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Community mediation, criminal justice, and restorative justice: rearranging the institutions of law

Blad, John
June 4, 2015

Source: (2003) In, Lode Walgrave, ed., Repositioning Restorative Justice. Devon: Willan Publishing. Pp. 191-207.

According to John Blad, community mediation projects have been initiated in an increasing number of Dutch towns and cities in the last decade. The model for many of the projects consisted in the San Francisco (United States) Community Boards. As Blad remarks, offering a safe and easily accessible service to citizens who feel victimized to help them deal with their victimization in a constructive way is a basic procedure in restorative justice. How then does mediation relate to the criminal justice system in the Netherlands? To answer, Blad discusses principles of mediation and the criminal justice system in the Netherlands, competition between mediation and the criminal justice system, and a proposed strategy for implementing restorative justice as an alternative to the criminal justice system.

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