Maria R. Volpe

Resistance to mediation: Understanding and handling it

One of the major challenges confronting mediators is the resistance to their intervention efforts by disputants. This article examines some of the explanations for resistance to the mediation process as well as suggested ways of coping with resistant disuptants. As mediation grows in acceptance, popularity, and diversity, a variety of new challenges are confronting mediators. An increasingly important area of concern for mediators is resistance to their intervention efforts by disputants. And, the fact that mediation is now being used as a compulsory court intervention process (as a result of legislation, policies or regulations) makes understanding of resistance for mediators even more critical, (e.g., Freedman 1984). Practitioners involved in a wide range of problem-solving and intervention processes, particularly those in mental health work, have long been aware of the phenomenon of resistance by patients or clients, (e.g., Anderson and Stewart 1983; Strean 1985). In fact, understanding the causes * Printed with permission of Plenum Publishing Company. This article originally appeared in Negotiation Journal, 3(1987), 297-305.

Police and Mediation: Natural, Unimaginable or Both

Police interventions that are universally recognizable as using mediation have very deep roots in law enforcement. By chance or by choice, police have historically played a role in getting in the middle of disputing parties. They are either called to a scene or come upon it as part of their routine work and find themselves having to assume the intermediary role. Depending on the larger culture in which they are situated, organizational structure within which they operate, and police officers’ own ability to intervene, the police officers have served as mediators. Such intervention has often been undertaken as a natural part of policing with officers intervening intuitively by using their own people and communication skills. As mediation has gained popularity and acceptance, however, police departments around the world are beginning to look more carefully at how officers are trained and how mediation fits into policing. In addition to police officers mediating on the scene, there are other ways in which they can use mediation. For example, they can refer cases to mediation programs or participate in mediation sessions themselves. While policing and mediation may coexist nicely and mediation is an important tool for police, the use of this process in policing has been questioned. Given officers’ ability to use force, authority to take action, and need for public accountability, mediation by police officers in the police context clashes with many of the accepted mediation principles. As a result, critics cannot imagine police officers mediating. Drawing largely from policing in the United States, this chapter examines the use of mediation in the police context, perhaps one of the most complex and controversial settings where mediation occurs, and discusses how police use of mediation can be both natural and unimaginable worldwide.