October 9, 2018

Law, Justice, and Citizenship in the Twenty First Century

This PhD thesis approaches the possibility of using police forces as conflict mediators. It is centered on the interest of demonstrating the need and the juridical feasibility of resorting to police mediation as a methodology of policing adapted to a consensual model of civil and criminal justice. Thus, it is, an effort to prevent crime and promote a culture of peace in the communities assisted by the police. This study is based on a fruitful bibliographical research and document analysis. It builds a theoretical framework capable of proving the plausibility of the hypotheses, problems and propositions raised in the course of its research. It includes a detailed study of the Portuguese-Brazilian legislation while also reviewing the transnational legislation. In particular, the standards issued by the United Nations and the European Union are addressed, to identify the legal contours that regulate the mandate of the police in the 21st century, as well as the legal arrangements that legitimize and enable the procedural aspects for consensual conflict resolution methods. This work also includes a critical analysis of the aims of sentences and of some key issues linked to violence and criminality. Precisely, it is examined some leading criminological schools and theories that explain crime, along with their respective criminal policies. The police force is central to the debate, as this work seeks to call for the attention of society, academic community and police officers to the police's work and its productivity levels. This work examines the benefits that may be experienced by society and the police forces from using mediation as a public safety policy. It argues for the transformation of the current authoritarian, vertical and reactive police model into a proactive, horizontal and preventive model centered on an expanded perspective of crime prevention. Some of its practices are, based on the management of conflicts in the communities, on adequate administrative discretion and on the gradual use of force by the police. It also presents the state of the art regarding police mediation in Portugal, and assesses a number of successful police mediation programs implemented in Brazil, Spain and Italy. Also, it analyzes key legal issues that may be raised in connection with police mediation, including a detailed description of the principles, methodology and rules to be observed in the employment of a parameter for police action. Finally, it assesses routine problems and conflicts that can be submitted to police mediation, as well as the main obstacles and challenges for its implementation.

Keywords: Police forces; Crime prevention; Restorative practices; Police mediation; Social pacification