Bending the Arc of the Moral Universe: Leveraging Data for Accountable Justice for Transition Age Youth

Abstract

Justice requires society to protect its children and young adults and ensure they grow up to live productive and fulfilling lives. However, institutions in charge of delivering social justice, also called Human Service Organizations (HSOs), work independently and generally do not collaborate, thus making it difficult for the public to assess their effectiveness. Gathering, analyzing, and disseminating information can help society assess whether HSOs deliver justice. We describe two constructs in delivering justice: reflection and transparency. Our subsequent case study further highlights the emergence of concepts such as incentive alignment, information aggregation, and domain knowledge assimilation. Together, these insights form our Theory of Accountable Justice (TAJ), which elucidates the relationship between these constructs and the delivery of justice.