범죄예방책으로서의 갈등해결을 위한 중재(mediation) 활용에 관한 고찰 : 지역사회내 갈등을 중심으로

Abstract

Korean society has already become a multicultural society while millions of foreigners live in South Korea and multicultural families are ever increasing, and that nearly twenty eight thousand North Korean defectors live in South Korea. As the complexity and diversity of the society in Korea continue to increase, various types of social conflicts are expressed and recognized and they have drawn social attention because they often result in crimes such as serious violence, even murders. Despite the necessity for increased attention and strong measures, daily conflicts within a community have been ignored. Consequences of conflicts among neighbors such as floor noise, parking space, animal, trash, offensive odor etc. produce negative factors degrading the quality of life by causing stress, distrust, psychological and mental dysfunctions. Most existing studies, however, on social conflicts have been conducted in the context of social policy or systems, it is difficult to find a study that more specifically deal with conflicts in the community that have direct impacts on the citizens. This paper, as a main purpose of this study, deals with applying mediation, an alternative dispute resolution, for resolving conflicts in a community as a crime prevention measure. An example of mediation case in practice was presented and analyzed. Mediation seems to show its applicability and effectiveness for those community conflicts. Finally, it suggests that a center for community conflict resolution center be set up and discuses possibilities. Secondly, it is necessary to give an appropriate education and training for those who are interested in conflict resolution and mediation, and others to provide them with a licence and eventually to be a professional mediator. It is highly important to create and develop such a systematic curriculum and well-organized intern procedure. Thirdly, community conflict resolution is a mechanism to prevent conflicts from leading to a resolution through the legal system. Therefore, it is very appropriate for a community conflict resolution center to work collaboratively by networking of an University, governmental offices including police and legal offices, and neighboring institutions at the level of NGOs.