SOCIAL CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE

AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Main modern theoretical framework in reading

criminal justice policies assume that crime is an
individual or collective conflict about resources
and formal social reaction to crime through
institutionalized agenciescriminal justice
system as a wholeis structured to regulate,
control, handle or somehow manage this conflict.
(It doesnt imply or reflect conflict theory of
crime explanations or assumptions at macro-
social level)
 PERSPECTIVE
AND
VICTIMS ROLE IN CJS

CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE prompted when a new

scientific and socio-political interest arose about
crime victims and their role in CJS
Early seminal examples:
-MARGERY FRY Arms of the law [1951]
-NILS CHRISTIE Conflicts as property [Br J
Criminol(1977)17(1):1-15]
 CHRISTIES BJC ABSTRACT

CONFLICTS are seen as important elements in

society. Highly industrialized societies do not have
too much internal conflict, they have too little. We
have to organize social systems so that conflicts are
both nurtured and made visible and also see to it
that professionals do not monopolize the handling of
them. Victims of crime have in particular lost their
rights to participate. A court procedure that restores
the participants' rights to their own conflicts is
outlined
 SOCIAL CONFLICT
PERSPECTIVE

AND
VICTIMS ROLE IN CJS
The idea of crime as conflict has been revisited to
give ground and force to restorative justice but it
can fuel anyway interventions to enhance the role
of the victim in the criminal justice system apart
from conflict composition policy objectives.
 R E S T O R AT I V E J U S T I C E A N D
SOCIAL CONFLICT
PERSPECTIVE
Van Ness suggests that restorative justice rests on the following
principles:
Crime is primarily conflict between individuals resulting in
injuries to victims, communities and the offenders themselves;
only secondarily is it law-breaking.
The criminal justice process should facilitate active
participation by victims, offenders and their communities. It
should not be dominated by the government to the exclusion of
others.
VAN NESS D., (1993), New wine in old wineskins: four
challenges of restorative justice, Criminal Law Forum, vol. 4
 CRIME IS A CONFLICT
Crime generally speaking in conflict perspective
is the individual or collective use of force or
power as attempt to solve a conflict in own
favour overcoming opponent resistance
forbidden by law or other formal social
institution
It means that crime can be a stage of an existing conflict
continuum or a starting point of a post-victimization conflict
continuum with different features.
CJS tries to mange and handle these conflicts.

ACJS 49th Annual Meeting Sustainable

Justice NY
 HYSTORICAL D OUBL E
D IMENSION
CONFLICT AMONG INDIVIDUALS AND AMONG GROUPS

SHIFT OVER TIME

CONFLICT BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL AND INSTITUTIONAL

AUTHORITY (King, State, crime control collective
institutions)

ACJS 49th Annual Meeting Sustainable

Justice NY