Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

[Claire Kaplan <>]

A quick comment vis a vis mediation (in response to Rus's comment).  I, 
too, am no fan of mediation.  We have offered it here at UVa since prior to 
my arrival.  Very few students avail themselves of this option; choosing 
instead to 1) do nothing at all, other than counseling; 2) report to the 
police, only to have the prosecutor not prosecute; 3) use our internal 
hearing process; 4) have a formal meeting, which is something between 
mediation and a hearing, that is run by one administrator and has no 
pretense of being mediation.

What is most interesting to me, is that according to one of our counselors, 
who works with many of our survivors (and who is wonderful), the only 
people who have ever reported feeling that they had a positive experience 
with the process that they used, and who felt satisfied with the outcome of 
their process, were women who elected to use mediation.  Granted, survivors 
who use this are few and far-between, and those that express interest go 
through a bit of counseling first, just to be sure that they feel 
emotionally prepared and supported.  And this is conjecture on my part, but 
I suspect that survivors who are drawn to mediation may also have 
tremendous internal resources prior to their assaults and afterwards.  But 
when I heard this, it really made me rethink my views about mediation.

This bit of news also leads me to mention that a former student of mine is 
studying restorative justice in Australia, as it is used in domestic 
violence, sexual assault & child abuse cases.  She went their with the 
intent on riping it apart.  She now is fairly well convinced that it may 
well be one useful alternative to our adversarial criminal justice system, 
which has failed survivors so many times.

Claire Kaplan

Coordinator, Sexual Assault Education
UVA Women's Center
P.O. Box 800588
Charlottesville VA 22908-0588
434.982.2774 Voice/TTY
434.982-2901 Fax

http://sexualassault.virginia.edu