From 1990 to 1999, victim offender mediation programmes for juvenile offenders developed in the Catalonia region of Spain. Using the broad discretionary powers offered to juvenile court judges under the 1948 law of Juvenile Courts that allowed them to work with Catalan civil service in diverting young people from court, the Mediation and Reparation program was implemented. In 1992, Law 4/92 reflected these activities and strengthened the basis for the use of mediation with young offenders. 

In this programme, the public prosecutor may request mediation in cases depending on the seriousness of the crime and the possibility of reaching an agreement. The process is voluntary with the victim being asked to participate only after that offender has agreed. Once the process is over, the mediator sends a copy of the agreement and an assessment of the process to the public prosecutor.  These results inform the decision of whether to ask the juvenile court judge to discontinue the process. 

Jose Depena and Jaime Martín have worked with the mediation program for over 10 years and conducted 3 studies of the program. They found the following results for time period of 1990-1999: 

Characteristics:

• 6,624 offenders and 4,279 victims voluntarily participated in the program

• 25% of juvenile offenders in Catalonia participated in the program before the end of 1996 and 50% did so from the beginning of 1997-January 1999

• 78% of offenders were male, 22% were female

• 63% of the total number of crimes committed by the young offenders were property crimes

• 87% of victims participate with varying levels of interest

 Results:

• 59% of cases mediation cases were realized with direct or indirect participation of the victims. 

• In 12% of cases the parties had already solved the conflict on their own initiative, before the first contact with the mediator. 

• In 20% of the cases, the mediation is done and agreements are reached through a mediator, without direct encounter between the parties. 

• In 27% of the cases, the parties attend meetings, in the context of which agreements are reached. 

• In 30% of cases different out-of-court solutions were sought without the participation of the victim. 

• 11% of cases ended without obtaining positive results.

The legal basis for using mediation was strengthened in January 2000 by law 5/2000 that replaced the earlier juvenile justice legislation. The goal of this law is to divert as many non-violent juvenile cases from the court as possible. Reconciliation and reparation are defined in the law with the idea that they would be used in mediation.

For more information see Mediation in Juvenile Criminal Cases - The Case of Catalonia by Jaime Martín - José Dapena.

En español

May 2003