Citizens are reluctant to use courts to resolve conflicts because victims seldom get satisfaction or restitution, the court imposes an unacceptable formality on those who use it, the process is always professional and often insensitive, and a sense of futility develops in those who use the courts. Thus, in weighing the speculative return from the use of the courts against the social, time, and money costs, people are discouraged from using the court process. This reluctance to use the courts forces communities to tolerate conflicts; undermines neighborhood, school, and individual safety; promotes criminal conduct; suppresses and evades conflicts; and compromises the authority of the family, particularly in juvenile criminal cases. A separate system of conflict resolution, based in the communities, is urgently needed both to address individual conflict and neighborhood needs and to ensure the proper functioning of the traditional justice system for those situations requiring the adjudication of matters through the adversary process.