ABSTRACT

This concluding chapter focuses on five policy areas which follow from the research in the rest of the book, namely: negotiations, proscription, criminal record expungement, post-conflict policing reform, and non-violent extremism. For negotiations, it highlights the issues of labelling and audience costs referring to the ongoing challenges in Northern Irish politics. With proscription, the conclusion discusses the complexity of deproscribing groups post-conflict due to informal criminalisation and ongoing narratives of criminality. It also notes the wider redundancy of proscription as a legal mechanism. Broadening our understanding of criminal record expungement is discussed to show how there are potential areas for compromise if it is understood in terms of its informal challenges. Vigilantism in Northern Ireland is considered to illustrate some of the legacies of politicising criminal justice. Lastly, the criminalisation of non-violent extremism in contemporary criminal justice is outlined with reference to climate change protests through a conflict transformation framework. This is done to show the potential for conflict transformation to provide a creative and holistic framework for responding to conflict. Together each area connects key debates raised throughout the book with ongoing policy challenges.