Source: (1989) In: M. Wright and B. Galaway (eds.), Mediation and Criminal Justice: Victims, Offenders and Community. London, UK: Sage Publications, pp. 239-250.
In this chapter, the author raises some important caveats for the mediation movement, bases on her research on mediation programs in the U.S. The discussion is focused on a family mediation program in Cambridge Massachusetts in 1980 which handled disputes between parents an their teenage children charged as status offenders. It is argued that the possibility of infringing the rights of weaker parties, the potential for manipulation by mediators, the existence of subtle forms of coercion, the effects of incorporation within institutions, and the possibility of an extension of
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