RJ practices in France are relatively unheard of as most writings in the RJ tradition have appeared in English and the French criminal justice system and citizenry have not demonstrated a desire for criminal justice reform. Despite the reluctance to incorporate new models of justice, penal mediation has emerged in France as one of the only RJ practices. According to the author, increasing social conflicts in France have resulted in an inundation of complaints to the criminal justice system, causing them to search for new methods of managing conflict. The result has been the “dependent institutionalization” of penal mediation as a form of mediation for adults. The author begins with an examination of the implementation of penal mediation in France, identifying six phases in the process of institutionalization. Two models of penal mediation are identified and discussed: the judicial and the restorative models. A distinction is made between an autonomous institutionalization of penal mediation and a dependent institutionalization of penal mediation. Autonomous institutionalization refers to the rational development of penal mediation as a legitimate form of criminal justice while the dependent institutionalization refers to the organization of mediation program by existing organizations. The author argues that a cultural conflict stands in the way of the autonomous institutionalization of penal mediation. This cultural conflict is located in the legitimacy held by the judicial model of penal mediation and the traditional criminal justice system coupled with a corresponding lack of legitimacy by mediation associations. Despite the attempt of mediation associations to institutionalize their practice, the state apparatus has seen fit to leave the institutionalization of RJ practices unfinished, further bolstering their own legitimacy in terms of penal mediation and the deliverance of criminal justice generally. Notes, references