Peacemaking criminology

Peacemaking criminology is a non-violent movement against oppression, social injustice and violence as found within criminology, criminal justice and society in general. With its emphasis on inter-personal, intra-personal and spiritual integration, it is well connected to the emerging perspective of positive criminology.

According to the writer John E. Conklin, "peacemaking criminology regards crime as the product of a social structure that puts some groups at a disadvantage, sets people against one another, and generates a desire for revenge."[1]

Peacemaking criminology emerged from work in anarchist criminology, which applies anarchist principles to criminological inquiry.[2] Jeff Shantz and Dana M. Williams argue that the thought of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was a precursor of peacemaking criminology and restorative justice.[3] More recently, Harold Pepinsky's 1978 article on "communist anarchism as an alternative to the rule of criminal law" introduced the fundamentals of the peacemaking approach.[4]