According to the UK Green Party website the Green Party will try to achieve the following if they gain power at the 2010 general election:

CJ100 The term “crime” covers many different categories and types of acts or omissions. Most crimes cause or threaten harm to individuals, groups, the community, other species or the environment. Crimes are currently defined by legislation which gives the Courts power to impose sanctions on people convicted of committing them.

CJ101 Crime arises from a combination of individual and social factors. The level and types of crime are related to the sort of society we create. Green policies are directed to improving the quality, as opposed to simply the material wealth, of our society, and ensuring a just distribution of that wealth and quality of life.

CJ102 Current approaches to imposing sanctions are a confused amalgam of conflicting principles; deterrence and punishment mixed with compensation and rehabilitation. This confusion undermines the potential for success of the positive aspects of the present system.

Crime Prevention & Justice Principles

CJ110 Given that crime should be seen as partly caused by social factors, it cannot be adequately addressed solely in terms of criminal justice and policing policy. A Green approach to crime reduction therefore places significant focus on the social causes of crime. As well as social crime prevention, this includes a broader range of social policies which will lessen the social pressures, such as poverty, inequality or addiction to illegal drugs, to commit crime.

CJ111 The lives and liberties of individuals, groups and society as a whole must be protected within a law-based system which strives for justice, including social and economic justice, and fairness. We therefore believe that it is necessary for society to define certain forms of harmful behaviour as crimes, but that the list of crimes should be kept as short as possible.

CJ112 Criminal justice cannot be successfully imposed from above, but needs as far as possible to be a product of a living, democratic community. The basic institutions of Green justice should be community-based and relatively informal in nature. They should provide maximum potential for public participation.

CJ113 The Green approach to dealing with offenders however differs markedly from current practice. We believe retributive sentencing to be ineffective in reducing crime.

CJ114 We will introduce the principle of “restorative justice”, which while denouncing the crime, deals constructively with both the victim and the offender. The primary aim will be to restore and, if necessary, improve the position of the victim and the community; the offender will be required to make amends.

CJ115 Restorative justice recognises the need not only to ensure that the amount and nature of reparation be appropriate to the harm suffered, but also that it is within the capacity of the offender to make it. This means that any shortfall will have to be met by the community.

CJ116 The symbolism of the scales of justice would be interpreted in a new way; balancing the harm done to the victim or community not by further harm inflicted on the offender, but by requiring the offender to make reparation.
Objectives

CJ200 To reduce the amount of crime committed by some individuals against others, against the community, against other species or against the environment, with the emphasis on persuading and enabling rather than coercion.

CJ201 To assist the victims of criminal acts as much as possible.

CJ202 To demonstrate clearly and constructively to offenders and other members of the community that criminal acts are unacceptable.

CJ203 To require reparation for crimes committed rather than punishment or retribution.

CJ204 To heal the rifts resulting from crime in such a way as to further social integration and to integrate offenders into the community rather than outlaw them.

CJ205 To intervene as minimally as the seriousness of the offence and the circumstance will allow, in order to achieve the aims of CJ202, CJ203 and CJ204.

CJ206 To ensure that if an offender has to be detained, the purpose of detention is not to punish humiliate or degrade him/her, but to protect society or the offender her/himself, while maintaining his/her dignity and human rights.

Crime Prevention & Justice Policies

CJ300 A two-fold strategy is required; firstly to reduce crime and, secondly, to respond to it. This will ensure that crime prevention can focus on reducing the social pressures that are or are considered to be conducive to crime, and that restorative justice can function no longer complicated by incompatible considerations of crime prevention or general deterrence.

CJ301 These two functions will become the responsibility of two new ministries;

1) Departments of Crime Prevention: in addition to traditional modes of crime prevention, these departments will also promote social crime prevention.

2) Departments of Justice: in addition to responsibility for the judicial system, sentencing policy and practice, these departments will also sponsor services such as assistance to victims.

CJ302 These departments will function at every level of government, in accordance with Green Party policies on power being exercised at the lowest appropriate level.

I would be interested to hear both positive and negative views on UK Green Party’s Crime Prevention & Justice policies in the comments below?