ABSTRACT
Mediation service is offered in criminal and certain civil cases, offering an opportunity to seek conciliation between the offender and victim of the crime. Mediation illustrates co-production between civil society and traditional welfare state professionals. The case of mediation is especially interesting from the viewpoint of accountability relations and the emerging roles of citizen-volunteers and trained professionals. Mediation can be described as a unique public service in the Finnish welfare state model that substantially relies on trained professionals. In this context, the mediation service makes an exception: the service relies on the efforts of citizen-volunteers as mediators. Being a service based on citizen co-production, mediation is also intriguing in a sense that it is a legally regulated public service that is obligatory to organize. For the citizens as parties of mediation (the victim and the offender), the mediation is a voluntary and free service.
