bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Developing democratic decision‐making and dispute resolution procedures abroad
Authors: Wildau Susan T. , Moore Christopher W. , Mayer Bernard S. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThis article outlines general principles and practical information useful for conflict management practitioners who conduct consultations and trainings on democratic decision‐making and dispute resolution processes in countries making a transition from authoritarian to democratic structure. The article, which is based on the authors' work in Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia, identifies key considerations for collaborative partnerships with foreign practitioners who need to develop coequal working relationships. A number of models for assistance and interventions are described and evaluated, and a series of practical suggestions on developing common vision, designing collaborative decision‐making processes, and responding to cultural differences when working with interpreters is presented.
Mediation around the medicine wheel
Authors: Huber Marg 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThe author describes both the model design process she facilitated with a group of Canadian Aboriginal community leaders in Vancouver and the resulting mediation model for use by urban Aboriginal individuals. She includes procedural suggestions for the mediation process and potential adaptations to increase its cultural relevance for the Aboriginal parties to the process. She discusses the diversity of opinion among those of Aboriginal and dominant cultures regarding the intercultural use of a mediation model based on Aboriginal spirituality.
Resolving disputes locally in rural Alaska
Authors: Connors Joan F. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractRural Alaskan communities are establishing culturally appropriate dispute resolution organizations to meet local justice needs. The Alaska Judicial Council evaluated two tribal courts and a conciliation organization. Although each is structured uniquely to serve the needs of its community, the three organizations share common characteristics. Comparison of the three organizations' features highlights the strengths of each and shows how they might be replicated in other communities.
Power and dispute resolution in Indian country
Authors: Haberfeld Steven , Townsend Jon 
Published: July 2007

AbstractFor several hundred years, Indian tribes in the United States were at the mercy of powerful adversaries in the public and private sectors. As long as these adversaries found that they could act unilaterally, without regard for the tribes' interests, there was no sincere negotiation. During the past thirty years, there has been a noticeable shift in the balance of power between tribes and outsiders. This has set the stage for more cooperative relationships and more collaborative forms of dispute resolution. By overcoming their legitimate cynicism about the negotiation process, by honing their own negotiation skills, and by continuing to pursue complementary strategies (litigation, lobbying, building alliances, influencing public opinion, and so on), tribal leaders should be able to better persuade their opposition to come to the table and to negotiate in good faith once they are there.
Exploring reconciliation
Authors: Larson Judith M. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractTypically, divorce has been accepted as the end of the marriage relationship, and negative interactions associated with divorce have been viewed as part of the separation process. This conceptualization has influenced the constructs of mediation. Approaching the marriage relationship from a family systems perspective—assessing the dominant pattern of closeness and distance negotiation, and reframing anger and conflict as connection strategies in divorcing couples—promote a more comprehensive view of the interactional dynamic of husbands and wives. The author discuss the impact of these strategies on mediation and how they may be indications of reconciliation potential.
Regression to the mean: What happens when lawyers are divorce mediators
Authors: Bohmer Carol , Ray Marilyn L. , Maida Peter R. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThis article examines the functioning of divorce mediation in a state where a significant proportion of the mediators are attorneys. We argue that divorce mediation in Georgia differs from other states in the extent to which it is integrated into the legal system. We conclude that the presence of a significant number of attorneys‐mediators has transformed both the practice of divorce mediation and the practice of divorce law in Georgia. Mediation is more like the practice of law, and the practice of law is more like mediation.
On balance: Promoting integrity under conflicted mandates
Authors: Herrman Margaret S. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThe field of dispute resolution and peacemaking, and the various alternative dispute resolution programs within the field, ideally advance a variety of programs that deliver the highest caliber of dispute resolution services, stimulate social transformation, and support personal growth among mediation professionals. While these various programming opportunities exist, the field has yet to approximate a balanced work plan. We seemingly struggle to serve competing masters: “more” and “better.” And for almost two decades, a disproportionate distribution of our energy has produced “more.” Less energy has been invested in achieving “better.” This article suggests a number of options for achieving a better balance through an expanded vision of legitimate programming.
Does mediation work? A survey of long‐term satisfaction and durability rates for privately mediated agreements
Authors: Meierding Nina R. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThe evaluation of a successful divorce mediation should take into serious consideration the long‐term durability of the settlement agreement and the long‐term satisfaction of the clients. This article includes an analysis of the Ventura County Superior Court records of couples who reached settlement agreements through private, voluntary, and confidential mediation at the Mediation Center for Family Law in Ventura, California, as well as the results of a written, confidential survey submitted to these clients. The purpose of the survey was to measure long‐term satisfaction and compliance with mediated agreements.
Electronic alternative dispute resolution system design
Authors: Yeend Nancy Neal 
Published: July 2007

AbstractElectronic technology opens new doors and provides novel challenges to dispute management systems designers. Creating dispute management processes for the burgeoning electronic information distribution industry requires a pioneering spirit. The computerized system described here is based on negotiation, conciliation, and arbitration. Process adaptability is the hallmark of alternative dispute resolution, and this characteristic permits creation of responsive systems.
Mediation advocacy: A new concept in the dispute mediation arena
Authors: Greenstone James L. , Leviton Sharon C. , Fowler Craig M. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractCurrently, there are several effective means of dispute resolution that can be utilized to avoid costly and destructive litigation. Additionally, there is a good way to prepare attorneys, their clients, and individual disputants for their day before the mediator without, in effect, training them as mediators. This procedure is called mediation advocacy and can be utilized by any lawyer or law firm, agency, or disputant, or by anyone else who is about to enter into mediation or into other forms of alternative dispute resolution. Preparation is the key to prevailing.
Attitudes of Indiana judges toward mediation
Authors: Medley Morris L. , Schellenberg James A. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractAlthough exploratory in nature, this article examines the attitudes of Indiana trial‐court judges regarding the strengths and weaknesses of mediation. Most of the judges who responded to a mailed questionnaire saw more strengths than weaknesses regarding the use of court‐connected mediation. Thus, one might expect to see mediation become a prominent judicial tool in the immediate future. Nevertheless, many judges appeared to be moving quite cautiously relative to the implementation of mediation in their own courts.
The use of empowerment in child custody mediation: A feminist critique
Authors: Regehr Cheryl 
Published: July 2007

AbstractIn recent years, many feminist theorists have expressed concerns that mediation places women at a disadvantage and leaves them vulnerable to exploitation. Mediators, in addressing these concerns, have developed methods of empowering women, in the mediation process. This author argues that empowerment in mediation disadvantages a woman in the long term because it creates the illusion that she now has an equal voice in the relationship but does not provide skills or supports for her to use in negotiating with her exhusband in the years to come. The author suggests alternative procedural safeguards that acknowledge and utilize the authority of the mediator.
Grandparent visitation disputes: Multigenerational approaches to family mediation
Authors: Kruk Edward 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThis article examines the implications of the authors research on grandparent‐grandchild access difficulties and contact loss for family mediation. The rapid growth in recent years of the “grandparent rights” self‐help movement in North America suggests that a significant proportion of grandparents is at risk of losing contact with grandchildren. Existing legal and therapeutic resources are perceived as inadequate for addressing this problem. Two distinct multigenerational approaches to family mediation are considered, and guidelines are suggested for the involvement of grandparents in the family mediation process.
The four foundations of family mediation: Implications for training and certification
Authors: Taylor Alison 
Published: July 2007

AbstractAs an interdisciplinary field requiring extensive knowledge and skills, the practice and profession of mediation is still sorting out entry requirements and essential knowledge and skills for competency. This opinion piece by one of the original writers and trainers in this area looks at the depth of knowledge necessary for competency in light of the current Association of Family Mediators training standards, as well as state and national certification, and offers recommendations to our professional association.
Implications of gilligan for divorce mediation: Speculative applications
Authors: Williams Barbara Blake 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThe process of divorce mediation is influenced by the moral language through which participants express themselves. According to the psychologist Carol Gilligan, men emphasize a language of rights and justice, whereas women emphasize a language of relationship, caring, and responsibility. Divorce mediators sensitive to both of these languages can enhance their likelihood of assisting participants in crafting a resolution that is morally satisfying to each. In addition, a focus on obligations rather than rights can facilitate efforts of participants to consider the perspectives of both care and justice in working out the norms that will govern their agreement, as well as the agreement itself.
Mentorship in family mediation
Authors: Harrell Susan W. , Doelker Richard E. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractMentorship has a strong history in the development of many professions in our society. This article reports the results of a study of the impact of requiring an initial level of mentoring for certification as a family mediator in the state of Florida. Questionnaires were sent to certified family mediators who acted as mentors and to the apprentice mediators who were applying for certification. Comments from both groups indicated strong support to continue the mentorship requirement. The authors also discuss the development of a model of mentorship for family mediation.
Justice paradigm shift? Values and visions in the reform process
Authors: Zehr Howard 
Published: July 2007

AbstractGoverned by a retributive paradigm, the criminal justice process threatens to co‐opt and subvert alternative processes such as mediation. Only a grounding in alternative values—indeed, an alternative, restorative understanding of justice—can reduce such co‐optation. Change advocates must be aware that their reforms may go astray and should be careful about imposing their visions and values on others.
Victim‐offender mediation: Lessons from the Japanese experience
Authors: Haley John O. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractIn emphasizing offender correction and restoration to the community, law enforcement authorities in Japan have learned that encouraging confession, remorse, victim compensation, and victim pardon is essential to correcting socially deviant behavior. U.S. experience with victim‐offender mediation in the context of a broad program of commonly based reintegrative efforts suggests that the Japanese approach is at least partly transferable. Thus, anywhere victim‐offender mediation is to become more than a victim assistance program, its expansion in concert with other reintegrative, community‐based programs should be a high priority.
Using conflict managers to mediate conflicts in an inner‐city elementary school
Authors: Johnson David W. , Johnson Roger , Cotton Barbara , Harris Debra , Louison Sally 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThis article examines the effectiveness of an inner‐city peer mediation program in which third‐ and fourth‐grade students were trained as conflict managers to mediate schoolmates' conflicts. The training consisted of one and one‐half days of training in communication, assertiveness, and mediation skills. The majority of the conflicts brought to mediation were relationship problems involving physical and verbal attacks. The premediation strategies students most commonly used were physically and verbally forcing the other person to give in. Mediation most commonly resulted in an agreement to avoid each other in the future. Although females brought more conflicts to mediation, physical aggression was used more frequently in male‐male and male‐female conflicts than in female‐female conflicts.
The constructive uses of deception: Skills, strategies, and techniques of the folkloric trickster figure and their application by mediators
Authors: Benjamin Robert D. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThe effective management of conflict by a mediator requires the constructive use of deception. Rational discussion and logic are not sufficient to effect the changes in perspective required by disputing parties for conflicts to be settled. Deception is not only a normal but an essential activity for the survival and propagation of all life forms, including human beings. This is so even though the notion of deception has pejorative connotations, especially in Western cultures where rational analysis is most highly valued. Mediators, in particular, from their intuitive understanding of conflict, must recognize the valid and necessary uses of deception. In this regard, the folkloric trickster figure provides an important model of the skills, strategies, and techniques needed by present‐day mediators.
Mediation as an alternative to court for lesbian and gay families: Some thoughts on Douglas McIntyre's article
Authors: Gunning Isabelle R. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThe author responds to points raised by Douglas McIntyre in an earlier Mediation Quarterly issue. McIntyre, in proposing the use of mediation for lesbian and gay families, mentions steps mediators need to take to provide this service. This author explores more specifically what “straight” or unconnected mediators need to do in order to provide quality and unbiased service to the lesbian and gay communities by drawing on the experience of mediation projects created by lesbians and gay men and targeted at the lesbian and gay communities.
Practice guidelines for co‐mediation: Making certain that “two heads are better than one”
Authors: Love Lela P. , Stulberg Joseph B. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractCo‐mediation can either enhance or diminish the effectiveness of the mediation process. This article outlines advantages and disadvantages of comediation and proposes guidelines for co‐mediators to enable maximizing the potential of a co‐mediation team.
Mediating status offender cases: A successful approach
Authors: Mostaghel Deborah M. , Ripps Stephen R. , Kennedy Robin M. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThe University of Toledo College of Law and the Lucas County Juvenile Court joined forces in the Lucas County Juvenile Services Mediation Program. The program allows young people who commit status offenses, that is, acts for which only minors can be detained, to go through mediation instead of to juvenile court. The program cuts down on crowded court dockets, gives quicker and more targeted assistance to troubled youth, and helps law students develop mediation skills. An unusual feature of the program is its setting within the courthouse, which lends credibility to the process.
Inviting fortuitous events in mediation: The role of empowerment and recognition
Authors: Pope Sally Ganong 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThis article describes how The Promise of Mediation (Bush and Folger, 1994) sheds light on key moments in mediation and inspires rethinking of standard practices of divorce mediators. The author finds that the concepts of Bush and Folger provide a framework for better understanding the role of the mediator as well as how to teach mediation.
Directing and administrating a mediation program: The transformative approach
Authors: Fleischer Janice M. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThis article describes how the creator and director of a mediation project can instill the use of the transformative approach to mediation in the training and directing of mediators affiliated with the program. The Pro Se Family Mediation Project targeted couples who had filed for divorce without legal assistance due to limited income. The goal was to provide private sector mediators to assist the parties in reaching an agreement acceptable to them and the Court, thereby enabling the parties to proceed to final judgment without the necessity of going through a trial.
Constructive confrontation: A transformative approach to intractable conflicts
Authors: Burgess Heidi , Burgess Guy 
Published: July 2007

AbstractConstructive confrontation is a strategy for approaching intractable conflicts that are not ripe for resolution. Developed in the context of large‐scale public policy and international conflicts, this approach parallels transformative mediation in several ways. Most important is an emphasis on empowerment and recognition (though constructive confrontation uses different terms) and a focus on constructive processes rather than resolution as the primary goal. This article describes constructive confrontation and compares it to transformative mediation, highlighting both similarities and differences.
Mediation and empowerment in child protection cases
Authors: Barsky Allan E. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractChild protection workers are vested with certain powers and authority to ensure the safety and welfare of children. When issues of neglect and abuse arise, workers are challenged with how to promote self‐determination and autonomy of families, without putting children at risk. The participant‐focused study reported here examined how mediation might have an empowering effect on family members. Participants suggested that mediation empowers through four processes: development of options, equal opportunity to participate in the process, decision‐making responsibility, and power balancing.
Cognitive roles in the mediation process: Development of the mediation inventory for cognitive roles assessment
Authors: Guerra Norma S. , Elliott Gregory M. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThe Mediation Inventory for Cognitive Roles Assessment (MICRA) was developed to examine the cognitive roles assumed by mediators and disputants during the mediation process after an analysis of mediation case records revealed several significant patterns in communication positioning. MICRA's cognitive roles were adapted from research on collegiate leadership teams in which similar communication positioning patterns were noted. Additional research is needed to establish MICRA's psychometric properties; however, preliminary findings of the study reported here suggest that the role of mediator is much more complex and involved than the commonly defined neutral facilitator role.
The role of children in mediation
Authors: Lansky Dona T. , Swift Leslie H. , Manley E. Elizabeth , Elmore Amy , Gerety Christine 
Published: July 2007

AbstractIn spring 1995, a six‐page questionnaire on the topic of including or excluding children in mediation was mailed to all 630 practitioner members of the Academy of Family Mediators. Overall, 51 percent returned the survey. Of those responding, 31 percent were attorneys, 46 percent had graduate‐level mental health backgrounds, and an additional 7 percent had both legal and mental health backgrounds. The survey revealed that 77 percent of respondents included children, either following settlement to discuss the parenting plan or during the mediation as a source of additional information. Respondents' reasons for including or excluding children are outlined here.
Concepts of neutrality in family mediation: Contexts, ethics, influence, and transformative process
Authors: Taylor Alison 
Published: July 2007

AbstractMediators teach new trainees that the process of mediation requires impartiality and neutrality, but in some contexts the actual practice of mediation does not seem to be as neutral as stated. New concepts in the field, such as that of transformational rather than problem‐solving approaches, require us to look again at the concepts of neutrality. Whether or not a mediator will use certain techniques or modes, and how this relates to the level of emotions that are dealt with during the mediation, will depend on not only the model the mediator uses but also on the mediator's concept of what constitutes undue influence, impartiality, and neutrality. In this article, the author sorts out the terminology and the historical basis for our concepts of neutrality and relates this to the other issues that affect mediators. She advances the idea that neutrality needs to be seen on a continuum and that ethical practice of neutrality may vary depending on the context of the dispute and the mandate given by the participants.
Training and educating environmental mediators: Lessons from experience in the united states
Authors: Glavovic Bruce C. , Dukes E. Franklin , Lynott Jana M. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThe growing international interest in environmental mediation prompts an examination of the training and education of environmental mediators; the characteristics particular to environmental disputes that make mediation an appropriate, if not essential, response to such disputes; the role, responsibilities, and ideal qualities of the environmental mediator; and the key lessons that have been learned from U.S. experience with environmental mediation and training and education of mediators that might be pertinent to initiatives elsewhere.
Community mediation centers: Delivering first‐class services to low‐income people for the past twenty years
Authors: Ray Larry 
Published: July 2007

AbstractCommunity mediation programs, inaugurated in the 1970s, have grown in number and influence, serving low‐income individuals and families in 550 centers throughout the United States. Volunteers, the mainstay of community mediation programs, provide mediation services in a wide array of community, neighborhood, and family conflicts. In addition to describing community mediation programs, this article describes the founding of the National Association for Community Mediation (NAFCM) and its efforts to support the continued viability of community mediation centers and to promote the availability and use of mediation.