In “Conflicts as Property” written in 1977, criminologist Nils Christie explained the idea that highly industrialized societies have created a process where the right to participate in conflicts has been taken away from the parties involved, and instead placed in the hands of legal professionals. Christie emphasized the concept that individuals should own conflicts in the same way that one would own property. Christie’s idea is to be viewed as a means to question the structure of the criminal justice system. The article outlined a court procedure that restored the participants’ rights to their own conflicts. Christie’s main arguments include expressing the importance of conflict to the growth of our society, the lack of the legal system’s concern toward the victim within social conflicts, and a new court model that determines what can be done for the victim, first and foremost by the offender, secondly by the local neighbourhood, and lastly bythe state. Christie expressed that conflicts are valuable to individuals and contain important elements that are often overlooked by society. Without conflict, behaviours, relationships, and actions would stay the same, which would discourage the growth of social interactions between individuals.
