scholarly journals Diversion, Rights and Social Justice

Youth Justice ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 147322542090284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Young People ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
The Other ◽  
Delinquent Behaviour ◽  
Justice Model ◽  
The One

This article draws on historical understandings and contemporary models of diversion in order to develop a critical framework and agenda for progressive practice. The argument essentially revolves around the contention that typically diversionary interventions have been constrained by the contextual and ideological frames within which they operate. They have in some cases been highly successful in reducing the numbers of young people being drawn into the formal criminal justice system; however, this has largely been achieved pragmatically, by way of an accommodation with the prevailing logic of penal practices. Young people have been diverted at least partly because they have been ascribed a lesser level of responsibility for their actions, whether by virtue of age or other factors to which their delinquent behaviour is attributed. This ultimately sets limits to diversion, on the one hand, and also offers additional legitimacy to the further criminalisation of those who are not successfully ‘diverted’, on the other. By contrast, the article concludes that a ‘social justice’ model of diversion must ground its arguments in principles of children’s rights and the values of inclusion and anti-oppressive practice.

Reductivism, Retributivism, and the Civil Detention of Dangerous Offenders

Utilitas ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-146
Author(s):  
David Wood
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Harm Reduction ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Harm ◽  
Reduction System ◽  
Dangerous Offenders ◽  
Theories Of Punishment ◽  
The One

The paper examines one objection to the suggestion that, rather than being subjected to extended prison sentences on the one hand, or simply released on the other, dangerous offenders should be in principle liable to some form of civil detention on completion of their normal sentences. This objection raises the spectre of a ‘social harm reduction system’, pursuing various reductivist means outside the criminal justice system. The objection also threatens to undermine dualist theories of punishment, theories which combine reductivist and retributivist considerations. The paper attempts to refute the objection by holding that a wedge can be driven between incapacitation and other reductivist measures, and hints at a possibly new version of dualism in the process.

scholarly journals Potential Partnerships: Progressive Criminology, Grassroots Organizations and Social Justice

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 76-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Goddard ◽  
Randolph R. Myers ◽  
Kaitlyn Robison
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Young People ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
System Reform ◽  
Grassroots Organizations ◽  
Racial Disproportionality ◽  
The Us

Criminologists around the globe are writing about the disproportionate criminalization of minority groups and – in the US in particular – about racial disproportionality in all aspects of the criminal justice system. This wealth of knowledge in progressive criminology rarely animates reform efforts: it has had little impact on formal policymaking, and has failed to animate the work of grassroots activists engaged in the fight for justice system reform. Yet given the increased criminalization of young people in poor communities – and the possibilities for change at this very moment – progressive criminological ideas have never been more important. We need to think about ways to make them public. Toward this end, this paper discusses possible partnerships between progressive criminology and social justice organizations struggling to transform the criminal justice system. While describing nine such groups, we detail a set of recommendations for bridging the gap between progressive criminology and social justice organizations.

scholarly journals From a Search for Rangatiratanga to a Struggle for Survival - Criminal Justice, the State and Māori, 1985 to 2015. The 2015 JD Stout Lecture

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Workman
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Youth Justice ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

In this presentation, I consider not only the relationship between Māori and the state, but the response of key criminal justice agencies to the surge of Māori confidence in the 1970’s and 80’s, and desire to take control of their own destiny – the Māori renaissance as it became known.  How did the Police, the prisons and the youth justice system respond to this call for rangatiratanga?  How easily did it respond to the idea that Māori, far from being passive recipients of the criminal justice system, wanted a piece of the action? How well did the operational reality meld with, on the one hand, the state’s vision of a bicultural nation, and on the other, the Māori vision for a measure of autonomy, a rangatiratanga not realised in any earlier constitutional or political arrangements?

scholarly journals Suivre à la trace

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 74-89
Author(s):  
Sallée Nicolas ◽  
Mohammed Aziz Mestiri ◽  
Jade Bourdages
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Computer Software ◽  
The Other ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Support Practices ◽  
The One

Based on data collected in Montreal, this article looks at the tensions underlying the supervision of young delinquents in the community. More specifically, it questions what happens to support practices in the context of a risk management approach that aims to intensify the monitoring of youths previously targeted as being most at risk of recidivism. To this end, it proposes to study the data resulting from the systematic recording, by the monitoring agents (known as “youth delegates”), of written traces of their activity in computer software dedicated to the traceability of the intervention. It then analyzes the double responsabilization strategy that the content of the software displays. This strategy rests, on the one hand, on the youth themselves, who are called upon to act as the main actors responsible for change, and, on the other hand, on the actors of their environment, in particular their parents, who are asked to collaborate with the youth delegates and, as such, are likely to be recruited as back-up workers for the criminal justice system.

Suspended Sentences in Spain: An Alternative to Prison or a “Bargaining Chip” in Plea Negotiations?

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 354-378
Author(s):  
Daniel Varona ◽  
Steven Kemp
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Plea Bargaining ◽  
The Other ◽  
European Research ◽  
Criminal Proceedings ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
The One

Abstract Criminal proceedings in many European states are increasingly being resolved via plea bargaining agreements; yet, there is relatively scant European research on the implications for the defendant or the role this practice plays within the criminal justice system. Using a sample of 1417 criminal cases, this paper examines how suspended prison sentences may be utilized in Spain to encourage or coerce defendants into a guilty plea. In addition to more traditional regression analysis, covariates are controlled through an entropy balancing process. The findings show defendants who agree a plea deal are indeed less likely to enter prison, which has profound implications for criminal justice in Spain and beyond. On the one hand, it appears plea bargaining is being used to improve the efficiency of the system and, thus, maintain its very existence. On the other hand, issues regarding false confessions and sentencing disparities are specifically highlighted.

Young People with Complex Needs in the Criminal Justice System

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leanne Dowse ◽  
Therese M. Cumming ◽  
Iva Strnadová ◽  
Jung-Sook Lee ◽  
Julian Trofimovs
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Young People ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Complex Needs

Justice versus Social Justice in South Africa: Quo vadis?

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marelize Isabel Schoeman
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Historical Discourse ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Underlying Basis ◽  
Quo Vadis

This article explores the concept of criminal justice as a formal process in which parties are judged and often adjudged from the paradigmatic perspective of legal guilt versus legal innocence. While this function of a criminal-justice system is important – and indeed necessary – in any ordered society, a society in transition such as South Africa must question the underlying basis of justice. This self-reflection must include an overview questioning whether the criminal-justice system and its rules are serving the community as originally intended or have become a self-serving function of state in which the final pursuit is outcome-driven as opposed to process-driven. The process of reflection must invariably find its genesis in the question: ‘What is justice?’ While this rhetorical phraseology has become trite through overuse, the author submits that the question remains of prime importance when considered contemporarily but viewed through the lens of historical discourse in African philosophy. In essence, the question remains unanswered. Momentum is added to this debate by the recent movement towards a more human rights and restorative approach to justice as well as the increased recognition of traditional legal approaches to criminal justice. This discussion is wide and in order to delimit its scope the author relies on a Socratically influenced method of knowledge-mining to determine the philosophical principles underpinning the justice versus social justice discourse. It is proposed that lessons learned from African philosophies about justice and social justice can be integrated into modern-day justice systems and contribute to an ordered yet socially oriented approach to justice itself.

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