AN EVALUATION OF CHILD PROTECTION MEDIATION IN FIVE CALIFORNIA COURTS

• Published date: 01 April 1997
• Author: Nancy Thoennes
• Date: 01 April 1997
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.174-1617.1997.tb00458.x

AN EVALUATION OF CHILD PROTECTION

MEDIATION IN FIVE CALIFORNIA COURTS

Nancy Thoennes

This

anicle presents the results of

an

evaluation ofjive California counties utilizing court-based

mediation services toprocess childmaltreatment caresfiled with the court.

The

programs employed

a

variety of different service delivery approaches

and

targeted cases ata variety of different stages

of case pmessing.

The

results indicate that mediation

is

an

effective method

of

resolving cases

and

may

offer a number ofbewts over adjudication, including more detniled treatment plans

and

fewer

contested coun hearings.

At the Center for Policy Research we have been fortunate to have the opportunity

to

conduct research in a number of courts providing dependency mediation. Some

of

our

earliest research gave us the chance to consider the programs operating in

Los

Angeles

and Orange counties in California. and throughout Connecticut. That research reached

the following very general conclusions:

0

Settlement

rates

ranged from

60%

to

80%

of the cases seen

by

mediators;

Mediated treatment plans were produced, on average, a month sooner than

nomediated plans;

In some, but not all, sites there were significant differences between the degree of

compliance with mediated and adjudicated plans. Where there were differences,

compliance

was

better in mediated cases;

Children were more likely

to

be

mentioned

as

the recipients of services

in

mediated

versus adjudicated plans;

Professional participants

reported

that mediation makes the court experience a

little faster, and less foreign and

more

understandable to parents.

The results of

this

study have been documented elsewhere moennes,

1991, 1994).

In the present article,

I

offer the results

of

a similar study conducted in five California

counties. The California evaluations provide an opportunity to see whether similar results

are

found in dependency mediation programs initiated years later, and employing

a

variety

of

different formats.

California Senate Bill

1420

amended the Health and Safety Code and the Welfare and

Institutions Code to encourage juvenile

courts

in ContraCosta,

Los

Angeles, Sacramento,

Santa

Clara, and "blare

counties

to

provide dependency couxt mediation by authorizing,

on

a pilot basis, a

$3

increase in the cost of certified copies of birth certificates to fund

the mediation services and an independent evaluation of the services provided in each

FAMILY

AND

CONcILlAnON COuRls

REVIEW,

&I.

35

No.

2,

April

1997 184-195

8

1997

sage

~IiCaIiO~

Irr.

184