Characterizing Multi-door Criminal Justice

• In Event: Roundtable: Courts and Sentencing

Abstract

Criminal law has changed its form in recent years. Multiple justice mechanisms have become common, leading to diverse outcomes and reflecting multiple goals and values. This newly-emerged multiplicity warrants a comprehensive analysis of the characteristics of various criminal justice mechanisms.
In this Roundtable we would like to share an ongoing project that strives to conduct a systematic characterization of three prominent justice mechanisms (pre-trial settlement conferences, restorative justice, and community courts), that operate as diversions or additions to mainstream criminal justice process. We use a set of 17 scalar parameters that represent process-, substance-, stakeholder-, and outcome-related characteristics .
We are collecting data through observations, surveys and in-depth interviews. Four coders evaluate each process in each of the programs, using a 1-7 scale for each of the 17 parameters. Preliminary results suggest a high inter-rater agreement rate among coders, and the analysis of the aggregated coding is underway.
The study will provide policymakers and law enforcement agencies with a standardized instrument for typifying criminal justice mechanisms, developing new ones, and optimizing referral decisions in an era of multi-door criminal law.

Authors

• Tali Gal, University of Haifa

• Hadar Dancig-Rosenberg, Bar Ilan University Law School