지역경찰의 갈등조정자로서의 역할정립 방안

Abstract

Conflicts are an unavoidable phenomenon in human society, and there are various types of conflict. The possibility of conflicts are becoming more common in modern society, and it becomes more severe when there is big difference of understanding. As mentioned above, conflicts are common in social life and normally have two sides: positive and negative functions. Traditionally, conflicts have been recognized as a negative aspect which can destroy the organization due to the inefficiency, but recently, it has been recognized that both positive and negative aspects are existed at the same time. Therefore, the importance of reducing the negative aspects caused by conflicts and resolving conflicts through communication and consultation has been emphasized. Therefore this explains that the conflict management and conflict resolution has growing interest in our society. Conflict management can be said to be the process of converting the dysfunctional function of conflicts into a positive function, and it is more important issue in policing activities. In general, conflict and communication are inextricably linked. In particular, depending on how the local police as conflict mediators in the community, the management conflicts through communication, secondary crimes can be prevented, and the relationships between residents can be restored. Therefore, as a crime prevention activity, it should be turned into a conflict management system that detects and resolves conflicts in early stage. Recently, many research works on community policing have been actively carried out in Korea, and as a life-oriented policing service, it has developed that a community policing activity with interest in providing security information to residents and solving problems with residents and their families. Resolving conflicts between residents and families is now the most important role of the police, and mediation is commonly used to resolve various conflict cases. This study aim to establish the role of the local police as conflict mediators, thereby strengthen the stability of the community and the police function as a restorative justice. Through an understanding of community policing and conflict mediation, this paper can also provide the guideline for training of conflict mediation expert. And by understanding the five types of conflict resolution by Thomas & Kilmann(1975), the tool with the highest validity, it was guided to find a way to respond according to the conflict situation. In this paper, the current local police problems were analyzed based on two perspectives to provide appropriate solutions. First, from a restorative justice perspective, it is to clarify and actively utilize the legal basis for restorative justice at the police stage, such as at the prosecution and court stages. In addition to crime, it is also introduced to resolve conflicts between communities, such as domestic violence, school violence, and noise between apartments neighbors. Second, from the legal and institutional perspective, it is to revise the legislation related to the local police and shift away from the existing policing to the role of the local police as a conflict mediator focusing on conflict management and conflict resolution. And it was derived that the need for reorganization of the scope of the local police or the need for institutional change should be reviewed in consideration of the demand for policing, environmental changes, and the crime rates. Furthermore, this study presents three policy recommendations as below, firstly the life-oriented policing service to strengthen the role in the non-criminal fields, secondly the establishment of legal basis for use of recovery communication program, thirdly, the training of conflict mediation experts for resolving community problems.