Beyond White Man's Justice: Race, Gender and Justice in Late Modernity

• NCJ Number: 213312
• Journal: Theoretical Criminology Volume: 10 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2006 Pages: 29-47
• Author(s): Barbara Hudson
• Date Published: February 2006
• Length: 19 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article discusses the principles of discursiveness, relationalism, and reflectivenss that have the ability for the field of justice to escape being identified as sexist and racist under White man’s justice.

Abstract

Restorative justice incorporates the three principles proposed to a greater degree than other forms of the criminal justice process. The three principles are discursiveness (all parties are allowed to tell their stories in their own words), relationalism (gender and race in relation to their communities), and reflectiveness (each case should be considered in terms of all its subjectivities, harms, wrongs and contexts and measured against concepts such as oppression, freedom and equality). In addition, these three principles are seen as being approached more closely in restorative justice than in formal criminal justice as it currently exists in western criminal justice systems. However, the application of these principles is identified as posing problems with regard to meeting the needs and expectations of participants, satisfying claims to justice, performing symbolic function of law, protecting participants from intimidation by others, and deflecting responsibility from communities and states. This article discusses these three principles in detail and proposes that the justice system incorporate these principles in order to move beyond the conclusions and exclusions of the White man’s justice. White man’s justice or White man’s law limits the justice afforded or offered to subordinate social identities, in relation to race and gender. To move beyond White man’s justice, new models must dissolve the White, male, “reasonable person” of law. The principles of discursiveness, relationalism, and reflectiveness are relevant to this issue and are derived from critiques and proposals of feminist, post-structuralist, and communitarian perspectives. References