A Force for Change?: the Prospects for Applying Restorative Justice to Citizen Complaints against the Police

Eugene McLaughlin; Anja Johansen

doi:10.1093/bjc/42.3.635

A Force for Change? the Prospects for Applying Restorative Justice to Citizen Complaints against the Police

Eugene McLaughlin
, Anja Johansen

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

27 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The rise of the victim support movement and the emergence of restorative justice practices have established ‘the victim’ as central to debate on criminal justice policy in the United Kingdom. However, victims of police misconduct have to date remained largely invisible within this debate. The aggrieved citizen is not allocated the morally validated status of ‘victim’ but the highly problematic status of ‘complainant’. As a result, the police complaints system concentrates its efforts on interrogating her or his motives and complaints tend to be rendered unconvincing by the system. In many respects, the system acts to discipline or punish those citizens who have the temerity to lodge a complaint against police officers. It is now proposed, in the context of broader reforms, that the application of restorative justice principles will overcome the core problems associated with the police complaints system.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	635-653
Number of pages	19
Journal	British Journal of Criminology
Volume	42
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/42.3.635
Publication status	Published - 2002

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Keywords

Restorative justice
Police complaints
Citizen complaints
Police governance

Access to Document

10.1093/bjc/42.3.635

Cite this

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title = "A Force for Change?: the Prospects for Applying Restorative Justice to Citizen Complaints against the Police",

abstract = "The rise of the victim support movement and the emergence of restorative justice practices have established {\textquoteleft}the victim{\textquoteright} as central to debate on criminal justice policy in the United Kingdom. However, victims of police misconduct have to date remained largely invisible within this debate. The aggrieved citizen is not allocated the morally validated status of {\textquoteleft}victim{\textquoteright} but the highly problematic status of {\textquoteleft}complainant{\textquoteright}. As a result, the police complaints system concentrates its efforts on interrogating her or his motives and complaints tend to be rendered unconvincing by the system. In many respects, the system acts to discipline or punish those citizens who have the temerity to lodge a complaint against police officers. It is now proposed, in the context of broader reforms, that the application of restorative justice principles will overcome the core problems associated with the police complaints system.",

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AB - The rise of the victim support movement and the emergence of restorative justice practices have established ‘the victim’ as central to debate on criminal justice policy in the United Kingdom. However, victims of police misconduct have to date remained largely invisible within this debate. The aggrieved citizen is not allocated the morally validated status of ‘victim’ but the highly problematic status of ‘complainant’. As a result, the police complaints system concentrates its efforts on interrogating her or his motives and complaints tend to be rendered unconvincing by the system. In many respects, the system acts to discipline or punish those citizens who have the temerity to lodge a complaint against police officers. It is now proposed, in the context of broader reforms, that the application of restorative justice principles will overcome the core problems associated with the police complaints system.

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