ABSTRACT
Social justice constitutes an important, new challenge in criminal justice policy. Based on the concepts and principles of social solidarity and meritocratic fairness, social justice has a double task: (a) to enhance the social rights that are considered to be essential for the decent living of citizens in a modern social state, and (b) to create the conditions needed in order to ensure that opportunities deemed necessary for a successful career are given to those who have the skills and abilities to take advantage of them.
This chapter aims to advance restorative justice theory by linking it with social justice. The chapter contests that both can play an important role at three levels: legislative, judicial and correctional. The authors demonstrate that social justice can function as a model of criminal justice policy beyond restorative justice, especially in relation to financial crimes. Social justice can also prove to be particularly effective for social crime prevention by improving the standard of living and, in this way, by preventing relevant delinquency against property. It can also cope with nepotism, bureaucracy and corruption, which may hinder meritocratic social mobility and the well-functioning of society’s institutions.
