Efektywność mediacji w postępowaniach karnych prowadzonych w latach 2011-2014 przed Sądem Rejonowym w Białymstoku w świetle badań aktowych

Abstract

This article is based on the results of scientific research conducted within a project entitled „The pilot implementation of the Community Court model in Poland as an institutional bridge betweenthe judiciary, local government authorities and social organizations to facilitate the implementation of restorative justice in practice”. The project was funded by the National Centre for Research and Development under the „Social Innovations” programme in accordance with Agreement No. /IS-1/039/NCBR/2014. Within the project, fifty court cases, which had previously been referred to victim-offender mediation, were examined. All of them were conducted before the Third Criminal Department of the District Court in Bialystok in 2011-2014. The decisive criterion was the date of the court’s decision to refer the case to victim-offender mediation. The ratio of settlements concluded in the course of victim-offender mediation in criminal cases conducted before the District Court of Białystok, is about 10-30% lower in comparison to the national average in each of the years studied. The types of crime which are most frequently referred to mediation proceedings in the District Court of Białystok, and in other Polish courts, do not differ. Crimes against life and health, honour and personal inviolability, the family and guardianship, property, as well as against freedom, are the most common. Motions for victim-offender mediation are usually filed by counsels for the defence and by the accused themselves, and subsequently the court. The best results in mediation settlements are reached in cases involving a joint initiative of the parties. In cases in which settlement was concluded, the court most frequently applied a conditional discontinuance of proceedings or imprisonment with conditional suspension of its execution. The failure of mediation resulted mainly from the lack of agreement by the parties, and subsequently from the absence or refusal to participate in mediation by the accused or the victim(s). Mediation completed with a settlement effectively prevents lodging an appeal against the sentence of the court of first instance. An appeal was lodged in only 12.5% of such cases.