NCJ Number
92463
Date Published
1983
Length
84 pages
Annotation
This evaluation of the Children's Aid Society's PINS Mediation Project concludes that community-based mediation does work with the status offender population and provides a good alternative to the Family Court by improving communication, alleviating crisis, and allowing for the resolution of family conflicts outside the adversarial court system.
Abstract
The research asked several questions of the participating families 2 months after their last mediation session. Did the petitioner (usually the parent) think that mediation had been helpful? Was the child now more manageable? Were the presenting problems resolved? The research also considered whether the family completed mediation, attending all sessions scheduled for them, and whether the child did not return to the Family Court on a new PINS charge. Positive results for each family for each of the five factors were added together and analyzed on a scale from zero to five. Results showed that the vast majority of the families who participated in mediation -- 77.3 percent -- were moderately or highly successful. It is concluded that legislative change should be proposed to provide mediation as a first step in a mandatory diversion arrangement for families with serious parent-child conflicts. Charts and data tables are provided. Additional study data are appended.