Review by Choice Review
Criminal mediation is a catch-all term that has been applied to a variety of reform programs with goals ranging from compensating crime victims to rehabilitating criminals to reconciling victims and offenders. Although mediation of civil disputes has become a growth industry over the past decade, extending the concept into the criminal field has proved more problematic. This first-of-its-kind collection by a group of well-known scholars and practitioners helps explain why this is so. A basic dilemma--thus far unsolved--is that mediation programs operating within the justice system risk losing their nonadjudicative, voluntary character, while those outside are often without clients for their services. Some of the authors ask whether such programs meet either the therapeutic needs of victims or the due process interests of the accused, while others defend criminal mediation on both grounds. The most fundamental question (on which the contributors also differ) is whether Western values can accomodate a nonretributive model of justice. By addressing both practical and theoretical issues from a variety of perspectives, this volume makes a real contribution to the analysis of criminal justice reform. For upper-level students and faculty members. R. J. Maiman University of Southern Maine
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
