Peacemaking paradigm pyramid of criminal justice stresses not that the individuals involved in the commission of any particular crime must be reformed and rebuked, but rather emphasizes the aim of creating a more peaceful society as a whole. (Fuller, 2001, p.54) Social action, rather than being 'tough on crime' is the paradigm's focus. The paradigm operates upon a grass-roots model of advocacy, whereby community members form the foundations of a peaceful community within themselves, by adopting nonviolence in their daily lives. Then, grass roots and middle-level organizational support draws upon the peacemaking efforts of community members to create institutions supportive of human rights, development, education and democracy. These organizational advocates and community members take on the roles of institutional yet local voices of social justice and aim to deploy larger societal and governmental resources to make a more peaceful social environment. The peacemaking pyramid thus eventually makes links with the tip of the pyramid in the form of corrections officers and government policy-makers, but always has at its base the affected members of the community.

Thus, spatially, the peacemaking pyramid solution to criminal justice functions as thus: the base of the pyramid is nonviolence, followed by social justice, inclusion, correct means, ascertainable criteria, and on its top categorical imperatives for the system as a whole. But note what a great responsibility this places upon members of the community, whether they be criminals or not, to engage in nonviolent means in what may be a violent society. While the model may be admirable in its stress upon dialogue, negotiation, and above all conflict resolution, it seems to have little role for the need of victims to seek justice, or of higher government institutions to be involved at lower levels of the process.

Works Cited

Fuller, John. (2001) Criminal Justice: A Peacemaking: Perspective. New York: Allyn & Bacon.