Peacemaking criminology: approaches and theoretical foundations

Peacemaking Criminology: An Overview

The idea of constructing a "peacemaking criminology," according to criminologist academic Hal Pepinsky, may at first seem oxymoronic. The pursuit of criminal justice is usually construed as an essentially negative enterprise, an attempt to force criminals not to do something. Criminology is usually focused on "why we do what we should not, about how to stop us from doing wrong," and making people behave obediently to preexisting norms. Peacemaking, in contrast, stresses how we get the kind of human relations we do want, offering a more positive approach -- rather than stressing the rightness or wrongness of a side in a dispute, two opposing viewpoints are brokered between, and a consensus emerges. However, peacemaking criminology suggests that focusing on motivating individuals to act responsibly within their communities, in the context of a participatory democracy, is ultimately the best way to create a more just and peaceable society rather than on focusing on wrongdoing and punishing individuals who stray from laws and norms of obedience. (Pepinsky, 2000, Chapter 1)

Peacemaking criminology focuses on motivating people to want to behave correcting. This is accomplished creating a sense of investiture in all citizens, a sense that they are an integral part of a larger society and community. Empathy, responsibility, and reaping the rewards of kindness are critical values, rather than fear of authority. Equally critical to the point-of-view espoused by peacemaking criminologists such as Pepinsky is that criminality is not a natural state, merely an artificially conditioned response to an alienating environment. Criminologists of this school believe that humans are hard-wired born with the capacity to ask for help, and to put a premium on obedience is counter-productive and stifling to this desire. (Pepinsky, 2000, Chapter 4) Rather than compelling remorse through coercion, as "trying to make anyone else empathic or responsible rests on the fallacy of making empathy an act of obedience," one must create the desire to be obedient in the first place.