As part of the Centre’s Justice Matters initiative, in the first half of 2014 we are considering what downsizing criminal justice might mean for women currently caught up in the criminal justice system.
This is a joint initiative between the Centre and Women in Prison. It presents an opportunity to engage in a radical ‘thought experiment’ about women currently caught up in criminal justice and to reconsider the boundaries of criminal justice as a cultural and institutional response to women.
We have two key concerns.
- Is criminal justice a form of violence against women? We’ll be taking a critical look at the way criminal justice engages with the women subject to it. If we start with the realities of the lives and aspirations of women who come into contact with criminal justice, what institutional response would be appropriate to these women? How do criminal justice responses differ from this?
- What’s the alternative? If we could think outside the criminal justice box, what kinds of policy and practice alternatives might be possible?
Rebecca Roberts outlines some of the thinking informing the project in this blog.
This work has been made possible by the support of the J Paul Getty Jnr Charitable Trust.
Project