Access to Law and Justice Perceived by Foreign and Roma Prisoners

Abstract

Several studies have promoted discussion on the conditions surrounding access to law and justice in contemporary societies. With the knowledge that different social groups have different perceptions of litigation and different levels of tolerance regarding "unjust" situations, this article gives voice to particular vulnerable social groups and focuses on some of the mechanisms reproducing social inequalities in the access to law and justice. Based on the qualitative thematic content analysis of 68 foreign and Roma prisoners' interviews in Portuguese prisons, we present and discuss the main difficulties and obstacles these individuals experienced during their trajectories within the criminal justice system as well as the perceptions they have about justice. Through the discussion of foreign and Roma prisoners' experiences and perceptions of the criminal justice system, it is considered that not only class but also nationality and ethnicity are important variables for the understanding and co-explanation of the law and justice system, which affects both the access to the various stages of the justice process and the general views on justice.

In or Out: Justice-Involved Women Characterization and Their Perceptions about Penal Sanctions

“…Namely, future studies might consider direct observations of court trials to address this issue. Also, future studies should analyze possible explanatory variables to the phenomena, such as the potential effect of the socio-economic status of the female defendants and the type of defense they are entitled to (namely ex officio defense), in the line of research on the obstacles to access to law and justice (e.g., Gomes, 2019), namely from women (e.g., Maher et al, 2018;Troshynski, 2020).…”

(Dis)trusted outsiders: conducting ethnographic research on prison settings

“…The empirical material presented in this article was collected within three different studies developed in Portuguese prison contexts. The first aimed to explore the pathways to prison of ethnically and gender diverse prisoners and their relationship with the criminal justice system (Gomes and Silva 2014;Gomes 2014Gomes , 2017Gomes , 2018. The second research focused on how prison professionals and prisoners conceive and act upon the re-entry process in the prison context (Gomes 2019).…”

Daily details of young foreign inmates in Portugal: a case study

“…Esse crescimento progressivo, mesmo que oscilante, tem movido académicos a tentar perceber até que ponto as intervenções penitenciárias têm conseguido estar na letra do dia face às necessidades e especificidades desta diversidade de referenciais identitários no âmago do seio prisional. Em traços largos, as respostas reabilitativas têm-se revelado anémicas, avulsas ou mesmo arbitrárias, conforme o que tem vindo a ser identificado quer pelos estrangeiros em reclusão (Gomes, 2017;Trombik, 2007;Moraes Rocha, 2001); quer pelos staffs prisionais (RuizGarcia e Castillo-Algarra, 2014; Gomes, Machado e Silva, 2012;Hostettler e Acherman, 2008;Kalmouth et al, 2007). Com efeito, temos um maior número de estudos qualitativos no panorama prisional europeu por forma a perceber quer a eficiência quer a lassidão dos staffs prisionais em fazer face a várias questões sensíveis relativas a cidadãos não nacionais sob tutela penitenciária (Mulgrew, 2016 a;Slade, 2016) bem como as vivências prisionais de convivência social (Martynowicz, 2016;Shammas, 2015;Cunha, 2002).…”