Pale shelter, cold hands: making criminal justice better

Prof Yvette Tinsley examines the harm caused by the adversarial process in its attempt to be objective about deeply personal aspects of people’s life stories.

May 2021

Over the last few years, there has been an increasing focus on the failures of the criminal justice process. Terms such as partnership, transformative change, defunding, and prison abolition have entered the mainstream lexicon. Yet the complexity of reform means that little has changed.

In this lecture, Professor Yvette Tinsley examines the harm caused by the adversarial criminal process in its attempt to be objective about deeply personal aspects of people’s life stories. Reflecting on her own journey with criminal law, she argues that accepting the limitations of the legal reform model might reveal ways to address the challenge of making criminal justice ‘better’.

This is Professor Tinsley’s inaugural lecture as Professor of Law at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. Our public lecture series gives you the opportunity to engage with the latest thinking on the world’s major issues.

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