Juvenile Mediation Cases

In “Juvenile Mediation Cuts Repeat Offenses”, associate Professor Donna Decker at the University of New Haven contends that if a juvenile faces the consequences of their actions, they are less likely to commit another crime. She stated that the juveniles did not realize that their actions could result in consequences thus making it much easier to commit crimes. In an effort to support this statement, Morris conducted a study on the juvenile offenders in Bridgeport. “She utilized the results from mediations conducted by the Dispute Settlement Center between 2005 and 2006” (Cuda, 2010). The program which started in the year 2005 allows juvenile offenders to get their case dropped, but they must face the consequences of their actions by engaging in conversation with the victim. During this conversation, the juvenile offender is to admit their wrongdoings. Most offenses that come through mediation centers are misdemeanor offenses. Those offenses could range from petty theft to assaults. After further research, Professor Donna Decker does present facts to support her argument. As a result of her findings, Professor Decker learned that before the mediation program with the

Although, juvenile mediation is not very popular in the United States, it is very popular in European countries. There are over 1,000 juvenile mediation programs worldwide today. The primary goal of these juvenile mediation programs is to ensure that juvenile offenders do not continue being offenders in adulthood. Their secondary goal is to also help the victim gain clarity of why the offender did what they did. In the case of juvenile mediation, it is deemed necessary for restorative justice. The role of the mediator in these programs is to see that nothing goes wrong while the victim and offender engage in conversation. They are put in place to make sure both parties who are mediating are