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What We Do
bullet Combat Terrorism
bullet Apprehend Most-Wanted and Other Fugitives
bullet Locate Missing Persons
bullet Manage Prisons and Inmates
bullet Uphold Civil Rights & Liberties
bullet Uphold Disability Rights
bullet Operate Task Forces
bullet Help Victims of Crime
bullet Foster Safe Communities
bullet Combat Gang Violence
bullet Prevent Youth Violence
bullet Halt Domestic Violence
bullet Investigate Fraud
bullet Fight Trafficking in Persons
bullet Promote Dispute Resolution

Promote Dispute Resolution

The Department promotes the use of conflict resolution strategies for deterring crime, promoting economic growth, and enhancing quality of life.

The Community Capacity Development Office (CCDO) helps communities help themselves.  The goals are to foster mutual respect between police and communities, to provide young people with the skills to resolve arguments peacefully, to encourage partnerships that build on diversity, to prevent crimes of hate and bias, to offer victim-offender and community mediation, and to engage greater citizen participation in local decision-making. Learn more about these resources by visiting the Community Capacity Development Office site.

The Community Relations Service (CRS) is the Department's "peacemaker" for community conflicts and tensions arising from differences of race, color, and national origin. Its services are provided to local officials and leaders by trained federal mediators on a voluntary and cost-free basis. The kinds of assistance available from CRS include mediation of disputes and conflicts, training in conflict resolution skills, and help in developing ways to prevent and resolve conflicts. Contact your CRS regional office for help in your community.

Many Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) disputes can be resolved successfully through informal methods. Through its ADA Mediation Program, the Department refers appropriate ADA disputes to mediators at no cost to the parties. The mediators in the Department of Justice program are professional mediators who have been trained in the legal requirements of the ADA. If you want to work with a mediator and the other party to resolve an ADA dispute through the Department's program, you can follow the usual procedure for filing a complaint (title II (public entities), title III (private entities)) with the Department and note on the complaint that you want to take your dispute to mediation. While we cannot guarantee that everyone who wants mediation will be able to participate in the program, the Department will make every effort to comply with requests for mediation.

The Office of Dispute Resolution coordinates the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) for the Department of Justice. The office is responsible for ADR policy matters, ADR training, assisting lawyers in selecting the right cases for dispute resolution, and finding appropriate neutrals to serve as mediators, arbitrators, and neutral evaluators. The office also coordinates the Interagency ADR Working Group, an organization that promotes the use of ADR throughout federal executive branch agencies, which was created by the President and is chaired by the Attorney General.

Publications that can assist individuals and communities deal with problem situations can be found on the CRS site.

For more information about the Department components that are most active in this area, consult the Community Relations Service (CRS), Community Capacity Development Office, and Office of Dispute Resolution web sites.




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