NCJ Number
142804
Journal
Law and Human Behavior Volume: 17 Issue: 3 Dated: (June 1993) Pages: 313-330
Date Published
1993
Length
18 pages
Annotation
Using a sample of 73 cases that were mediated at the Dispute Settlement Center in Buffalo, New York, this study examined the antecedents of long-term success in community mediation. Two classes of possible antecedents were discussed, including features of the agreement and features of the process.
Abstract
All cases involved only one mediation session, lasting about 75 minutes. The observers then conducted an immediate postsession interview with each disputant as well as follow- up telephone interviews between 4 and 8 months after mediation. Measures related to short-term success (reaching agreement, immediate satisfaction, and goal achievement), clarity and feasibility, long-term success (compliance, long- term quality of the relationship, and development of new problems), procedural justice, mediator and disputant behavior, and miscellaneous items (joint problem solving, mediator empathy, prior escalation, and mediator orientation). The absence of a correlation between short-term and long-term success indicated that agreements that achieved disputant goals were no more effective in the long run than those that did not. Furthermore, agreement clarity and feasibility did not predict long-term success. The results instead showed that the process of mediation is more critical to long-term success; joint problem solving, procedural justice, and no development of new problems were better predictors of success. 4 tables and 37 references