6. Specializing Justice for Youth and Families

Abstract

‘Specialized justice’ is deeply rooted in a movement toward socializing and humanizing crime and justice in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Structurally and ideologically, this movement influenced courts to maintain their law-upholding purpose while simultaneously operating as a public service to communities in need. Based on this ideological and structural shift, specialized justice via specialty courts is one mechanism through which citizens should be able to access justice, therapeutic jurisprudence, and restorative forms of justice. Given this reality, this chapter serves as an entry point for a critical assessment of alternative and specialized justice initiatives, their historical roots, and the potential collateral consequences of specializing justice for crossover youth and families in particular. This chapter posits some of the benefits, challenges, and potential drawbacks of alternative justice initiatives of this kind, especially in relation to the adversarial and punitive justice model from which they derive.