Innovations in Justice

Catalog description

This 2-credit course introduces students to the innovative ideas and practices around a justice approach where individual and community building and healing is at the forefront in the wake of dysfunction, calamities and crimes. This alternate approach is in contrast to a retributive system of justice where punishment, proportionate to the offense, is doled out to offenders and where victims are often sidelined. Students will explore the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of restorative and therapeutic justice and practice, in class, different techniques associated with various approaches. Students will also be asked to observe up to 6 hours in the community, related to their chosen research project and to write a significant paper which captures both their scholarly and field research.