LEGAL AND SOCIAL DIMENSION OF MEDIATION IN POLISH CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

The concept of mediation and related proceedings are becoming more and more popular among practitioners and theorists of law and other scientific fields, such as anthropology, philosophy, economics, sociology or psychology. Mediation is used in various areas of human life, both external, interpersonal, related to influencing human behavior, as well as internal, intrapersonal, related to emotions, experiences, feelings and social attitudes resulting from them. The use of this institution is also closer to judicial practice, both in terms of broadly understood civil law and criminal law or proceedings in juvenile cases. The analysis of this issue gives grounds for the claim that mediation, as a certain form of striving for agreement, has a real impact on every aspect of human life. However, the problem is much more complex. This analysis is only an outline of it and an attempt to draw attention to those issues that at first glance seem to be of little importance, but as a consequence have a number of far-reaching social and legal consequences. The aim of the work is to present mediation in the Polish criminal trial and its importance for every citizen, both from a legal, social and psychological perspective. Also taken an attempt to verify, whether criminal mediation can be an alternative to the court proceedings or only a support for it.