CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Criminal Justice

Criminal Justice

Introduction

One reason why criminal justice has the potential to produce a paradigm shift is that it is a comprehensive and coherent theory of justice. Criminal justice has ancient roots in both aboriginal and non-aboriginal societies. It has been found in communities before the Norman Conquest (Van Ness 1986) and in the practices of various aboriginal communities (Llewellyn and Hoebel 1941). It focuses on bringing together offenders, victims, their families and supporters, and members of the community to recognize that a wrong has been done or alleged and to propose some form of restoration. Taken in this pure sense, criminal justice combines what may be seen as legislative, prosecutorial, defence, judicial, and correctional functions.

There is no shortage of attempts to define criminal justice. I have defined criminal justice, whether practiced in family conferences, victim offender reconciliation programmes, or aboriginal healing circles, as a circle model of justice because of the common approach of bringing participants together in the less hierarchical and more informal setting of a circle and their common attempts to restore the equality that has been disturbed by the commission of a crime and to take a holistic approach to the experiences of both offending and victimization. Circles in their various forms "are united by their concern for the welfare of both offenders and victims, informal non-punitive approaches and wide community participation. The key players in these circles should be the victim, the offender, and their families and supporters- not police, prosecutors, Defence lawyers, or judges who may appropriate their dispute. Victims play the most crucial role and this gives them some of the power and autonomy that was taken away by the crime. They have the power to decide whether to accept apologies and plans for reparation" (Roach 1999b: 709-710). The Law Commission of Canada has articulated three fundamental principles of criminal justice: 1) crime is a violation of a relationship among victims, offenders, and the community 2) restoration involves the victim, the offender and community members and 3) a consensus approach to justice (Law Commission 1999).

Definition by Different Court System

The Supreme Court of Canada has defined criminal justice as attempts "to remedy the adverse effects of crime in a manner that addresses the needs of all parties involved. This is accomplished, in part, through the rehabilitation of the offender, reparations to the victim and to the community, and the promotion of a sense of responsibility in the offender and acknowledgement of the harm done to victims and to the community" (Proulx 2000). John Braithwaite (1999: 6) has defined the core values of criminal justice as "healing rather than hurting, moral learning, community participation and community caring, respectful dialogue, forgiveness, responsibility, apology and making amends". Criminal justice looks both to the past and to the future through the practice of what John Whyte (2000) has described as "circles of memory and hope".

Criminal justice is a comprehensive and commanding theory of justice. It can be applied in a wide variety of ...