Informal Justice (SAGE Contemporary Criminology series)

By Roger Matthews

Informal legal processes such as mediation, arbitration, conciliation, and reparation arose out of attempts to remove disputes from the formal courtroom setting and restore them to the community. Initially, solving disputes out of court but with legal guidance was widely hailed as an alternative to the punishment model of justice and the restricting nature of the adversarial legal system. Now it is viewed as being a progressive constructive alternative to the formal legal process and as providing further expansion of the legal system. Roger Matthews has gathered together a team of distinguished contributors to present and evaluate the potential of informal justice benefits for victims, offenders, and the criminal justice system. This volume offers insightful information into the practical potential of mediation and other schemes and discusses the broader questions of social control, power, and the state. The research and practical experience of the authors contributes greatly to the authenticity of the contents and to the value of the book. Informal Justice? will be a welcome comparative study for criminologists, social workers, lawyers, and anyone involved in mediation and other kinds of informal justice. "Welcome addition to the libraries of judicial studies, composed in a knowledgeable and popular form attractive to specialists and a general readership alike. . . . Informal Justice (was) highly recommended in our television special publicizing some of the best books currently available to the reading public." --The Midwest Book Review "Matthews does a fine job of integrating and synthesizing the main points of his other contributors and his own ideas in a concise and lucid fashion. . . . Informal Justice? is a stimulating compilation of ideas on the potential roles of informal justice in the context of the legal system and the realm of power and social control." --American Journal of Police "A useful collection of papers that highlights the scope for further exploration and understanding of the theory and practice of informal justice. Collectively, the authors make the case for the future of informal dispute resolution in its own right." --British Journal of Criminology

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080398149X
• ISBN13: 9780803981492
• Release Date: December 1988
• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.5" x 5.3"