Spain

Provides a listing of articles on restorative justice developments in Spain. Articles appear in the order in which they were added to the site with the most recent appearing first.

Final report from the International Conference on Restorative Justice and Victim-Offender Mediation

from the final report translated by Virginia Domingo: The First International Conference on Restorative Justice and Victim-offender mediation was held in Burgos in March 2010, organized by the Victim-offender Mediation Service in Castilla y León (Burgos) with the collaboration of the University of Burgos, the city hall and the European forum for Restorative Justice. This was the first international conference organized in Spain on this subject. It was very successful and 250 persons from different parts of Spain and other countries such as Portugal and Mexico attended the Conference.

Muñoz, Yolanda. Victim-Offender Mediation in the Basque Country

In January 2004 a conference on VOM took place in Basque Country, sponsored by the Basque Autonomous Government, the Department of Human Rights and Co-operation with law, and in collaboration with the Gernika Gogoratuz Peace Research Centre. The purpose of this conference was to create a meeting space "between various professionals interested in the possible implementation of a programme of victim-offender mediation in the Basque Country…" (excerpt)

Olalde, Alberto and Etxebarria, Xabier. Cooperation Between Policymakers and Practitioners in Providing VOM in Basque Country: The Experience of the First 50 Cases

This workshop discusses the new program in the Basque (Spain) meant to provide victim-offender mediation. It includes a qualitative analysis of the first 50 cases and a reflection on aspects of the mediation process and what the desired outcome ought to look like.

Martín, Jaime and Dapena, José. Mediation in Juvenile Criminal Cases-The Case of Catalonia.

In Spain, the changes found in the European juvenile justice system were incorporated belatedly and slowly. Until 1992, juvenile justice legislation was anchored in the principles of positivism and rehabilitation typical of the 1948 Law of Juvenile Courts. The legislative stagnation, however, was partly offset by the momentum of the juvenile justice policy, which was similar to that of other European countries (Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, among others), and in agreement with the most recent international treaties and recommendations. This could be seen particularly in Catalonia. (excerpt)

de la Camara, Belen. VOM-programmes and their relation to judicial actors in the juvenile criminal justice system in Catalonia

Belen de la Camara in this paper explores the present relationship between professionals in charge of victim-offender (VOM) programs and the relevant authority in the criminal justice system in Catalonia (Spain), namely, the public prosecutor. To explain this, de la Camar first provides the wider legal and social policy context in Spain and in Catalonia (one of seventeen autonomous communities in Spain). This includes identification of recent legislation on VOM and the institutional framework for VOM in most of Spain’s autonomous communities. Then, within a framework of dependency and cooperation, de la Camara discusses key aspects of the relationship between VOM mediators and public prosecutors.

Sole, Estel and Led, Pere. School Mediation in Catolonia.

This workshop will give information on an innovative programme in the educational field, involving more the 3.000 teachers, 1700 pupils and 400 parents and mothers in 173 public Schools of Secondary Education. This mediation system is quite different and exceptional from other school mediation systems because we work between students; there is not any adult present during the mediation process. Our mediation system called Mediation Between Students, was the first system trying to solve school problems without punishments in all schools in Catalonia. (excerpt)

Soria, Miguel Angel and Guillamat, Ansel. VOM with Adults and Recidivism.

The objective of our investigation is to analyze if the effects of the mediation process affect significantly the parts implied in it and, in second term, its later consequences to eliminate or to reduce the criminal and/or violent acts. To such aim, the judicial files of mediation made between year 2000 and the 2005, as well as its effects on the recidivism of the offenders and its characteristics, were analyzed. (excerpt)

Garcia, Mariona Jimenez and Herbera, Merce Llenas. Developing Evaluation Protocols for the Mediation-Reparation Programme in Catalonia (Spain)

Since 1998, The Justice Department of Autonomous Government of Catalonia has developed the Mediation-Reparation Programme in the adults’ jurisdiction. During this time the number of applications to start up a mediation process has increased from 10 requirements in 1998 to 793 requirements in 2007. That means that judges and lawyers have been increasingly considering the use of mediation in criminal matters and its benefits... As mentioned earlier, there is not an explicit legal base for restorative justice practices with adults in Spain. As will be described below, different legal entry doors which can be used to recognise a positive legal effect to the outcome of a mediation process, have been identified in each stage of the criminal procedure (pre-trial, trial and execution of the sentence). As a consequence there is a priori no legal prohibition for the Mediation-Repartion Programme to deal with any criminal offence. (excerpt)

Martín, Jaime and Dapena, José. La Mediación Penal Juvenil en Cataluña, España.

En los ultimos 25 años, la dinámica de readaptación del marco legal y las políticas criminales, en relación a los jóvenes infractores, ha sido una constante en toda Europa. Este documento analizara como se ha comenzado a emplear los Métodos Alternativos de Resolución de Conflictos (MARC) en España para referirse a todas aquellas sanciones que pueden dictar los jueces de menores distintas de la del internamiento. Resumen por El Centro De Estudios de Justicia de las Américas, www.cejamericas.org

Aguilar, Paloma and Cebolla-Boado, Héctor and Balcells, Laia. Determinants of attitudes toward transitional justice: An empirical analysis of the Spanish case.

Much has been said about the institutional determinants of transitional justice (TJ), yet scholars still know little about the determinants of citizens’ attitudes toward restorative policies aimed at addressing human rights violations of the past. This article draws on an original survey of a representative sample of Spanish citizens conducted in 2008. One year earlier, the Spanish socialist government had approved the so-called Law of Historical Memory, aimed at providing restitution for victims of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the Francoist dictatorship (1939-1975). We analyze individual-level attitudes toward a set of TJ policies (i.e., truth commissions, trials, and symbolic reparations) in a comprehensive overview of the field. We study the effects of different sets of variables: individual sociodemographic and ideological factors, family and socialization variables, and context-related factors. Individual ideology, family victimization during the dictatorship, and regional context appear highly relevant in explaining individual attitudes toward TJ policies. (Author's abstract)

Editor. VOM services, a hopeful reality for the Basque country

The aims of the Victim Offender Mediation service are: (1)to offer a mediation process in the different phases of penal process (instruction, judgment and execution), (2) to give an opportunity to the person who has suffered a crime (not only misdemeanors, but also serious crimes) and to the accused person, (3) to participate in a voluntary and confidential process inside the criminal justice system, (4) to give to the parties the opportunity to participate actively in the process in order to solve the conflict with the participation of the mediator with the approval of the judge and the prosecutor, (5) to make victims and offenders central to the transformation of the conflict, (6) to enrich the process by solving the conflict through a communication process between the different parties involved in the crime, which is a better system than the formal process, that does not admit subjective considerations, (7) to give a chance to the offender to accept responsibility for the harm done to the victim and offer to make reparation for the harm done, (8) to offer a wider understanding of the judicial process for both parties, (9) to reduce the workload of courts. (Excerpt)

del Campo, Jaume and Vinuesa, M. Rosa and Martí, Jaume and Vilà, Ruth . Mediation among young immigrants in the juvenile penal justice system.

Multicultural modern society shows the necessity for a systematic assessment of needs and the formulation of policies which are based on rigorous and systematic research. Specifically, in Spain juvenile penal justice represents one of the major contexts where the presence of cultural diversity has made itself forcefully felt. This situation has led to an ongoing reappraisal of the way in which the forms of conflict management which currently form part of the Spanish Juvenile Penal Code are applied. This article represents an attempt to take a closer look at the way mediation is used as a policy alternative in the penal context, and in particular how it is used in situations when one part of the process involves a young immigrant. We focus on the meaning attributed to penal mediation from the perspective of the victim or the offender and on the difficulties in applying mediation programs among young immigrants. • Findings: This analysis shows the presence of several asymmetries in intercultural mediation and suggests the importance of intercultural communication in mediation. • Application: We aim to develop a more comprehensive framework in order to improve the way such processes are implemented in practice, paying special attention to the possible application of mediation in other contexts. (author's abstract)

Fuertes, Pilar. Knowledge Management in the Justice Department of Catalonia’s Public Administration

This presentation emphasizes how important it is to share information in our technology age, particularly since we have many avenues by which to share that information. The presenter goes on to describe how information is shared in Catalonia's Justice Department as an example of methods that may be useful in an information exchange.

Dapena, José and Martín, Jaime. Mediation in Juvenile Criminal Cases-The Case of Catalonia

Over the last forty years, changes in Europe in the sphere of the juvenile justice system have allowed for a progressive diversification of responses to juvenile delinquency and strengthening alternatives to confinement.

Mediation in Catalonia

Jaime Martin and Jose Dapena are researchers and practitioners working with victim offender mediation in Spain. This article summarizes a paper outlining the development of mediation in juvenile justice with links to the full-text.