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No, this is not a furthering discussion of Forking DongleGate.
Justice is the pursuit of truth, and equality under the law. Social justice is the ideal state where fairness in the social system gives everyone an equal opportunity and is based on cultural mores and values for fairness and morality. As cultural systems create their own ideas of right and wrong (e.g. contrasting Islamic Sharia principles, Judaeo-Christian values and Shinto), there cannot be a single version of social justice. Ready examples would be the treatment of women in different cultures, and what kind of social justice is presumed in that society to be fair and equitable. The sense of honoring a woman and social justice for her in Israel will be different from that in Kenya, China and the UK. One ready example made the newspapers this morning about women in combat - some cultures would view that as highly dishonorable and unjust.
Criminal justice is inexorably tied to the concepts of justice and social justice, because crime is a social problem, and operates within a culture and society. Cultures will decide for themselves what is deviant behavior.
In Amsterdam, the red-light windows where prostitutes earn their trade is seen as a necessary and, if not honorable, a relatively dignified answer to a social issue, and sex is viewed quite differently in other parts of the world. Japan sees pornography as obscene, so has rigorous censorship, yet infamously has vending machines selling used undergarments, and bars where oral sex is purchased along with a beer, since oral sex isn't considered "sex" in Japan. Purchasing used undergarments would be seen as deviancy in other cultures, and oral sex is a crime in some of them (e.g. Malaysia, Hong Kong). So, the very notion of crime is tied to the social mores.
The women of Amsterdam's infamous red windows would be committing crimes in Saudi Arabia, yet gay sex isn't seen as sex, according to reports I've received from soldiers returning from the Middle East. A friend of mine was officer in the US Marines deployed to the Middle East, as a liaison officer with other NATO units. The number one morale issue he had to deal with regularly were the officers in the army of that country who were raping their own troops, and saw nothing wrong with it, though male-male rape would be a crime in most countries, and is against the Uniform Code of Military Justice of the US armed forces.
We can see this in the changing work environment, where harassment and sexual harassment charges for behaviors today were just "part of the office" of the past. Before you immediately jump to the conclusion that that was due to the oppression of women workers, let me share a story. I worked with an older woman from 1995-1999, let's call her Barbara. Barbara was a collector of stories, and had some great experiences - one of her jobs was to book acts into the Sands casino in Vegas, and it seemed her primary job was keeping the Rat Pack sober enough to perform. Barbara shared with me that, in her workplace in the 60s, they frequently (weekly?) played a game in the office where someone would yell some phrase I've forgotten (maybe "Grab Ass!" ??). That would start the game, and the men would chase the women around, jumping over desks, chairs, whatever, with the goal being to tackle and remove the panties of the woman being pursued, and her goal was to avoid it. The last woman with panties on won for the women's team, and the man with the most panties won on the men's team. The TRULY unbelievable part was the sincere way in which she swore that this was a fun game for all, and was just some harmless fun. I was floored. I asked for clarification on that whole, "It was cool with the women, and they thought it was great" part. Twice. Not only were they fine with it, but looked forward to it as fun competition. No, really. With my 90s PC ears burning and brain on fire, I wondered at the time if I could be fired for just HEARING that story. Tackling women to rip their panties off in the workplace would result in prosecution nowadays, but was apparently in accordance with the mores of the time and place, and not considered deviancy or illegal. #brainonfire #derp #reboot
The differing mores for deviancy provide for the criminality of some behaviors, and create differing views of social justice - Amsterdam sees dignity in prostitution, at least one Middle Eastern country sees normalcy in high-ranking officers raping their troops, and Japan sees oral sex from a sex worker as not breaking marital vows, because it's in the realm of a "massage", so there is no adultery, a form of social injustice, perceived in the act. Yet, Japanese pornographers are breaking the law, and porn stars are deviants in that culture. As notions of right and wrong effect both the opinion of social justice and criminality, how those deviancies are pursued and prosecuted creates a system of justice.
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