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Abstract

Following their implementation in 2014, deferred prosecution agreements (DPA’s) have been under scrutiny as to whether they provide justice. Generally, academics have focused on whether DPA’s provide the same level of deterrence compared to a prosecution. Although justice is a concept underpinned by theories, there has only been one academic who, to the writer’s knowledge, has considered what theory of justice DPA’s are a form of. McStravick (2020) considered whether DPA’s fall within the realm of restorative justice but neglected the fact that the principles of restorative justice are not collectively agreed. The aim of the dissertation was to determine whether DPA’s are a form of restorative justice for corporate economic crime in the UK. To set this dissertation apart from the work of McStravick (2020), a framework of commonly cited principles within restorative justice literature has been created. For the purpose of comparison, the dissertation also considers whether DPA’s are a form of other theories of justice. The other theories considered are retributivism, utilitarianism and consequentialism, and restitution. The method used to conduct the research was a literature review but also includes legal analysis, thus the dissertation looks at both sociological and legal aspects. Ultimately, DPA’s are not a complete form of any singular theory of justice, meaning DPA’s do not include all of the principles and practices of a theory. However, DPA’s can be linked to all four theories through some principles. To fill the theoretical gap and answer the research question, a new theory of justice has been created that encapsulates the novel regime of DPA’s in the UK.

Course: Criminal Justice - MSc - C2681F

Date Deposited: 2023-05-11

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14128.html