Synergizing Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Positive Criminology

Abstract

Therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) is an interdisciplinary approach to the law that examines the therapeutic and anti-therapeutic consequences of legal rules, procedures, and the roles of legal actors. While TJ work covers the full legal spectrum, its work in criminal law is vast, and seems highly consistent with positive criminology (PC), a new perspective encompassing diverse models and theories in criminology that identify positive factors that may help in the rehabilitation of offenders.

We provide a brief overview of TJ and examine its convergence with PC. Synergies for the future are explored, in particular the ways TJ can contribute to the development of PC and vice-versa. We demonstrate that PC may be seen as a vineyard from which TJ can borrow therapeutic techniques (“wine”) that may be used by legal actors. Concurrently, PC can learn from TJ about TJ-friendly and unfriendly legal structures, or “bottles”. Using a figurative model we show four windows of “giving” and “getting” between the two sibling approaches, based on the interconnections of the types of arguments they present (normative/descriptive) and the areas of discussion (“bottles”/“wine”). The synergistic matrix provides insights for future research that are examined as well.

Keywords: Therapeutic Jurisprudence, Positive Criminology, Criminal Law