- Dr. Martin Luther King
The principles of peacemaking criminology looks to the community to resolve the social issues causing crime, and prefers restoration and restitution in a participatory process, over retribution and punishment by the criminal justice system. This Peacemaking Criminology perspective seems predicated on the belief that peace is brought about by removing all social ills and social injustice. Rather than the conflict-based legal system where there is always one winner and one loser (either the criminal is convicted ((loser)) and state wins, or criminal is exonerated ((wins)) and the state loses), peacemaking criminology seeks to create a win-win system of criminology where agencies and criminals work together in order to address the social ills causing the crime and focusing on restoration and reparation. This seems entirely based on the principle that the absence of conflict is the presence of peace.
Harold E. Pepinsky and Richard Quinney advanced the theory of peacemaking criminology by advocating that society moves away from thinking that stopping crime is the answer to crime control, and that making peace between everyone, in particular, agencies of the criminal justice system and citizens. The Peacekeeping Criminology theory advances principles of "commonsense" theories about crime, moving away from conflict based social policies based on classic methods of criminology, crime control as the enforcement and endorsement of human rights, the role of education in creating peace, and how community settings are utilized to address conflict resolution.
By ending human suffering via peacemaking and elimination of conflict, Quinney and Wilderman state that crime can be eliminated. Instead of punishment, conflict resolution panels and alternative-dispute resolution is utilized to create participatory justice and focus on rehabilitation, repairing and restoration caused by crime, and that victims are centrally involved in the process of resolving crime. Peacekeeping criminology presumes to advance social theories of criminology to the extent that both society and the criminal are presumed accountable for crime.
However, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously and correctly stated, "Peace is not the absence of conflict, it is the presence of justice." A complete dictatorship where there is no conflict is not a system of peace, nor can there be peace without justice. Critically, this theory seems incredibly naive, and you cannot solve crimes by providing a group hug. What kind of reparation can you make for human suffering, loss of a limb/eye/mobility or death? How will the destitute make reparations for thousands or even millions of dollars of damage from a crime? The naive assumption that all crime can be blamed on society and societal problems, and that there is no personal accountability or psychology involved seems to have created a system that MIGHT operate effectively as arbitration for minor offenses, but seems ill-suited for violent crimes and felonies.
Indian reservations in the United States employ a number of alternative courts and dispute resolution processes, and many include restorative justice principles through alternative-dispute resolution. As the article by Justin Peters published on Slate, Violent Crime on Indian Reservations Is Up, But Prosecutions Are Down demonstrates, violent crime on Indian reservations is more than 20 times the national average, and many estimate it to in fact be 200x more than the US. The news article cites the reasons for this being ill-trained criminal justice systems, ineffective alternative-dispute resolution panels and general lack of quality in the agencies of criminal justice. Violent crime cannot be resolved via dispute resolution, and drunken assaults are not going to be effected by the thought of going before a committee to explain your action. Morning Star Brown, according to the article, had stabbed or threatened to stab her boyfriend's cousin, Jarret Two Bear, no fewer than 6 times in the 3 years of her relationship with her boyfriend. She had been convicted of aggravated assault the year prior, but without effect. Although it seems as though at least some of the courts adjudicating her various cases used classic retribution systems of incarceration, the overall lawlessness and prevalence of violent crime seems to have been caused by a lack of justice, not a lack of love and hugs by the community. While the case could certainly be made that alcohol abuse was a substantive causative influence at the downfall of Morning Star Brown and the death of Jarret Two Bear. (Peters, Justin. 2013.)
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