Community Dispute Resolution Role-Play:

Juvenile Justice Restorative Circle

$0.00$6.00

David Baharvar under the supervision of Robert C. Bordone

Six- or eight-party mediated restorative justice circle among juvenile offender, offender's parent, victim, community member, facilitators supporting each side, and one or two mediators, regarding a juvenile shoplifting incident

Quantity

Please note: you must order a copy (a.k.a. license/usage fee) for every person participating in the simulation in your course. This simulation has multiple roles, so you will be unable to complete your purchase without meeting the minimum quantity requirement of copies per role.

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PON Teaching Negotiation Resource Center

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Soft copy vs. hard copy

You may order this role simulation in either soft copy (electronic) or hard copy (paper) format. If you select the soft copy option, you will receive an e-mail with a URL (website address) from which you may download an electronic file in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. You will have one week to download your materials from when you receive the email. You are then only authorized to use, print, or share the materials as many times as the number of copies you purchase. The TNRC charges for use of this simulation on a per-participant basis. Therefore, you must purchase a separate copy of this simulation for each person who will be participating, regardless of the number of roles in the simulation. You will only receive a link to one electronic file, which includes all general instructions, confidential instructions, and any teaching notes for the simulation. You should separate out the instructions before distributing to participants.

If you select the hard copy option, you will receive paper copies of this role simulation via the shipping method you select.

For additional information about the soft copy option, please visit our FAQ section, or contact the PON Teaching Negotiation Resource Center at tnrc@law.harvard.edu or 800-258-4406 (within the U.S.) or 301-528-2676 (outside the U.S.).

Please note: At the present time, Teaching Negotiation Resource Center soft copies are compatible with the following versions of the Adobe Acrobat Reader: English, German, French, Spanish, Swedish, Portuguese, Japanese, and Korean. If you have a different version of the Acrobat Reader, you may wish to download one of these at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html, or contact the PON Teaching Negotiation Resource Center at tnrc@law.harvard.edu, 800-258-4406 (within the U.S.), or 301-528-2676 (outside the U.S.) for further assistance. This restriction does not apply to the freely available Teacher’s Package Review Copies.

Ordering a single copy for review

If you wish to review the materials for a particular role simulation to decide whether you’d like to use it, a PDF, or soft copy, version of the Teacher’s Package for the simulation is available as a free download from the description page of most role simulations and case studies. All Teacher’s Packages include copies of all participant materials. In addition, some Teacher’s Packages (but not all) include additional teaching materials such as teaching notes or overhead masters.

Ordering copies for multiple participants

To order multiple copies of a role simulation for use in a course or workshop, simply enter the total number of participants in the box next to “Quantity.” There is no need to calculate how many of each role is required.

If you are ordering hard copies, the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center will calculate the appropriate numbers of each role to provide, based on the total number of participants. For example, if you wish to order a 2-party role simulation for use with a class of 30 students, you would enter “30” in the box next to “Quantity.” You then would receive 15 copies of one role and 15 copies of the other role, for use with your 30 participants. As another example, if you ordered 30 participant copies of a 6-party role simulation, you would receive 5 copies of each role.

In the event that the number of participant copies you order is not evenly divisible by the number of roles in the simulation, you will receive extra copies of one or more roles. Participants receiving the extra roles may partner with other participants playing the same role, thus negotiating as a team. So, for instance, if you ordered 31 copies of a 2-party role simulation, you would receive 15 copies of the first role and 16 copies of the second role. One of the participants playing the second role would partner with another participant playing that same role, and the two would negotiate as a team.

Bulk Pricing Discount

For bulk orders, we offer the following pricing discounts. Please note that these only apply to bulk orders of the same simulation.

  • Between 100-250 copies – 10% discount
  • Between 251-500 copies – 25% discount
  • More than 500 copies – 50% discount
Log In or Register to download the free Teacher's Package Sample.

SCENARIO:

This case is a "community restorative circle" scenario, which is a structure somewhere in between a typical two-party mediation and a complex multi-party mediation. The restorative justice model is an alternative to the usual adjudicative process for dealing with small crimes where the offender has admitted their guilt. The victim of the crime and the offender are brought face to face, but there are also community members present, plus facilitators who act as support for the parties, plus mediators ("Keepers"). All parties must sign off on any agreement. In total, the case can involve eight people or six (take away the two "facilitator" roles).

This is a juvenile delinquency, first-time offender case. A teenager was caught for low-monetary-value shoplifting and admits his guilt. Both he and the store owner have chosen to try a restorative circle to come up with a process of resolving the matter, while the juvenile court process is put on hold. The roles are based on the real-world model of Concord Restorative Circle, a volunteer, non-profit organization in Concord, Massachusetts.

 

MAJOR LESSONS:

  • How mediators should adapt their approach when faced with a community-based mediation setting, and how mediators can apply some of the same principles here as in two-party mediation contexts. If mediation is the focus of the teaching, then it is best to have two already-trained mediators play the role of the mediators here.
  • Along these lines, the case may be used to introduce mediators who have only two-party or court-annexed mediation experience to a multi-party mediation context, but one that is still relatively simple and revolves around only two parties.
  • For the people who play facilitators (a role somewhere in-between advocate, counselor, and reality-checker for their particular party), the case illustrates how using the Harvard Negotiation Project's "7-elements" model of negotiation plays out in a multi-party context.
  • For everyone involved, the case illustrates principles of restorative justice in practice.

 

Participant Materials Include:

  • Police Report
  • General Instructions

 

Confidential Instructions for:

  • Shaheen Laheejan, grocery store owner
  • Chris Jensen, 16-year-old offender
  • Robin Jensen, Chris's parent
  • Sam Jones, community member
  • Two "Keepers" (co-mediators)
  • "Facilitator" for Shaheen Laheejan (optional role for 8-party version)
  • "Facilitator" for Chris Jensen (optional role for 8-party version)

 

Teacher's Package includes:

  • All of the above
  • Teaching notes

Juvenile Justice Restorative Circle Attributes

Time required: 1-2 hours
Number of participants: 6
Teams involved: No
Agent present: Non-lawyer
Neutral third party present: Mediator
Scoreable: No
Teaching notes available: Yes