The Power of Procedural Justice: Yale Law School’s Caroline Nobo on Restoring Trust in the Legal System

When Caroline Nobo visited Canterbury as part of the D’Amour Center for Faith, Service & Justice’s Speakers Series, she invited students to broaden their understanding of the criminal justice system. “I think people hear ‘criminal justice’ and think everyone involved is either a lawyer or a cop,” she said. “But the field is actually very broad.” In a School Meeting lecture and several classes throughout the day, she offered Saints a glimpse into her work and how law enforcement, courts, and community members can each contribute to building trust in the legal system.

Caroline is the Executive Director of the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School, where she provides strategic direction and leadership to its unique network of interdisciplinary scholars and staff. She primarily focuses on promoting transparency and trust in the criminal legal system, a need that is apparent in the data. While crime is at a 60-year low, this consistent downward trend has not corresponded with increased trust in police or courts. Her work seeks to bridge that gap.

Speaking to Canterbury students, Caroline began by highlighting two fundamental problems in examining and strengthening the criminal justice system, first by understanding how justice can be defined.

“Justice is an evolving ideal,” she explained. One person’s view of what justice is or should be—retribution, rehabilitation, deterrence—may not match another person’s ideal. The second problem can be understood through the term “criminal justice system” itself.

“In the United States, we have about 3,000 counties and 19,000 police departments,” she observed. “And this is really important, because everyone talks about America's criminal justice system. It's not a system; it’s more than 3,000 systems.”

One place to begin with all those systems, she said, is with a theory called “procedural justice.”

Procedural justice speaks to the idea of fair processes. People’s perception of fairness, Caroline explained, is rooted not just in the outcome of a police interaction or court hearing, but in the quality of their experiences.

“Letting people feel heard and seen by the system increases their trust,” she said. “Even if a trial or arrest doesn’t go their way, they can feel that they received justice.”

But perhaps above all, meaningful change in this area depends on communities truly coming together to face these challenges. “It’s really hard to change things when you remove yourself from them,” she said.

While students may not be in a position to single-handedly address the myriad issues facing criminal justice today, Caroline explained that everyone can remain engaged with the realities they hope to understand.

“Read books! Watch documentaries!” she suggested. “The Notebook, a non-academic magazine by the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School, brings together writing from scholars, practitioners, and people with firsthand experience of the criminal justice system to make research and real-world perspectives accessible to a broad audience.. We benefit from listening to the voices of people who have lived these experiences. Sometimes it’s easy to think that what you’re doing is not enough, but knowledge is power.”