CSCS: Our Critiques of the Current Criminal Justice System

The current system fails to create and maintain safe communities.

The pro-punishment approach is costly and short-sighted. Investing more resources into drug and alcohol treatment, adult basic education, job creation in low-income neighborhoods, and other critical components of the social safety net prevents future crime.

Our system is biased and continues to institutionalize prejudice.

People of color and poor people are disproportionately victimized in our society, and accused and convicted by the criminal justice system based on multi-faceted and institutionalized bias.

Survivor’s needs are not being met.

The majority of survivors of violence don’t engage in the criminal justice system. Therefore, their needs are not being addressed.

The current system too often confines survivors of crime to the limited position of a “witness” to a crime. This can lead to the feeling of being exploited to secure a conviction, regardless of how draining and damaging that process might be.

The system de-humanizes accused and convicted people, the same thinking that allows someone to harm another person.

When we disregard the humanity of prisoners by allowing institutionalized violence in our prisons and jails, we can not simultaneously promote a culture of accountability that respects human rights.

The criminal justice system operates with a false and overly simple distinction between “offenders,” “crime victims,” and general society.

We know that the majority of violence is never reported, and many survivors do not get the help they need. We also know that there are many survivors who do report and try to access help who are then blamed for the violence they have endured. We know that more often than not people who have committed crimes have also suffered from a great deal of violence in their lives. We believe that people must be held accountable for harm they have caused. It is also critical that the justice system is informed by a complete and accurate view of what creates the conditions for violence to exist. We need a system that addresses the root causes of violence.

We have a justice system and culture that promotes subtle and overt notions of “good victims” and “bad or undeserving victims.” When looking at law-enforcement abuses and other types of violence (i.e. domestic violence and sexual assault), victims and survivors are often blamed for the violence they endure. This must stop.

Our culture models violent solutions to problems and tells us that some people’s lives are worth more than others.

Currently, punishment is one of our primary responses to violence. History teaches us that violence begets violence. We need another way.

The criminal justice system has been one of the primary tools that our society has provided to help us build public and community safety. It then becomes one of the first places a lot of people turn to when there has been crime, violence, or the threat of violence. Currently there are seriously inadequate rehabilitative services available for those convicted of crime. Even groups that work against specific forms of violence (i.e. domestic and sexual violence and LGBTQ) have not been able to avoid a reliance on a system that operates under the same oppressive conditions that makes violence possible.

This document is part of a larger framework intended to inform our work based on an analysis by progressive survivors of violence and crime.

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