Search

This article considers what can be learned regarding the ethical acceptability of intrusive interventions intended to halt the spread of infectious disease (‘Infection Control’ measures) from existing ethical discussion of intrusive interventions used to prevent criminal conduct (‘Crime Control’ measures). Despite the ethical parallels between these two types of measures and the fact that Crime Control measures have been subjected to greater ethical scrutiny, there has, to my knowledge, been no attempt to draw out the implications of the ethical analysis of Crime Control for the ethical acceptability of Infection Control. The main body of the article identifies and briefly describes six objections that have been advanced against Crime Control, and considers how these might apply to Infection Control. The final section then draws out some more general lessons from the foregoing analysis for the ethical acceptability of different kinds of Infection Control.

This chapter focuses on the criminal justice system. It contains summaries of the different social theories that underpin both the criminal justice system and the fundamental principles relating to sentencing policy. The system is examined in three segments: pre-trial stages, trial stage, and post-trial stages. Each is discussed in turn. This chapter emphasizes the holistic approach by looking not only at what happens in courts, but also the police station and in post-trial contexts such as parole and criminal cases review. The place of the victim in the system is also considered. Particular emphasis is placed on how the current system is changing in the quest for improved efficiency.

Criminal justice courses offer ideal opportunities to present students with contemporary issues that ideally will encourage reflection on moral dilemmas. In a criminal justice ethics course, studen...

Regardless the specific theoretical perspective, all ethical formulations for criminal justice practice in some way construct the ontological character of the offender, which, in turn, situates both epistemology and method. How this ethical process ultimately constructs the offender will likely help to establish the degree of ethical worth such an individual is deemed worthy to receive. Whether based upon the seriousness of the crime or based upon the specific configuration of the architecture of incarceration, the very possibility of legitimate ethical practice is greatly compromised. Such results can be better avoided when the ethical import of the individual is ontologically situated within the very definition of what it means to be human.1By situating this discussion within the context of the analytic psychology of Carl Jung and his concept of the shadow and the originary ethics of Martin Heidegger found in Being and Time, a more ontologically configured possibility for a criminal justice ethics can be recognized.

This study examines the effects of three theoretical factors representing both process-based and outcome-based dimensions of police actions on attitudes towards police using an experimental vignette design. We constructed two vignettes depicting citizens’ plausible encounters with police in an urban setting in a developing country (i.e. Accra, Ghana) and varied the level of police procedural justice, measured by quality of treatment, lawfulness, measured by whether or not a bribe is present, and effectiveness, measured by whether or not the offender was caught. In line with previous research, we find that dimensions of police procedural justice, lawfulness, and effectiveness all increase citizens’ satisfaction. However, we find that in certain situations, unlawfulness and ineffectiveness can undermine any positive influence of procedural justice policing on satisfaction. These findings have implications for criminal justice institutions seeking to improve relations with citizens and boost satisfaction and ultimately legitimacy.

This paper considers select emergent issues arising from the reform of the EU data protection framework, and how these might impact upon data processing in the law enforcement and criminal justice ...

Although the process-based model of criminal justice has received substantial empirical attention, few previous studies have examined individuals embedded in a criminal lifestyle and at the most risk for future offending, and few have focused exclusively on female offenders. Employing structural equation modeling, the present study tests the process-based model of self-regulation among a sample of 694 incarcerated females. Specifically examined is the effect of perceptions of voice in respondents’ most recent encounter with police on their perceptions of police procedural justice and the impact of respondents’ procedural justice perceptions on their perceived obligation to obey the law. Results reveal support for the process-based model among serious female offenders, though the impact may be attenuated by increased experience with the criminal justice system. Policy implications are discussed.

PurposeThe current criminal justice system is pledged to serve and protect society while preserving the rights of those who are accused. The purpose of this paper is to explore the premise of “innocent until proven guilty” and examine whether this assumption truly prevails under the current criminal justice system, or be modified to accommodate a sliding continuum of virtuosity.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is a conceptual paper which relies heavily on the current literature about criminal justice and related ethical issues.FindingsThe paper argues that today’s criminal justice system fails to meet the standards of the virtuous continuum and that those who oversee that system need to rethink how the system operates and is perceived by the public if they wish the criminal justice system to be perceived as just, fair, and ethically responsible.Research limitations/implicationsBecause this paper is a conceptual paper it does not present research hypotheses.Practical implicationsThis paper suggests that “virtue” and “ethics” must be the foundation upon which the criminal justice system is evaluated, and criminal justice must incorporate an ethical standard which is virtuous and fair to all parties and leaders who oversee that system must meet the standards suggested by the virtuous continuum.Originality/valueThis paper is among the first to identify the viewpoint of the virtuous perspective, moral perspective, amoral perspective, and immoral perspective in the criminal justice system.

The article investigates the role of scholarly expertise in and around the international criminal courts. Building on the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, the article analyses the influence of different forms of scholarship by situating them in the wider ‘field’ of international criminal law. Structured by opposing poles of social worth organized around different perceptions of what is considered valuable knowledge, scholarship on international criminal law took competing forms. A dominant form of scholarship is oriented towards societal impact and caters to legal practice, while more critical perspectives adhere to norms of disinterest and autonomy embedded in academia. Formatted by the larger field of practice in which they exist and by their relative proximity to the opposing poles of societal and academic power and prestige, these perspectives structure the professional rules that govern the field and thus affect the development of its law by defining what is perceived as relevant knowledge.

The Political Roots of Racial Tracking in American Criminal Justice. By Nina M. Moore. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015. 406 pp. $30.99 paperback.In April 2016, Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters clashed with Bill Clinton over his role in the passage of the 1994 Crime Bill and Hillary Clinton's use of the term "super predators" to describe the involvement of black youth in criminal offenses. Demonstrators sought to highlight how policymakers and the general public construct narratives and social policies that fuel misperceptions, thereby deepening racial inequality in criminal justice practices throughout the United States. Political pundits largely glossed over the substance of protester concerns because the crime bill did not explicitly target specific racial groups. To address the essence of the BLM critique would require a theory of the policy process that explains racial inequality in criminal justice experiences. Nina Moore's book, The Political Roots of Racial Tracking in American Criminal Justice, provides such a policy process framework.Moore examines the mechanisms that give rise to racial disparities in the criminal justice system and explains why these inequities persist despite considerable national attention to issues of fairness and justice. Her book makes two arguments. First, Moore argues that there are two racially distinct modes of criminal law enforcement in the United States: one white and one black. She contends that racial tracking in the criminal justice system must be evaluated sequentially, from initial contact with police officers to differences in plea negotiations with prosecutors, both of which culminate in racialized differences in pretrial court decisions and prison experiences.The second argument advanced by Moore is that racial tracking in criminal justice persists precisely because policymakers and the American public allow different modalities of law enforcement, even when stark differences in applications of justice contravene constitutional rights to due process and equal protection. She presents a basic principles policy process that anchors empirical insights and disagreements in the study of policymaking with commonalities expressed in varied policy perspectives. By drawing on six policy process axioms-principles that focus on politics, systems, opportunities, multidimensionality, power players, and problemprocess kinship-Moore articulates a seventh maxim, the public origins principle, that fully integrates these perspectives to produce a theory of racial tracking in criminal justice.This is an impressive piece of socio-legal scholarship. Five empirical chapters thoroughly enumerate and rigorously evaluate how colorblind Supreme Court decisions, public opinion polls, political party politics, and congressional agendas impede racial equality in criminal justice. Moore critically analyzes twenty-three Sixth Amendment cases affecting the right to counsel, eighteen Fifth Amendment cases, and twenty of the most noted capital punishment decisions. In each instance, she shows how the Court's reasoning and decision-making process represents a longstanding use of colorblind jurisprudence that is not localized to any one decision or to a handful of cases; instead, her work uncovers how the Court systematically legitimates persistent racial inequalities in law enforcement methods.Professor Moore also presents an in-depth analysis of public opinions on racial progress, criminal victimization, and criminal justice policy in America. …

While there is plenty of research into crime committed by police officers, surprisingly little debate can be found regarding the situation where a police officer becomes a victim. This is remarkable as the police not only embody criminal law enforcement but also epitomise state power. Based on a comparative study, this article examines how criminal law in England and Germany deals with attacks against police officers through separate criminal offences as well as increased sentences. The authors examine how the use of criminal law reflects on the state’s perception and valuation of the role of the police officer. It will be shown that while in England there is the clear understanding that the status of the victim as police officer has an aggravating effect, Germany strongly opposes the idea that the office-holder deserves more protection than ordinary citizens. On the contrary, the law takes in consideration that the offender finds him- or herself in a vulnerable situation when faced with the power of the state.

Introducing the fundamentals of ethical theory, Ethics in Criminal Justice: In Search of the Truth, Seventh Edition, exposes the reader to the ways and means of making moral judgments by exploring the teachings of the great philosophers, sources of criminal justice ethics, and ethical issues in the criminal justice system. It is presented from two perspectives: a thematic perspective that addresses ethical principles common to all components of the discipline, and an area-specific perspective that addresses the state of ethics in criminal justice in the fields of policing, corrections, and probation and parole. The seventh edition features discussion of current critical issues in criminal justice: accusations of racism, police shootings, stop and frisk policy, marijuana laws, mass incarceration, life sentences, prison privatization, the swift and certain deterrence model of probation, excessive probation fees, and the Good Lives Model in corrections. The seventh edition also offers completely revised coverage of capital punishment and the rehabilitation debate, and a discussion of how juvenile justice often fails to live up to its ideals. Finally, the book features new case studies of recent ethical dilemmas in criminal justice to enhance students’ understanding of real-life ethics decision-making. Suitable for advanced undergraduates or graduate students in criminal justice programs in the US and globally, this text offers a classical view of ethical decision-making and is well-grounded in specific case examples.

This chapter discusses the development of international criminal law and institutions, international criminal courts and tribunals, and international criminal justice in national courts. These developments respond to but also reflect repeated failures to prevent serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. The work of the International Criminal Court, specialized criminal tribunals and ‘hybrid’ tribunals is outlined.

With an increasing number of students entering criminal justice programs across the country, the majority of students are looking to pursue a career in law enforcement. While many students graduate...

After a sustained period of hypercriminalization, the United States criminal justice system is undergoing reform. Congress has reduced federal sentencing for drug crimes, prison growth is slowing, and some states are even closing prisons. Low-level crimes have been removed from criminal law books, and attention is beginning to focus on long-neglected issues such as bail and criminal court fines. Still largely overlooked in this era of ambitious reform, however, is the treatment of immigrants in the criminal justice system. An unprecedented focus on immigration enforcement targeted at “felons, not families” has resulted in a separate system of punitive treatment reserved for noncitizens, which includes crimes of migration, longer periods of pretrial detention, harsher criminal sentences, and the almost certain collateral consequence of lifetime banishment from the United States. For examples of state-level solutions to this predicament, this Essay turns to a trio of bold criminal justice reforms from California that (1) require prosecutors to consider immigration penalties in plea bargaining; (2) change the state definition of “misdemeanor” from a maximum sentence of a year to 364 days; and (3) instruct law enforcement agencies to not hold immigrants for deportation purposes unless they are first convicted of serious crimes. Together, these new laws provide an important window into how state criminal justice systems could begin to address some of the unique concerns of noncitizen criminal defendants.

As unprecedented levels of human mobility continue to define our era, criminal justice institutions in countries around the world are increasingly shaped by mass migration and its control. This collection brings together legal scholars from Europe and the United States to consider the implications of the attendant changes on the exercise of state penal power and those subject to it. The contributions in this special issue are united by a shared set of questions about the salience of citizenship for contemporary criminal justice policies and practices. They are specifically concerned with questions of fair and equal treatment, the changing configurations of state sovereignty, and the significance of migration on criminal justice policies and practices. Collectively, the articles show how, in grappling with mass mobility and diversity, states are devising novel forms of control, many of which erode basic criminal justice principles and reinforce existing social hierarchies.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the representativeness of police departments, i.e. the extent to which the demographics of sworn police officers mirror their local constituency’s demographic makeup, has an effect on communities. The study seeks to explain whether community complaints about police use of force are related to the representativeness of the police department. Design/methodology/approach The study examines the relationships between use of force complaints lodged against a police department and the representativeness of the police vis-à-vis their community using ordinary least squares regression and city fixed-effects models. The stratified sample of 100 large US cities uses data from the US Census Equal Employment Opportunity Survey and the Bureau of Justice Statistics Law Enforcement Management and Administration Statistics Survey from several points-in-time. Findings The analysis suggests that racial makeup and, to a lesser extent, local residency of police departments might matter in reducing community conflict with police, as represented by use of force complaints. However, the fixed-effects model suggests that unobserved community-level characteristics and context matter more than police departments’ representativeness. Originality/value This study seeks to provide a unique perspective and empirical evidence on community conflict with police by integrating the public administration theory of representative bureaucracy with criminal justice theories of policing legitimacy. The findings have implications for urban policing as well as law enforcement human capital and public management practices, which is essential to understand current crises in police-citizen relations in the US, especially in minority communities.

The concept of justice plays an important role in shaping the attitudes of citizens towards criminal justice agencies. Additionally, research indicates that police officers’ perceptions of justice within their own organisation can affect their attitudes towards it. Most of the research to date has focused on police officers in Western nations; however, the effects of organisational justice could be universal (i.e. cut across different police agencies and nations) or contextual (i.e. vary between cultures). The current study examined the association between perceptions of two dimensions of organisational justice, distributive (fairness in outcomes) and procedural (fairness in procedures/processes), with job satisfaction and organisational commitment among Indian police officers. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis of survey data collected from 827 officers stationed in the Sonepat and Rohtak districts in the north Indian state of Haryana indicated that perceptions of distributive justice and procedural justice (in terms of promotions and evaluations) had significant positive relationships with both job satisfaction and affective organisational commitment. The findings support the contention that perceptions of organisational justice have important effects on Indian police officers.

Systems change efforts seek to alter the status quo by shifting the form and function of a targeted system. Evaluation is a critical component, yet little research has examined a collaborative forum as a vehicle for change in the criminal justice system. Over 150 citizens and police were brought together to work collaboratively at improving a Canadian police complaints system. Using survey, participant observation, and focus group data, this study investigates the perceptions of this Forum as a vehicle for systems change in police oversight mechanisms. We find the Forum provided both opportunities for, and barriers to, collaborative systems change work. However, these findings need to be understood within the context of police-community relations as fear and mistrust of police influence problem definitions and potential solutions. Therefore, the collaboratives model is not a one-size-fits-all approach to systems change work in the criminal justice system.

In 2012, heads of local law enforcement agencies in Benton County, Oregon, contacted researchers at Oregon State University to discuss a problem: a sharp rise in the number of contacts between police and suspects displaying symptoms of mental illness. This initial inquiry led to an ongoing collaborative examination of the nature, causes, and consequences of the rise in police contacts. In this article, the authors describe this collaboration between researchers and law enforcement officials from the perspective of both parties, situating it within the context of mental illness in the U.S. criminal justice system. The collaborators draw on firsthand experiences and prior collaborations to discuss the benefits of, challenges in, and recommendations for university–police research collaborations. Although such collaborations may pose challenges (related to relationship definition, data collection and analysis, outputs, and relationship maintenance), the potential benefits—for researchers and law enforcement agencies—are substantial.

Summary This study examined the relationship between the fear of deportation and perceptions of law enforcement, the criminal justice system, and the willingness to report crimes among Latinos in the US. Understanding the relationship between increased immigration enforcement and fear of deportation may promote public safety by improving the relationship between the police and Latino communities. Findings Multivariate ordinal logistic regression analyses of the data found that participants who had a greater fear of deportation reported: (1) less confidence that police would not use excessive force (p Applications Social work practitioners can help address this issue and improve the relationship between law enforcement, the criminal justice system, and the Latino community by: delivering cultural competence training for police and criminal justice personnel; educating Latinos about how to protect their rights when interacting with police and the criminal justice system; and by advocating for immigration reform that can help improve public safety and reduce fear in Latino communities.

Over the last four decades, the American criminal justice system has undergone a dramatic expansion, which has drawn increasing attention from sociolegal scholars (i.e., Kohler-Hausmann 2013; Natapoff 2012). Analyses customarily proceed from a nowceremonial retelling of incarceration statistics: 2.2 million people currently sit in jails and prisons while roughly 5 million people are under some form of correctional supervision (Glaze and Kaeble 2014). Yet while these numbers are staggering, they "both underestimate the reach of the criminal justice system and, in some sense, misrepresent the modal criminal justice encounter" (Kohler-Hausmann 2013: 352). Indeed, incarceration and community supervision are but the tip of a larger iceberg. Below the surface, and often eluding official record keeping, are millions of street-level police stops, infraction citations, and low-level arrests. The best estimates suggest that roughly 40 million people have face-to-face contact with police per year (Eith and Durose 2011). Excluding routine traffic stops, 5.5 million people are involuntarily detained by police every year, the majority of whom are released without charge (Brayne 2014). Disproportionately directed toward poor communities of color, recent criminal justice expansion subjects the country's most disadvantaged residents to a consequential form of street-level criminalization in which mundane public behaviors become subject to intense police suspicion, interrogation, and intervention.This article develops a systematic framework for more adequately analyzing the lived consequences of street-level criminalization. Specifically, it demonstrates that the constant threat of police contact operates as a powerful "cultural agent" that significantly transforms the cultural contexts and social relations of poor communities of color (Garland 1990). This study extends several areas of sociolegal research by bridging scholarship on the collateral consequences of criminal justice contact with cultural analysis. Researchers are devoting increasing attention to the diffuse and deleterious effects of criminalization on the social health and stability of marginalized communities. Cultural analysis provides key conceptual tools for understanding how and why the criminal justice system generates patterned systems of understanding and action among criminalized populations even when criminal justice actors are not actively present. The following pages illustrate that in communities where the threat of unwanted police contact and enforcement looms constant, residents develop and refine a particular cultural frame-what I term "cop wisdom." Cop wisdom allows these individuals to render seemingly-random police activity more legible, predictable, and manipulable. Armed with this interpretive schema, "copwise" residents engage in creative and circumspect tactics for evading, deflecting, and subverting criminal justice interventions.In the tradition of legal consciousness scholarship, this article thus "de-centers" the law by shifting emphasis from formal legal institutions to the informal processes by which the law "invokes commonplace schemas of everyday life" (DeLand 2013; Ewick and Silbey 1998: 17; Saguy and Stuart 2008). In doing so, the article reveals a pervasive, though unexamined mechanism by which heightened law enforcement (re)produces inequality: While cop wisdom may enable residents to reduce the likelihood of police contact, they often deploy this frame in a manner that constricts vital social interactions, contributes to animosity in public space, and undermines individual and community well-being.Collateral Consequences of CriminalizationCollateral consequences, or "invisible punishments," refer to the negative effects of criminal justice involvement that typically manifest outside of the traditional sentencing framework (Hagan and Dinovitzer 1999; Travis 2002). Rather than being imposed by the decision of a sentencing court, these effects occur by default through associated social processes. …

The articles in this Special Issue make clear that international criminal justice will not eradicate modern slavery. However, they also make clear that the answer to the question ‘What role does international criminal justice have to play in the fight against modern slavery?’ is not simply: ‘None.’ Understanding the specific utility of international criminal justice in the fight against slavery requires understanding international criminal justice in historical, social, economic, political and broader legal context. It means recognizing that the existing tools of international criminal justice were sharpened to address international crimes that occur during armed conflict and mass atrocity, while exploring how those tools can be USED, adapted and developed to address the systematic injustices that underpin contemporary forms of slavery. It means recognizing that international criminal jurisprudence can shape human rights law, domestic criminal justice and even international business regulation c but also recognizing that institutions in each of those regimes will adapt and mould international criminal norms to their own contexts. It means recognizing that corporate actors are not clearly, at present, subject to international criminal responsibility; but also recognizing that international criminal law can indirectly shape corporate behaviour through other, more indirect, transmission vectors, notably prosecution of individual directors and statutory due diligence requirements. In this conclusion, I reflect on the cross-cutting insights that emerge from the articles in this Special Issue about the varied and nuanced roles that international criminal justice is playing c and could play c in the fight against slavery. I consider the policy implications that flow from these insights, and close with some practical suggestions for strengthening the role that international criminal justice plays in the fight against contemporary forms of slavery.

A long tradition of research has examined the influence of organizational environments on criminal justice agencies. Based on survey data from a sample of local police chiefs, this study explores the effects of the institutional environment on police agency priorities. Specifically, we investigate how the perceived importance of different sectors of the institutional environment influences police agency priorities, as reported by police chiefs. The analyses reveal that certain sectors of the institutional environment exert greater influence on police organizational priorities than others. Moreover, the influence of institutional sectors differs according to the specific type of priority. Our findings reveal that institutional considerations exert more consistent effects on the importance of maintaining relationships with constituents than on maintaining law and order or adopting innovative practices. We draw on institutional theory in explaining the study’s findings.

This paper proposes that an effective way to teach critical thinking would be through a criminal justice ethics class that prioritizes learning in the affective domain to prevent persistence of a polarizing perspective. The premise is twofold: first, that us versus them dichotomies hinder higher order thinking and moral decision-making; and, secondly, that it is much more difficult to overcome dichotomous thinking exclusively through cognitive domain teaching because the tendency is for students to sift through new information and focus only on facts which support preexisting positions and, also, because students may anticipate an intellectual attack on their opinions and become defensive or resistant. For those reasons, the suggestion is to use carefully selected, empathy-evoking films as a stealthier, softer introduction to controversial issues.

Procedural justice advocates argue that fair procedures in decision making processes can increase participant satisfaction with legal institutions. Little critical work has been done however to explore the power of such claims in the context of mass violence and international criminal justice. This article critically examines some of the key claims of procedural justice by exploring the perceptions of justice held by victims participating as Civil Parties in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (eccc). The eccc has created one of the most inclusive and extensive victim participation regimes within international criminal law. It therefore provides a unique case study to examine some of claims of ‘victim-centred’ transitional justice through a procedural justice lens. It finds that while procedural justice influenced civil parties’ overall perceptions of the Court, outcomes remained of primary importance. It concludes by analysing the possible reasons for this prioritisation.

The Spanish judicial system is independent and headed by the Supreme Court. Spain has a civil law system. The criminal procedure is governed by the legality principle--by opposition to the opportunity or expediency principle--which implies that prosecution must take place in all cases in which sufficient evidence exists of guilt. Traditionally, the role of the PPS in Spain has been very limited during the investigative stage of the process. That stage is under the responsibility of the Examining Magistrate (EM). Since the end of the 1980s, a series of modifications has been introduced in order to extend the functions of the PPS. In 1988, the PPS received extended competences which allow them to receive reports of offenses. Upon knowing of an offense (reported or known to have been committed), the PPS can initiate the criminal proceeding. The PPS is also allowed to lead a sort of plea bargain under a series of restrictive conditions and only for some offenses. At the same time, the PPS received extended competences in the juvenile justice criminal proceeding in 2000. With all this said, the role of the PPS has not changed radically and, during the investigative stage of the process, their main role remains the presentation of the accusation, playing a more active role during the trial stage of the proceeding. In this article the national criminal justice system of Spain is described. Special attention is paid to the function of the PPS within this framework and its relationship to police and courts. The article refers to legal provisions and the factual handling of criminal cases.

Ethical social work practice within criminal justice settings is fraught with challenges. Through individual interviews in a qualitative study exploring social work practice in diverse criminal justice settings in the northwestern United States, a subsample of 9 social workers described the difficulties they experience adhering to social work’s professional code of ethics. They identify 2 primary areas of divergence, conflicting responsibilities and opposing interests, and identify the ways they respond to these challenges and the rationale behind their decisions. The discussion section explores avenues for strengthening social workers’ abilities to be a vital and ethical presence in criminal justice settings.

In creating this analysis of pedagogical strategies, we began with the recognition that criminal justice education currently tends to be limited in its scope. The focus on courts, law enforcement, and incarceration dominate the curriculum in the university context. We hope to broaden this scope within social and criminal justice courses, and here we outline effective pedagogical strategies. The focus is primarily on cultivating student consciousness of foundational bases of justice using perspectives from philosophy alongside sociological and criminological research. Descriptions of philosophical and sociological content and concepts around justice are accompanied by an analysis of dialog-based instructional methods and the use of Michael Sandel’s Justice: What’s the Right Thing to do? From this approach, we address fundamental philosophical perspectives on virtue, maximizing general welfare, and freedom; and we tie this content with studies of core sociological issues of civic engagement and soci...

In addition to the more conventional approaches of the criminal justice system, this article suggests that there is a need for restorative justice as another method of addressing sexual crime. In support of this view, the present article explores the possibility of a hybrid justice system based on a complementary relationship between restorative justice and the criminal justice system. An analysis of the limits of the criminal justice system and the need for restorative justice in the contentious area of sexual crime will be followed by a detailed examination of key justice considerations when trying to marry both criminal justice and restorative justice perspectives. Such considerations include: the meaning of justice; legislation; sentencing principles; due process; victims’ rights; and the location of restorative justice within/alongside/outside the criminal justice system. The aim of this article is to determine whether it is possible to reconcile two seemingly juxtaposed methods of justice de...

The International Criminal Court has generally a bad reputation in the African continent as a whole with hostile assertions by the African Union, that the court is nothing but a political tool for the powerful. The Court, plagued with numerous difficulties, has come under pressure to perform, with some doubting its viability. Created by the Rome Statute, and the parties therein governed by general treaty law, enforcement mechanisms of the court have been unsatisfactory at best and this has led to questions being asked as to its survival. There exists a pool of divergent views, in regard to the African Union and the International Criminal Court, in many of the crucial areas of international criminal justice. This paper seeks to find out just how true is the claim that the ICC is ‘dead’ is, and the implications of this in the future of the continent as regards international criminal justice. How important is it for us to preserve international criminal justice? Just how much of a role do states play in this revered area of law? Is its legal viability coming to an unfortunate premature end? What does this mean, then, for the victims of mass atrocities? This paper seeks to show an interplay of the role of states and politics in international criminal justice, and determine then, whether there exists any bright future for this area of law in Africa.

Although strain in police–prosecutor relationships may be built into the criminal justice system’s checks and balances, the administration of criminal justice can benefit from the adoption of practices which improve these working relationships. A first step towards the adoption of such practices can be taken by first adding to the knowledge base regarding this understudied topic. Using a survey of a state-wide sample of Texas police chiefs, this exploratory study identifies which aspects of police–prosecutor interaction styles are predictors of police chiefs’ satisfaction with police–prosecutor relationships. Results indicate that perceived level of police input in prosecutors’ plea bargain and charging decisions, perceived directness of felony trial preparation communication method, and perceived frequency of decision-maker interactions predict police chiefs’ satisfaction with police–prosecutor relationships. Policy implications are discussed.

The creation of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 1993 began a striking proliferation of international criminal tribunals. Now, however, in the wake of this phase of international institution building that followed from the surge of symbolic support for an emergent legal field, international criminal justice is characterized by closing courts and a declining number of professional positions. Developing a framework inspired by structural sociology, this article will analyze the professional practices of the agents that created this field and are now affected by the closure of the courts. These practices constitute a professional response to larger geopolitical transformations in which international criminal justice is no longer politically in vogue. As the article will show, geopolitical structures alone are not wholly definitive for developments of international law: professional agency is actively reshaping the field of international criminal justice.

The traditional distinction between retributive and distributive justice misconstrues the place of the criminal law in modern regulatory states. In the context of the regulatory state, the criminal law is a coercive rule-enforcing institution – regardless of whether it also serves the ends of retributive justice. As a rule-enforcing institution, the criminal law is deeply implicated in stabilizing the institutions and legal rules by means of which a state creates and allocates social advantage. As a coercive institution, the criminal law requires justification as an instance of legitimate state authority. The operation of criminal justice institutions should therefore not be evaluated by reference to a distinct set of criteria, but should be evaluated by the same criteria that apply to coercive public institutions generally.

Public beliefs about psychological issues relevant to the legal system have been demonstrated to often be misconceived, but the endorsement of such beliefs in law en- forcement samples is largely unknown. This study was the first to compare psycho-legal beliefs between law enforce- ment officers and the general public in the UK. Participants were presented a 50-item questionnaire measuring five psycho-legal topics; police procedures, courts, tough on crime, mental illness, and memory and cognition. Despite direct involvement and relevant experience, law enforcement officers endorsed just as many empirically contradictory be- liefs as those who were not law enforcement officers. Further, law enforcement officers were more confident in their re- sponses. This research has implications for identifying areas of limited knowledge within police samples that can be targeted by police education.

Citizen police academies (CPAs) are popular programs developed by police departments with the twin goals of educating the public about law enforcement and improving police-community relationships. Citizen police academies can help law enforcement agencies by providing them with graduates who may support police departments through volunteering, crime reporting, advocacy, and crime prevention. CPAs may aid citizens by providing them with opportunities to work with the police to make their communities safer. During the course of the citizen police academy, not only will participants have opportunities to learn more about the police depar'tment and their communities, but they may be given opportunities to patrol with police officers, solve mock crime scenes, or attend moot court. This study examines citizen police academies in Tennessee and provides an exploratory investigation of the programs and its participants. Data obtained from 31 police departments indicate CPA programs with more than a 20 year history in Tennessee. Results of a pretest and posttest of 4 citizen police academies’ participants found that attending these programs significantly and positively changed participants’ familiarity with the police chief, local law enforcement, community crime, and the criminal justice system.

This article highlights and interrogates the significance of dominant representations of international crime and international criminal justice. It positions international criminal justice as a discursive, as well as practical, global project and is concerned, in particular, with the relational and ethical implications of the way in which international crime and justice are thought about, spoken about and portrayed. I argue that dominant representations of international crime and international criminal justice serve to map the international as a site of crime, justice and community. A key contribution of this article is to explicate the uniquely ‘crimino-legal’ nature of this site or sphere, by illustrating its criminological, legal and spatial characteristics. I then reflect on the ethical and relational limits of this arena of sociolegal engagement, as well as emphasising the importance of continued academic attention to the representation and imagination, as well as practice, of international criminal justice.

Justice Rapid Response (JRR) is an intergovernmental mechanism that is designed to support and complement the international community’s efforts to ensure accountability for the most serious international crimes. It has grown out of the recognition, some ten years ago, that for all the talk of ending impunity for mass atrocities, the tools to come anywhere near this worthy goal were largely insuffi cient, and this in spite of the many political successes of the “project of international criminal justice.”

Current empirical research on trust in criminal justice focuses on those who do the trusting. Working from the theoretical position that trust is relational, this article expands that research by showing how trust relationships between the public and criminal justice institutions are shaped by the legal framework governing them. Reporting empirical case studies from the plural legal governance of criminal justice in Ethiopia, the article shows that the country's different legal frameworks produce different constructions of trust relationships between the public and criminal justice institutions. Furthermore, the empirical study shows that the practical organization of daily case handling in criminal justice institutions make for an important mechanism to mediate and link these differently constructed trust relationships.

The Collapse of American Criminal Justice is a wonderful book for a serious response by Christian ethicists, particularly those who are citizens or residents of the United State.1 It focuses our at...

There seem to be a number of core arguments driving this fascinating and compelling account of the history and current state of play of the US criminal justice system. It is an important contributi...

Law-related courses, and more broadly the place of the law and lawyers in criminal justice programs, are the focus of this paper. I believe that the importance of the law, the study of legal issues, and the way in which the law is taught in criminal justice programs is in need of significant refinement. We need more law-related courses in the curriculum, at both the undergraduate and graduate level, more PhDs with an understanding of the law, and more legal research done by criminal justice scholars. In the pages that follow, I make the case for changing how we approach the study of law in criminal justice undergraduate and graduate programs.

As compared to the well-known success stories of South Korea in the areas of economic development, technology, education, and culture, topics in crime and criminal justice in South Korea are still relatively unknown to the world community. This might be the result of two major factors: the relative paucity of peer-reviewed journal articles and other publications published in English on crime and criminal justice in South Korea and the scarcity of large and systematic data sources available for empirical research. Considering the fact that the majority of previous studies in criminology and criminal justice were based on Western or American samples, it is not certain if the empirical findings from Western societies can be directly applied to non-Western Asian countries, which have different values, cultures, and social structures. Therefore, this special issue expands the scope of the Western-driven previous literature by introducing six cross-cultural empirical studies regarding some of the major crime and criminal justice issues in South Korea using empirical data collected there. This introduction to this special issue provides a preliminary overview of the six articles, two of which focus on police stressors, job satisfaction, and police officers’ turnover intention. The other articles look at police officer’s attitudes toward the use of force, household crime victimization, dynamics of the victim-perpetrator relationship in child sexual abuse, and the correlates of recidivism among juvenile offenders.