Abstract
Since 1972 the Columbus (Ohio) Night, Prosecutor's Program, recently designated as an "Exemplary Project" by LEAA, has di verted thousands of criminal cases out of the formal criminal jus tice system.
Instead of application of the criminal justice system's typical "arrest-jail-court" procedure, criminal complaints involving inter personal disputes—family arguments, landlord-tenant disagree ments, neighborhood fights, and similar conduct of people who must continue to maintain close personal contact with one an other—are diverted to a night prosecutor's "office trial," no later than one week after the "crime." The victim, the accused, friends, neighbors, and other interested parties come together in a hearing, presided over by a Capital University law student, under the super vision of the city prosecutor. Hearings are held during the eve nings to avoid loss of wages for the participants.
The administrative hearings, based on the concept of victim con frontation, serve to reopen the channels of communication be tween the parties. Only about 2 per cent of the complaints referred to the night prosecutor result ,in filing of ,formal criminal charges and issuance of arrest warrants. Of greater significance, in less than 3 per cent of the cases heard by the night prosecutor does the com plainant return and make a new charge against the party to the original dispute. Thus, the mediation and conciliation of interper sonal misdemeanors has proven to be an effective alternative to formal criminal process in such cases.
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