ABSTRACT
This chapter will commence with a brief introduction to the field of evaluation research, which will also set out to answer the questions why, and for whom, such research is important. Evaluation research is far from being unique to the field of community mediation although, as we shall see, it raises a number of issues that are of special importance to those engaged in this work. For this reason the chapter will also set out a typology of evaluative approaches, which seeks to identify the range of issues specific to community mediation that evaluation research might be capable of addressing. This is followed by a very brief history of evaluation research in the field of community mediation.
