The Justice thinktank is partnering with the University of Oxford and United Borders
UK-based legal thinktank Justice has launched a project that aims to restrict the misuse of rap music as evidence in criminal proceedings, reported the Law Society Gazette.
Justice is partnering with the University of Oxford and community organization United Borders on the year-long initiative. The Arts and Humanities Research Council is financing the project.
The project is set to be rolled out in three phases: peer-level research conducted with the youth in London to improve understanding of the music production process (phase 1), the production of media reflecting the youth’s feelings about music’s criminalization and related stigma (phase 2), and group workshops held with legal professionals (phase 3).
Justice legal policy manager Emma Snell told the Gazette that the initiative supplemented the campaign launched by the Art Not Evidence group, which aims to minimize the use of creative or artistic expression in criminal proceedings. The group had expressed concern about prosecutors’ presentation of rap and drill music, which it claimed unfairly embroiled young Black men in the criminal justice system.
“One of the things that has come up is the idea that there are lots of complex social reasons why people might make music. To legal professionals, it might seem violent or aggressive… but it could be young people making sense of their experience of interpersonal violence, things happening around them or their community – but they are not necessarily directly involved,” Snell said in a statement published by the Gazette.
She explained that a test track would be developed through the project that addresses some concerns arising from music’s use as evidence. Professionals’ interpretation of the evidence would then be analyzed.
The project’s findings would inform training for judges. According to Snell, scoping work had been conducted with legal professionals, some of whom sat as part-time judges. The related discussion revealed that young people’s lives and complexity needed to be better understood before admissibility arguments are presented in court.
“Drill and rap music are quite popular genres but are vilified in the media. There’s a real tendency to view this music through a criminological lens because that’s the context people come into contact with. But the genre is dependent on convention, it has a rich history, a way for young people to find a level of catharsis, a way for young people to break out of the socio-economic circumstances they find themselves in,” Snell said in a statement published by the Gazette.
