Doctoral Dissertation Research: What is crime in the context of post-conflict?

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Restorative justice courts provide alternate means of mitigating conflict in post-war contexts. As opposed to traditional, punitive measures more common in civil courts, restorative justice courts create opportunities for victims and perpetrators to engage in meaningful encounters that strive toward peace. Are such courts more effective at achieving peace? How do definitions of crime and peace vary in relation to judicial systems? To shed light on these questions, this doctoral dissertation research uses theory from cultural anthropology and legal studies to ask how the type of court affects definitions of crime and who is considered a criminal in a post-conflict setting. In addition to providing funding for the training of a graduate student in anthropology in the methods of empirical data collection and analysis, the project disseminates results broadly to academic and non-academic audiences.The project focuses on research questions surrounding how violence and crime are defined, including the boundaries between ordinary and political crimes, and how experiences in judicial systems affect livelihoods of stakeholders. The investigators conduct an ethnographic study involving court-based ethnography, observational methods, interviews, and archival analysis to answer project questions. In so doing, this doctoral research contributes to academic scholarship on the role of transitional justice and criminal law in post-conflict democracy and peacebuilding.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.