CRIMINAL MEDIATION IN PORTUGAL AND THE VIEW OF THE CRIMINAL PROSECUTORS: BRIEF AND (UN)PRETENTIOUS CONSIDERATIONS

Abstract

Mediation as an alternative technique for solving criminal conflicts anchored in the idea of restorative justice was introduced in Portugal through Law no. 21/2007. After a promising start, mediation was gradually abandoned, having been in a lethargic state since 2017. Seeking to understand the possible causes of this decay and to envisage the possibility of its resumption, we analysed in this paper whether the view and the actuation of members of the Portuguese Prosecutor’s Office in relation to mediation among the causes of its abandonment. This verification was carried out, methodologically, through the collection of documentary data and by listening to the members of the Prosecutor’s Office themselves.

Keywords

• criminal justice system
• criminal mediation
• restorative justice
• criminal prosecutor
• portugal