Empirical research results from western countries more and more show that punishment has not a big effect on crime prevention, if at all. On the background of a critical discussion of the preventive effects of (sharper punishment) on crime rates, especially in USA, which has the highest imprisonment rate, much higher than in Russia, more and more traditional forms of dealing with crime were discussed and re-discovered, used hundreds of years ago in "traditional" societies. These forms of handling crime were often discussed under the topic of "mediation" or "restorative justice". The background for re-discovering these "old" forms of dealing with crime is that empirical criminological research could show the last decades more and more that the handling of the problem of crime used today, especially the sharp punishments like used especially in USA is obviously not the best way to deal with crime, to reduce the conflict in society. Punishing is also more expensive than the "alternatives", as can be seen especially in the USA, the country with the absolute highest incarceration rate all over the world the same time the country with a very high rate of violent crime. Especially the more and more re-discovered victimology and the foundation of victimology as an important part of criminology point out correctly that for a long time the victim of crime was forgotten, only used in modern trials as witness to proof the guilty of the offender. International research shows clearly that most victims, may be with the exception of victims of very severe crimes, are more interested in restitution of the damage caused by an offender than in punishment of the offender first. But the state and the penal law is more concentrated on punishing the offender, uses the victim as witness not more. The victim has in classical penal procedures only the satisfaction that the offender is punished, not more. This might be not the primary interest of the victim as research more and more show. Mediation tries to bridge between the interests of the victim, punishment and restoration of peace in society. "Restorative justice presents a different approach to achieving justice than the traditional court system. Whereas court systems depend on punitive measures and do not attend to victim concerns, restorative justice focuses on repairing the harm caused by an offense, bringing the offender back into society, and giving all actors affected by the crime (the offender, the victim and the community) a direct voice in the justice process". Very important for a broader use of mediation is that it is well known in the population but also in the group of lawyers, especially judges.
