Mediation and social links

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Mediation and social links
City of Helsinki

• CITY OF HELSINKI
• Internal Auditing
• Kalle Koskivirta
• 06.05.2004, the City of Angers

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Second round tableMediation and social links
City of Helsinki

• Individual level Mediation
• Social level Social links

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Mediation
City of Helsinki

• Criminal mediation activities were started in
  Finland on a voluntary basis in the late 1980s
  by training conciliators and mediators
• Mediation is a modern way to deal with crimes and
  their consequences, especially where young
  perpetrators are concerned

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...Mediation...
City of Helsinki

• When a criminal case is tried in court, the
  defendant usually pleads not guilty or at least
  tries to underrate the offence he or she has
  committed. This is apt to increase the sufferings
  of the victims and also the injustice they have
  experienced.
• On the other hand, the court procedure can
  decrease the knowledge of the purpose of law and
  the intention of the legitimate principles.

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...Mediation...
City of Helsinki

• Mediation starts from confessing or admitting the
  offence or the crime. By confessing the misdeed
  or the crime the offender expresses his/her will
  to settle the deed and make good its consequences
  to the victim.

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...Mediation...
City of Helsinki

• In mediation, the offender and the victim meet
  under the supervision of a trained, impartial
  conciliator to discuss the mental and physical
  consequences caused by the misdeed and agree on
  the measures to be taken.
• Thus the victim has the possibility to talk about
  the incident from his/her own point of view, and
  the offender can see the concrete results of
  his/her act and learn to assume and bear the
  responsibility of such acts.

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...Mediation...
City of Helsinki

• Victim-offender mediation has proved to be a
  functional means of interfering in juvenile
  delinquency in particular as well as in other
  damage and injury caused by the young. Practice
  has shown that victim-offender mediation is a
  tried and tested method of interfering in the
  problems of youth with criminal tendencies.
• In Finland, municipalities arrange mediation on a
  voluntary basis and consider mediation an
  important tool and therefore have developed it
  significantly.

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...Mediation...
City of Helsinki

• Today victim-offender mediation has increased in
  Finland to the extent that about 80 per cent of
  the population lives in communities where
  mediation is being applied. However, mediation
  has not yet been organised in all the smaller
  municipalities which of course is a problem.

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...Mediation
City of Helsinki

• One aim of criminal mediation is also to reduce
  the number of minor cases in the courts. The
  current government in Finland has decided to pass
  a law about mediation so that it becomes a
  statutory activity instead of the present
  voluntary activity in the crime process handling.
• Besides the victim, the offender and the
  mediator, representatives of the social services,
  the police, the public prosecutor and the court
  are also involved in the mediation process.
• Source RITONEN 2/2004, p. 8 www.rikoksentorjunta
  .fi

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Social links
City of Helsinki

• CASE STUDY
• Background
• The General Safety Strategy of the City of
  Helsinki
• The capital of Finland, Helsinki City

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Social links Back ground
City of Helsinki

• The Council of State of Finland made a principle
  decision about crime prevention on 4.3.1999. The
  letter from the Police Department of Helsinki
  Jurisdictional District about crime prevention to
  the City of Helsinki 7.7.1999.
• The executive group chaired by the Mayor and the
  working group were set up and appointed on
  6.10.1999. The work groups report was completed
  on 31.11.2000.
• City Council approved The General Safety
  Strategy of the City of Helsinki 9.5.2001. The
  follow-up report will be submitted to the City
  Council in spring 2004.

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Social links working group
City of Helsinki

• The safety strategy was made in cooperation with
  the City of Helsinki, the Helsinki Police
  Department, the Parish Union of Helsinki, the
  Helsinki Chamber of Commerce and the Federation
  of the Associations for Helsinki City Quarters.
• From the City of Helsinki following
  administrative offices and departments were
  involved
• The City Office, the City Planning Office, the
  Cultural Office, the Sports Department, the Youth
  Department, the Education Department and the
  Social Services Department.

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Social links planning
City of Helsinki

• Planning commenced with the working group
  dividing the areas relating to safety and crime
  prevention into 4 parts.
• 1. Vandalism, which included damage, graffiti
  and such occurrences,
• 2. Fear experienced on the streets, at home and
  within family,
• 3. Matters relating to intoxicants, including
  the use of alcohol and drugs,
• 4. Crime, referring to assault, robbery and
  theft and other so-called serious professional
  crime murder and wide-scale financial crimes
  were not included in the study.

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Social links details
City of Helsinki

• Implementation details The safety strategy
  includes lines of action in the following areas
  relating to safety.
• 1. Maintenance of law and order in the streets,
• 2. Reducing the use of intoxicants,
• 3. Prevention of damage to property,
• 4. Improving the safety of the environment,
• 5. Prevention of vehicle-related crime,
• 6. Improvement of business and workplace safety,
• 7. Integration of immigrants as part of improving
  safety,
• 8. Maintenance of domestic peace.

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Social links example
City of Helsinki

• For these areas the strategy includes a range of
  activities as focal, and specification of the
  organisations and partners mainly are responsible
  for them.
• For instance 2. Reducing the use of intoxicants
  the working group consists of representatives
  from the Social Services Department (Chair), the
  Cultural Office, the Sports Department, the Youth
  Department and the Education Department of
  Helsinki City as well as representatives from the
  Police and the Church.

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Social links...
City of Helsinki

• Cooperation
• A feature common to all the sectors of the
  safety strategy is that improvement of safety is
  a cooperative effort. The essential cooperation
  between the City, he Police, the Business
  Community, the Parishes and residents will
  achieve better results than working alone.
• Network
• The actors involved must create the kind of
  network where the citizens feel that safety work
  is well-coordinated and along the same lines.
  Cooperation starts by improving the flow of
  information.

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...Social links...
City of Helsinki

• Early intervention
• The Helsinki Safety Strategy emphasises the
  significance of preventive actions and early
  intervention work at the local level.
• The leading principles
• In maintaining safety include preventive
  action, support to families in upbringing
  children, intensification of cooperation between
  authorities, the local police, the church,
  residents and the business community.

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...Social links...
City of Helsinki

• Furthermore
• Bringing activities to the basic level, i.e. to
  city districts, neighbourhoods and customer
  service counters etc. is essential. For this
  purpose, functional publicity channels accessible
  to all are being developed (local newspapers
  Internet polls / Gallups to be on call/cell
  phones etc.).
• Financial aspects
• At the beginning no money was needed. The change
  of work procedures and cooperation were
  essential. Later on of course some budget money
  will be necessary to maintain new procedures.
  (e.g. Graffiti cleaning 2,7 M euros/year)

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...Social links
City of Helsinki

• Evaluation
• Statistics show that the street safety index
• is moving towards a safer city environment.
• Prospects
• The case is not a project but a continuous
  process.
• The safety issue might be one agenda
• in the municipal elections in Oct. 2004.
• kalle.koskivirta_at_hel.fi
• 358 9 1692271 358 50 366 5427 telefax
  358 9 169 3655