California Program Showcase

Superior Court of San Mateo County Collaborates with the Community to Respond to Juvenile Crime (November 17, 2006)

Juvenile crime impacts the entire community. An effective response requires a collaborative effort between the courts, community agencies, community members, and law enforcement to have a positive impact on reducing crime, increasing community safety, and restoring all parties impacted by the crime.

The Superior Court of San Mateo County’s Juvenile Mediation Program offers a mediation service for juvenile offenders and those victimized by their behavior. This unique and highly successful program started in 2001. It is a partnership between the court and the Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center, a non profit mediation center.

The program utilizes community volunteers trained to mediate between youth offenders and their victims, as well as to mediate between youth on probation and their parents.

The program model is based upon the principles of “restorative justice.” This offers parties a voluntary, safe, and confidential opportunity to meet face to face in the presence of trained mediators to identify and discuss the harm resulting from the youth’s criminal or disruptive behavior.

Parties have an opportunity to talk about the crime, to ask and answer questions about the crime and its impact on all parties, to express their concerns, and to talk about what needs to happen to make things better.

The offender is humanized for the victim and the victim’s fear of being revictimized by the offender is reduced. Often the mediation is the first opportunity for the offender to express remorse and take responsibility for his or her actions.

All parties have an active role in developing a plan/agreement for the offender to take responsibility for his or her behavior and to be accountable to the others affected by the crime. Parties jointly work to develop a plan to repair the harm and to restore the victim and the community.

The Juvenile Mediation Program utilizes a comediator facilitative model through which the mediators help participants explore and negotiate their own solutions but do not give legal advice or make decisions. The mediation is provided at no cost to the parties.

The program does extensive premediation case development work, discussing matters with the parties and then evaluating the appropriateness of each referral. After this close assessment, mediation may be available to parties impacted by a variety of crimes including assault, theft, arson, burglary, and vandalism.

Referrals are received at all stages of the juvenile justice system: from disruptive behavior and bullying in schools, initial police contacts, police and community diversion programs and informal probation through pre- and postdisposition. Referrals can be made by school officials, law enforcement, nonprofit agencies providing diversion services, the judiciary and probation, and victims or offenders can self-refer.

The program has also joined in a collaborative effort to develop and implement a Victim Impact Awareness (VIA) program. The VIA program provides a seven-to-eight-week curriculum that includes participatory exercises and victim speakers that teach high-risk youth offenders about the impact of crime on victims.

To graduate from the class, participants are required to contact the mediation program to determine whether they are willing to meet with their victims through mediation. The class exposes the youth to how victims of crime are impacted and helps to prepare them for speaking with their victims.

For cases in which a victim chooses not to meet with the offender, the class provides an opportunity for the youth to hear from other victims about their experiences. The class also provides a forum for victims to speak about their experiences, regardless of whether they choose to meet with their offenders.

For more information about the San Mateo Juvenile Mediation Program, please log on to the court’s Web site at www.sanmateocourt.org and go to the Delinquency section of the ADR (Appropriate Dispute Resolution) department, or call David Cherniss, the Juvenile Mediation Program Manager, at 650-312-5269.