GLOBAL INNOVATIONS ON YOUTH VIOLENCE, SAFETY AND JUSTICE | EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
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Culture of Justice Overview When the culture of justice shifts away from a focus on safety, retribution, and systems of incarceration—the custody, control, and suppression model— to consider models that focus on human dignity, personal responsibility, and human rights as core values, youth violence prevention can be more effective. Changing the culture of justice is an integral part of violence prevention. A healthier culture of justice starts by interrogating the “why” of a crime, to better understand why people are coming in conflict with the law and to invest resources into mitigating those factors, rather than merely enforcing the law and perpetuating a cycle of violence and crime. This requires understanding a youth’s background, not only to individuate the justice system’s response, but to prevent similar occurrences. KEY TAKEAWAYS •
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Justice systems can be more effective and prevent future violence by offering communities more opportunities for mediation, dialogue, and healing—and ultimately afford individuals more dignity and agency. Individuals and communities are often better served by restorative justice models. Justice systems can be internally reformed (see Case Study 1 | New Jersey Police and Juvenile Justice Reform) or completely remade (see Case Study 2 | Georgian Police and Criminal Justice Reform). Reform can also be driven by external international partners rather than domestic players, which raises a different set of considerations (see Conditions for Reform in Countries of Transition). The culture of justice can also be shifted from within the individual, such as through youth arts interventions (see Case Study 3 | Baltimore Youth Arts).
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Reformers should consider looking beyond the criminal justice system to examine the reasons why people come into conflict with the law and work to mitigate those causes. This can prevent some conflicts from ever occurring, eliminating the downstream consequences and the cycle of violence.
