Hollingsworth, K. orcid.org/0000-0003-1659-802X (2025) Kinder justice: Communicating legitimacy to children in sentencing courts. Social & Legal Studies, 34 (4). pp. 532-557. ISSN: 0964-6639
Abstract
This article examines the impact and significance to child defendants in England and Wales of sentence communication. Drawing on a qualitative study with justice-experienced children, I suggest that how sentences are delivered matters deeply to children's perceptions of legitimacy in three ways that coalesce around the concept I call ‘kinder justice’. First, legitimacy is enhanced by approaches that communicate care (invoking kinder as a verb); second, children want recognition of their status as a child (employing kinder as a noun); and third, children value sentencing remarks that reflect their family's (kin's) version of the child's self, not the ‘proper criminal’ they feel portrayed as in court. Together, drawing on Honneth's theory of recognition, I argue these three forms of kinder justice highlight the importance of recognitional justice during the sentencing process.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2024. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). |
Keywords: | sentencing; sentencing remarks; child defendants; legitimacy; recognition theory; communication |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (Sheffield) > School of Law |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 25 Jul 2025 15:07 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jul 2025 15:07 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/09646639241268921 |
Related URLs: | |
Sustainable Development Goals: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:229679 |
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