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Maori and the justice system. Paper presented at the Making Crime Pay conference. Wellington, New Zealand, June 1994.

Chapman, Sam
June 4, 2015

Source: (1994) Stimulus 2 (August): 23-28.

In his conference address, Sam Chapman considers crime and justice in New Zealand from a Maori and Christian perspective. Crime is fundamentally a moral issue, within a person; it is manifested in particular, situational terms. Responses to crime therefore must account for the moral issue and for the particular, situational manifestation in which the moral issue is manifested. On this basis, Chapman discusses traditional ways in which the Maori approached crime and justice, with emphasis on spiritual and relational realities and processes. He then connects these realities with Christian ideas of God’s love and God’s way of dealing with wrongdoing and guilt.

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