Doing justice differently

Crime statistics in Africa are staggering, and it is uncertain that the criminal justice system (CJS) can reverse the trend. In the long run, the current crime data portend dire consequences for the continent. Perhaps the CJS’s inability to reduce or curtail crime is like the criminal justice system itself, a superstructure of the global economic system. The CJS is a functionary of the global capitalist system. Decolonising justice—and doing justice differently—is doing justice to individuals’ material and social conditions by attending to the broader sensory experiences rather than merely focusing on crime, often resulting from embedded social injustices. In arguing against the current schema for justice, we advocate for human security and communitarianism, rooted in Africa’s conception of material and social existence, wherein justice is directed at alleviating the socioeconomic conditions that propel and escalate criminal behaviours. This, we argue, can address the very structures that underlie crime and criminality and reduce the exertions of the CJS.