Govt considers new action on neighbourhood rows

Press, 2 September 1980, Page 2

Govt considers new action on neighbourhood rows

PA Wellington Minor criminal and civil neighbourhood disputes , could end Uj. being discussed in the neighbourhood rather than the courts if an American concept catches on here. The Minister of Justice (Mr McLay) yesterday released- a discussion paper prepared by the Justice Department on neighbourhood dispute resolution • schemes applying in the United States, in the hope of stimulating discussion about the value of developing similar schemes in New Zealand. Mr McLay said that in the neighbourhood justice centres, as they are called in the. United States, mediators encourage those involved. ;n a dispute to reach some sort of agreement That might in- - vol ve asking one of the iparties to stay away from the other party, to refrain from ' physical violence, . to- apologise, or to provide the

| means for structured comI munication. , “Many types of cases, [both criminal and civil, are dealt with in the . various American "centres, including family feuds, : disputes between neighbours, consumer complaints, landlord-tenant disagreements, and employ-er-employee matters,” he said. “The main criterion for accepting a case is that the people concerned have an on-going relationship and a stake in coming to -a resolution, “Anyone involved in a dis-pute-can just walk into a centre, but most cases are referred, from the criminal justice system or from community agencies. People do not have to take time off work to attend the centres as hearings are held in the evenings or on Saturdays,” Mr McLay said. . Mediation and arbitration were the techniques most

• commonly used to solve the disputes, Mr McLay said. , Some centres used professional arbitrators to hear cases, while others used volunteer. representatives from the* community who were given training in mediation : and arbitration techniques. He said the criminal jusi tice system was considered to be inappropriate for dealing with the types of dis- > putes handled by the centres. The one advantage that weighed heavily. in its favour .was* that a centre could be adapted to meet the needs of a particular community. x . .. In tire foreword to the discussion paper, the Director of the Planning and Develi opment Division of the Justice Department, Mr M. P. Smith, says, “our criminal justice system, by its very nature, tends to transform what might be a relatively minor matter that could be arbitrated or mediated between the individuals concerned to their mutual satisfaction, .into an issue involving the State and its lav/ enforcement agencies. “One consequence is that the act becomes divorced from its real , environment and the .victim (which may be a local community in the case of, say, vandalism) tends to be seen only as a ] contributor to the prosecution process. - “Another is that the State is required to maintain an expensive system to handle i a wide range of behavioural p- jblems that could be dealt with more economically and possibly more effectively in < some' other way,” Mr Smith said. The essence of the idea of neighbourhood dispute resolution is to bring parties together in a neutral place within Cie neighbourhood,, in the presence of an impartial :

but concerned person, whose task it was to help them look behind the immediate incident to its root causes. The parties . were then encouraged to attempt to resolve the issue between them in a way that was meaningful and provided an environment that should minimise a repetition of the form of behaviour that gave rise to the incident. The weight of the criminal justice system, so .it was argued, was an inappropriate and expensive mechanism for dealing with a number of situations that, now, really by default fell within, its purview. A notable feature of the schemes in the United States was that their structure and style of working was deter-; mined by the nature of the community in which they functioned. It was said that no two schemes were identical. “There seems to be real advantage in using community resources and allowing institutions to be sufficiently adaptive to ensure that the community identifies with them and gives, them its support,” Mr Smith said.