Puneet Varma (Editor)

Participatory justice

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Participatory justice

Participatory justice is the use of alternative dispute resolution, such as mediation, conciliation, and arbitration, in criminal justice systems, instead of, or before, going to court. It is sometimes called "community dispute resolution".

Contents

In rare cases, it also refers to the use of The Internet or a television reality show to catch a perpetrator.

Once used primarily in Scandinavia, Asia, and Africa, participatory justice has been "exported" to the United States and Canada. It is used in a variety of cases, including between "Landlords and Tenants, Neighbours, Parents and Children, Families and Schools, Consumers and Merchants ... [and] victims of crime and offenders."

It has been called "the ethical seal of a democratic society" by Jesuit Friedhelm Hengsbach, and "the politics of the future." It is about "People and Relationships."

Advantages

Some advantages of participatory justice are:

  • It marks a society as ethical.
  • It can be used to "right" wrongs.
  • It is an alternative to the lack of "public confidence and participant satisfaction in the adversarial justice system", which has led to "inconsistency and uncertainty, delay and alienation of the community" ....
  • It is an alternative to "plea bargaining or dispositional justice"....
  • It can "preserve good relations, particularly if the dispute involves neighbours or business contacts."
  • It is "confidential, unlike court proceeedings."
  • It applies civil law rather than criminal law.
  • It is useful where "societies that lack a strong central power, where the State is a weak one, or where the State representatives are far away, people are forced not to apply force."
  • It focuses on personal relationships.
  • NGOs (Non-governmental organizations) may get involved in the administration of criminal justice.
  • It costs less than civil litigation.

    • Disadvantages

    Some disadvantages of participatory justice are:

  • The motive is often "humiliation" of a party.
  • It is used by people who are not trained in the collection of evidence.
  • There are no "checks and balances" for vigilantes.
  • The offender's motivation is difficult to assess if the alternative is more formal punishment.
  • The victim does not know the offending history of the offender and therefore may be engaged in the process without full facts and knowledge.

    • References

    Participatory justice Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA