Elon University's Juvenile Justice Intervention and Mediation Clinic

The purpose of this project is to develop and operate a mediation program to mediate criminal cases involving juveniles in cases arising in Guilford and Alamance Counties, North Carolina Judicial Districts 18 and 15A, respectively. The populations to be served are the residents of those counties, particularly the victims of crime, offenders who are promising prospects for rehabilitation, and populations of the schools the offenders attend. The project supplies situationally-appropriate interventions in the form of offender-victim mediation. Project personnel will develop clinical law school courses in juvenile mediation and will collaborate with courts, district attorneys, school systems as well as organizations that are using different but complementary approaches to this project's goals. The law school course should create a corps of trained juvenile mediators, some of whom may establish juvenile mediation in communities in which they practice law after graduating from law school. By addressing problems early in their formation and diverting them from the court system in ways that allow youth to take responsibility for their actions and repair the harm that they have done, the project should prevent and minimize problems in schools, prevent juvenile delinquency and reduce school suspensions and criminal recidivism. NCA/NCF