Guest Editors’ Introduction

Abstract

This paper is the guest editors' introduction of a two part Symposium Issue named Multi-Door Criminal Justice: Examining Hybrids of Non-adversarial Justice, published in 22(4) New Criminal Law Rev. (2019) and 23(1) New Criminal Law Rev. (2020). The Symposium Issue, which is based on an international conference held in May 2019 at the Bar-Ilan University Faculty of Law and the University of Haifa School of Criminology, provides a collection of articles representing a variety of perspectives on the nature of contemporary Anglo-American and European criminal law, its boundaries, and the many doors that lead to both mainstream and alternative processes and outcomes. Inspired by Harvard Law Professor Frank Sander’s vision of the multi-door courthouse in the noncriminal sphere, this guest editors' introduction coins the term “multi-door criminal justice” to reflect contemporary criminal law and criminal justice systems in post-industrial societies. This metaphor of multi-door criminal justice seeks to evoke the multiplicity of processes, mechanisms, values, and goals that coexist in modern criminal justice systems worldwide. This variety of punitive and nonpunitive criminal justice mechanisms includes, for example, arraignment hearings, problem-solving courts, restorative justice processes, diversion programs, and more, each representing a “door” in a multi-door system. Although the various doors differ in their characteristics, prevalence, and outcomes, each may be suitable in different circumstances for different cases—they are all, at the same time, part of a rich, complex system that provides social responses to crime.