Police and Mediation: Natural, Unimaginable or Both

• In Event: Police Action and Response to Crime

Abstract

The use of mediation in the police context is at best challenging and raises fundamental questions about this process since policing occurs in the shadow of the legal and potentially coercive systems. While it has been used as a process since the beginning of civilization, and in some form, police have always played the role of mediator, widespread interest, popularity, traction and institutionalization of mediation in the larger society have been occurring only since the 1970s. The growth of community policing and more polite policing provide more deliberate opportunities for considering processes like mediation where officers assist parties to have difficult conversations and empower them to problem solve. This presentation will address the use of mediation by police which, depending on circumstances, can be seen as natural, unimaginable or both depending on the context.

Author

• Maria R. Volpe, John Jay College of Criminal Justice