paralyzed with shyness, teaching methods of conflict resolution is a great tool.
Mediation is their practice of focusing and letting go of worldly problems. However Hinduism incorporates the practice of Yoga into their mediation to focus on realms of the universe. Buddhism uses mediation to focus and reach enlightenment or Nirvana. Mediation is similar to Christianity's idea of prayer, to take time away from the world and focus on our religions
It is a particular type of third party involvement. The literature review explains the lack of agreement about the description of mediation, though Bercovitch explained an appropriate description. He explained mediation as a system of conflict management, linked to but particular from the parties' own attempts, where the conflicting parties or their representatives look the support, or accept an offer of support, from a person, group, organisation or state to modify, impact or impact their behaviour or perceptions, without resorting to physical force or appealing the legal authority”