ABSTRACT
From 1993 onwards, community mediation projects have been introduced and developed in an increasing number of neighbourhoods in Dutch towns and cities (Peper et al. 1999). The first project started in Zwolle in 1996. This project was quickly started because it was initiated by a high justice official who managed to win the support of a local welfare agency after a visit to San Francisco to study the workings of the famous San Francisco Community Boards (SFCBs). The Zwolle project was implemented top down and on a city-wide basis. The second project was also inspired by the SFCBs and was developed in Rotterdam in 1993 on the initiative of an important housing corporation (Blad 1996). By 1997 this project had been implemented in three neighbourhoods, after a long period of preparation involving consultations with the city council, the councils of the areas in Rotterdam where the neighbourhoods were selected, the police and the office of the public prosecutor. The Rotterdam projects were implemented in a bottom-up way and at a neighbourhood level.
