Justice and Diversity

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University Of Derby Justice and Diversity 4CJ032 1. Discuss the significant institutional barriers to change and political influences on diversity in the justice sector, with particular reference to policing. Justice and Diversity Introduction The domain of justice is often divided into distributive and retributive justice. Since retributivism is only one of several competing theories of just punishment, it is better to distinguish between distributive and criminal justice. Theories of distributive justice attempt to articulate, order, and justify principles that specify just distributions of benefits and burdens (other than punishments). There are, however, several other categories for the moral assessment of distributions—in addition to being just or unjust, they may be generous or niggardly, humane or inhumane. A just distribution is one in which each receives that which is her due. Generosity might speak in favor of giving someone more than her due (Smart & Bernard, 1985, 105-111). Discussion At least in the modern era (beginning roughly with the natural rights theorists, including Grotius [1583-1645], Pufendorf [1632-1694], and Locke [1632-1704]), the tendency has been to identify one's due with that to which one has a right. In addition to the relatively uninformative claim that what is just is giving each her due or that to which she has a right, there is also near universal agreement among competing theories on the formal principle of justice: equals are to be treated equally. The latter principle is not to be confused with a material principle of justice that states a presumption in favor of equality: distribution is to be equal unless morally decisive reasons can be given for unequal treatment (Rawls, 1971, 88-93). The task of a theory of distributive justice is to specify and defend
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