Mediation in strafzaken: het aanboren van onbenut potentieel?

Abstract

Although mediation in criminal cases (MiS) has become more established in recent years and is now a solid part of criminal procedure, it is only used in a small number of cases. A recent legislative pilot introduced a new provision that allows the court to issue a "termination of proceedings order" after successful mediation. Our evaluation of this pilot shows that, although the provision provides more judicial discretion and opportunity for redress, it does raise several (legal) concerns. Moreover, the underlying procedure placed additional demands on scarce court capacity. This raises the question of whether the new provision will truly promote the use of MiS. In this article, we analyze the opportunities and limitations of the pilot and reflect on possible directions for broader and more effective application of MiS.