Justice for Whom?

This book critically examines justice across philosophical, legal, and social contexts, asking a fundamental question relating to the complexities of justice: justice for whom? This accessibly written, student-friendly book explores the intellectual foundations of justice, drawing on classical thinkers, Enlightenment theorists, and contemporary debates around structural injustice and recognition. The book then moves into the realities of justice in practice, examining how institutions from criminal courts to welfare systems operate within wider structures of power and inequality.

Chapters examine the role of criminal justice in managing social inequality, the harms produced by drug policy and the representation of drug users, the criminalisation of youth, and the structural harms experienced by women in prison. The book also explores poverty as a form of systemic injustice, highlighting how economic inequality and social marginalisation shape both exposure to harm and access to justice.

Beyond the criminal justice system, the book situates justice within wider social contexts, examining debates around social justice, epistemic justice, and freedom of expression. In doing so, it explores how power influences whose voices are heard, whose harms are recognised, and whose experiences are excluded from dominant narratives of justice. This title challenges readers to rethink the meaning of fairness and to recognise how systems of justice can both protect and harm. Ultimately it argues that justice cannot be understood as a fixed principle but must be continually questioned and reimagined within changing social conditions.