Where conflict mediation is concerned, we have seen a dual development in the Netherlands over the past ten years. On the one hand there is a tendency for the police to ‘return to the core tasks’, meaning that the police abandon mediation tasks, amongst other things. At the same time, conflict mediation and grievance mediation has taken off over the past fifteen years, in neighbourhoods as well as in large organisations such as hospitals and other government institutions. The police seem to act increasingly as a ‘referral agency’, and want to stay away from mediation and restorative justice
practices...