Participatory justice

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Criminology and penology
Theory Anomie Biosocial criminology Broken windows Collective efficacy Crime analysis Criminalization Differential association Deviance Expressive function of law Labeling theory Psychopathy Rational choice Risk & actuarial criminology Social control Social disorganization Social learning Strain Subculture Symbolic interactionism Victimology
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Participatory justice, broadly speaking, refers to the direct participation of those affected most by a particular decision, in the decision-making process itself: this could refer to decisions made in a court of law or by policymakers. Popular participation has been called "the ethical seal of a democratic society" by Friedhelm Hengsbach, a professor of Christian Social Science and Economic and Social Ethics at the Philosophical-Theological College Sankt Georgen in Frankfurt^[1] and "the politics of the future" by Gene Stephens, professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina.^[2] It is about people and relationships.^[3]

Various authors have claimed that examples of participatory justice date back to civilizations as old as that of the Canadian Aboriginals and Ancient Athenians, even if the terminology had not been in use then.^[4][5][6][7] In the society of Canadian Aboriginals, citizens were given the opportunity to give their own account of a dispute in public and determine the proper course of action, which sometimes involved issuing a public apology.^[6][7] Elders were viewed as authorities due to their unique knowledge of the circumstances of community members.^[6][7] In ancient Athens, large popular courts, made up of 200 to 1000 randomly selected male citizens, shared in both functions of forming and of applying the law.^[4][5] The term "participatory justice" itself, however, was first used by Bellevue, Washington-based attorney Claire Sherman Thomas in 1984 to describe the process by which people act as responsible participants in the law making process, thereby contributing to causes of social justice.^[8] In 1986, Gene Stephens first used the term to describe an alternative to the adversarial model of justice system used in court.^[2]

Both definitions of participatory justice relate to the concept of participatory democracy, which shares similar aspirations: to provide the government with democratic legitimacy and make for a more inclusive, transparent, equal society, by allowing citizens to participate directly in political decision-making and lawmaking processes that affect their lives.^[6][7][8][9]

In rare cases, it also refers to the use of the Internet or a television reality show to catch a perpetrator.^[10]