Nils Christie Conflicts As Property Summary

In his “Conflicts As Property” Nils Christie introduces the concept of conflict as proprietary and asserts that modern dealings with conflict in concept and in practice, particularly from a legal standing, follow a social framework designed to create distance and to mitigate personal involvement. Christie describes “...a process where conflicts have been taken away from the parties directly involved and thereby have either disappeared or become other people’s property.” One could extrapolate that he is describing is a system which by design robs individuals of personal agency and strips personal participation in one’s own conflict from legal proceedings .
Christie asserts that representation is a key factor in creating distance and limiting personal involvement and thus hindering the capacity of proceedings to offer potential for healing between victim and offender. This is demonstrated in his statement, “the one party that is represented by the state, namely the victim
It is best accomplished through cooperative processes that allow all willing stakeholders to meet, although other approaches are available when that is impossible. This can lead to transformation of people, relationships and communities.” Restorative justice focuses on an “inclusive model that requires offenders to take responsibility for their actions and seeks redress for victims, recompense by offenders and reintegration of both into community.” This use of cooperative modalities with regards to conflict offers a different approach to resolution. Christie contends that, “As it is now, the offender has lost the opportunity for participation in a personal confrontation of a very serious nature....We might as well react to crime according to what closely involved parties find is just and in accordance with general values in