Vision, mission, values and principles
Vision
Our vision is of a society in which everyone benefits from justice, safety, economic and social security.
Mission
Our mission is to inspire enduring change by promoting understanding of social harm, the centrality of social justice and the limits of criminal justice.
Values
Our activities are underpinned by the following four values:
- Independence
We are resolutely committed to safeguarding our critical independence. Our work will not be undermined by governmental, party-political, commercial or other vested interests. - Honesty
We strive to base our work on trustworthy evidence, presented honestly and authoritatively. - Quality
We pride ourselves on producing high-quality work of clarity, relevance and rigour, which is accessible to a range of audiences. - Justice
Everything that we do is based on a commitment to social justice and to challenging disadvantage, discrimination and inequality.
Principles
We are committed to the following seven principles:
- Crime and related harms cannot be dealt with by the criminal justice process alone.
- A range of social, economic and political interventions are necessary to prevent crime and create a society in which everyone benefits from justice, safety, economic and social security.
- Criminal justice interventions should be proportional, evidence-based, and have as their aims inclusion, reparation and crime reduction.
- Criminal justice policy and practice should emphasise the minimum resort to custody, and other forms of restraint on liberty, consonant with a just, safe and socially secure society.
- Criminal justice policy should address the crimes of the powerful (both individual and corporate) as well as those associated with the least powerful sections of society.
- Criminal justice policy should respect human rights, and the criminal justice process should operate in accordance with the letter and the spirit of domestic legislation and international instruments and conventions.
- Criminal justice policy and practice should treat victims and offenders, suspects and witnesses, with dignity and respect.