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Norwegian Mediation Boards

NCJ Number
172651
Journal
European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research Volume: 4 Issue: 4 Dated: (1996) Pages: 86-94
Author(s)
J Dullum
Date Published
1996
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This article discusses mediation boards in Norway.
Abstract
The first Norwegian Mediation Board was established in 1981, a measure aimed at preventing juvenile delinquency. In 1991, the Mediation Boards Act made it mandatory for municipalities to establish a Mediation Board. Today there are 42 boards and 710 mediators. Although the boards function mainly as dispensers of special measures directed at the young and towards preventing juvenile delinquency, some cases with adult offenders have been brought before the boards, and the range of conflicts that are mediated has been slightly widened. Many boards are working to make themselves known and regarded as civil organs in the local community, groups that citizens can approach directly with different types of conflicts. There appears to have been a shift in aim from finding alternatives to prison for young offenders towards a normative measure of justice, a new way of thinking that could bring Mediation Boards closer to their original conception of them as community-based alternatives. Notes, tables, references