Document Title: Role of social workers in social justice

Paper code: 13015

Role of social workers in social justice

With todays increasingly controversial, challenging, and ever-changing legal system, criminal justice social work (also referred to as forensic justice social work) is rapidly rising as a vital public service for offering psychological and behavioral services in the criminal justice system. Although the field of criminal justice social work is relatively new, the number of court cases and growing prison populations nationwide are creating a large demand for social workers with knowledge and/or experience within the criminal justice system.

While many mistakenly believe that criminal justice social work is limited to evaluating and treating criminal defendants in psychiatric hospitals, it is important to realize that the field is much broader and includes all social services within the civil and criminal justice systems on nearly every level.

In Uganda, indeed social workers serve in a variety of roles within the juvenile justice system, examples including victim advocacy, working with probation and parole, preparing children to testify in court, working with families, providing mental health services to inmates and prisoners preparing to return to their communities.