Critical Analysis Of Conflicts As Property By Nils Christie

Nils Christie wrote “Conflicts as Property” arguing the importance of conflicts in society and how they have become property that can be used and stolen. In this critical summary I will summarize and then critically analyze his work to determine if I agree with his argument. Christie opens the paper by arguing the importance of conflicts in our society and that “they ought to be used, and become useful, for those originally involved in the conflict.” He continues by describing how conflicts are taken from the victim, who “is so thoroughly represented that she or he of most of the proceedings is pushed completely out of the arena, reduced to the triggerer-off of the whole thing.” The author also denounces courts and lawyers that, he believes, are trained to steal, prevent, and solve conflicts. He continues to talk about segmentation in industrialized societies. First, segmentation with regards to space and how we move between sets of people we know, for example, people we work with, neighbours, or friends and that “we get to know them as roles, not as total persons.” Second, is the “re-establishment of caste-society” because society segregates itself by biological categories. The author believes that segmentation prevents conflict and has systems in place to take conflict away if it does appear, as well as many other consequences. Then he argues that conflicts are important to the victim and that they are constantly left out of their own …show more content…
I think that the author has presented strong arguments against the current legal system and has presented a viable alternative. His system is sympathetic to the victim and the offender and acts in the victim’s best interest through multiple stages and varieties of