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As a new alternative, mediation is integrated in the legislation of both developed and developing countries in Europe. Various researchers in member states of the Council of Europe revealed obstacles, particularly related to the implementation of mediation in criminal matters. They are addressed through several recommendations and non-binding guidelines. However, there is limited empirical research on how mediation in criminal matters is being implemented in the contexts of developing countries in south-eastern Europe. Hence, the purpose of this qualitative study is to assess mediation in criminal matters in Kosovo by exploring how the main stakeholders describe the legal basis and implementation process and what it indicates for future practices. The data were gathered through 11 semi-structured interviews with judges, prosecutors, mediation clerks, and mediators. Results show that laws and other guidelines that have been introduced since 2008 constitute a solid legal ground that facilitates mediation in criminal matters. The stakeholders are well aware of the benefits mediation brings and express their willingness to advance its application to criminal matters. Results also indicate uncertainty among judges and prosecutors regarding the assessment and referral of certain criminal offences to mediation. To address it, specialized trainings, exchange programs, and continuous monitoring and evaluation of the process could be supportive. Full article

Criminal investigations aiming to track the route walked by missing persons and fugitives (MPFs) usually involve intelligence analysts, military planners, experts in mobile forensics, traditional investigative methods, and sniffer dog handlers. Nonetheless, when MPFs are devoid of any technological device and move in uninhabited rural areas devoid of tele cameras and densely covered by vegetation, tracking the route walked by MPFs may be a much more arduous task. In the XVIII century, the expert Georg Popp was able to link a homicide suspect to a sequence of different sites of criminal interest, located in the countryside, by studying the stains of soils found on the footwear and trousers of the suspect. In such complex cases, a very efficient approach for tracking the route walked by MPFs may consist of comparing the geological traces found on the MPFs and their belongings with soils exposed in the event scenes. In particular, the search for peculiar or rare particles and aggregates may strengthen the weight of the geological forensic evidence comparisons. A match of mineralogical, textural, and organic matter data may demonstrate the provenance of the traces from the soil of a specific site, thereby linking the MPFs to the scene of events. Based on the above, the present paper reports geological determinations accomplished for a “mediatic” casework. The results allowed a general high degree of compatibility among traces collected on the MPFs and on the soil from the scene of events to be ascertained. The most significant positive matches, based on the finding of ten peculiar and rare particles and assemblages, allowed the reconstruction of a route about 1.1 km long, as the crow flies, on the event site. Although this procedure was extremely time consuming and available only in a backwards reconstruction linked to the MPFs’ findings, it was of uttermost importance in strengthening the inferences proposed, and for which other methods could not provide any information. Full article