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Moving beyond sides: The power and potential of a new public safety policy paradigm.

Rogers, David
June 4, 2015

Source: (2011) Portland: Partnership for Safety and Justice.

The voice of victims who want a different approach
to public safety than the status quo has been mostly
untapped by traditional criminal justice reform advocates:
organizations and activists who primarily focus on
challenging the policies that lead to mass incarceration or
who focus on the negative and disproportionate impact of
criminal justice policies on communities of color. These
criminal justice reform organizations have more often
alienated victim-oriented groups who could be potential
allies, underscoring a range of tensions both real and
perceived that have prevented collaborative engagement
between groups working on a criminal justice reform
agenda and victims who share some of their critiques. As
a result, individual advocates and organizations on both
“sides” have been stuck in oppositional stances instead
of tapping into the power and potential of collaborative
relationships and a more holistic analysis. (excerpt)

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