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Prison overcapacity is one of the crucial legal issues at this time, in this case the overcapacity has reached 204%. The large number of narcotic convicts is one of the causes of prison overcapacity, related to this, narcotics convicts reach 50% of the total inmates in Indonesia. The purpose of this study was to determine the need for drug users, namely abusers and drug addicts to be handled with non-penal efforts and decriminalization of drug abusers in order to reduce the level of overcapacity of prisons in Indonesia. The research method used is normative legal research that prioritizes secondary data. The results of the study confirm that addicts and abusers are victims who are entitled to protection so as not to become victims of criminal acts and have the right to obtain guarantees or rehabilitation for the losses they have received. So that non-penal efforts are needed to protect the rights of victims and decriminalization needs to be done as part of criminal politics to bring criminal law to a better direction, in this case upholding the rights of victims and being a solution to the problem of overcapacity in prisons in Indonesia. Keywords: Overcapacity, decriminalization, rehabilitation

This paper reviews evidence of how drug control has been used to uphold colonial power structures in select countries. It demonstrates the racist and xenophobic impact of drug control policy and proposes a path to move beyond oppressive systems and structures. The ‘colonization of drug control’ refers to the use of drug control by states in Europe and America to advance and sustain the systematic exploitation of people, land and resources and the racialized hierarchies, which were established under colonial control and continue to dominate today. Globally, Black, Brown and Indigenous peoples are disproportionately targeted for drug law enforcement and face discrimination across the criminal system. These communities face higher arrest, prosecution and incarceration rates for drug offenses than other communities, such as majority populations, despite similar rates of drug use and selling among (and between) different races. Current drug policies have contributed to an increase in drug-related deaths, overdoses and sustained transnational criminal enterprises at the expense of the lives of people who use drugs, their families and greater society. This review provides further evidence of the need to reform the current system. It outlines a three-pillared approach to rebuilding drug policy in a way that supports health, dignity and human rights, consisting of: (1) the decriminalization of drugs and their use; (2) an end to the mass incarceration of people who use drugs; (3) the redirection of funding away from ineffective and punitive drug control and toward health and social programs.

On September 6, 2018, homosexuality was decriminalized in India. It was the result of a rights mobilization that started almost two decades ago. From the start, Indian lesbian, gay, bi, trans (LGBT) activists tried to influence society and the judges directly, not least through contact with other judges who happened to be gay. This article is a first attempt at understanding the mobilization and decriminalization in light of contact. It is also a first attempt at combining contact theories from both gestalt and the social sciences, including Allport's (1954) contact hypothesis. It seems quite plausible that contact of a certain kind played an important role in the Indian case. Other social movements could learn from this case. Gestaltists, as contact artists could have much to contribute, especially if they also draw upon social sciences and recognize that status, social identity, and power play a role in contact.

The article deals with the principles of decriminalization of measures of criminal law influence based on a comprehensive system analysis. It is noted that the main direction of criminal law policy is the decriminalization of acts that determine the object of such policy influence. The principle of sufficient social danger implies that the act causes significant harm to the public interest. The principle of the possibility of a positive impact of non-criminal law prohibitions on human behavior involves settling the issue of effective counteraction to the act. The principle of the relative prevalence of acts to be decriminalized emphasizes the need to take into account their individual nature when establishing legal liability for acts. The principle of the predominance of positive consequences in decrim-inalization is especially relevant for economic activity. The principle of timeliness of decriminalization means its implementation at the time of its occurrence, when the act does not pose a social danger, which implies the harmfulness of belated decriminalization.The essence of decriminalization is expressed in the legislation through the principles of law – thus ensuring the formation of the legal law, which means an officially recognized, binding legal act, which is based on the principles of law as rules applicable to the regulation of specific social relations. Decriminalization should be carried out in accordance with systemic principles. If necessary, this is supplemented by the construction of optimal models. This approach to the problem is due to the need to create an appropriate law-making mechanism that would avoid mistakes in reforming criminal law. The principles of decriminalization form a complex system, where one principle is based on the content of another. The fundamental principle of decriminalization is the principle of the rule of human rights and freedoms, which is concretized in general principles as the presumption of innocence, justice.

Статья посвящена изучению перехода от религиозно-нравственного и правового контроля рождаемости к биополитической модели в конце XIX–начале XX вв. Цель статьи – установить, каким образом медикализация репродуктивного поведения повлияла на социальную политику государства и формы контроля деторождения. Использованы исторические источники XIX–начала XX в.: законодательные акты, судебная статистика, медицинские документы, отчеты родильных клиник и женские эгодокументы. В условиях развития капиталистических отношений, урбанизации и секуляризации религиозно-нравственное и законодательное регулирование деторождения становилось малоэффективным. Резкое увеличение числа выкидышей, фиксируемое в медицинских учреждениях, свидетельствовало о возросшем стремлении женщин ограничивать процесс деторождения. Государственный контроль через уголовный запрет абортов оказался неэффективным. Происходила легитимация абортивных практик в условиях их законодательного запрета. Новым средством регулирования репродуктивного поведения стала профессиональная медицина. С последней четверти XIX в. формируется медикосоциальная модель контроля репродуктивного поведения. «Политика абортов» стала приобретать биополитическое измерение и связываться с появлением абортов по медицинским показаниям. Аборт в глазах общественности приобретал легитимность в условиях акушерской клиники, осуществляемый под контролем профессионального сообщества. Вначале XX в. многие врачи предлагали ввести социальные показания к аборту. В отличие от западных коллег, которые настаивали на ужесточении законодательства об абортах, в России врачи заняли более либеральную позицию, что стало основой для формирования новой модели контроля рождаемости – биополитической. Декриминализация абортов отражала интересы государства (в части контроля над репродуктивным поведением) и врачей (рост их авторитета). Принятое в 1920 г. решение о легализации абортов стало логическим завершением дискуссии о контроле над рождаемостью, возникшей с конца XIX в. В контроле над рождаемостью советское правительство сделало ставку на абортную политику, а не рационализацию сексуальности через распространение средств искусственной контрацепции и новых принципов планирования семьи.

Este artículo tiene como objetivo discutir la repercusión en las redes sociales brasileñas del debate sobre la despenalización del aborto en Argentina a partir del análisis de 3207 comentarios en publicaciones de Facebook de las páginas de los periódicos El País, Estadão y O Globo. Basado en la teoría de la deliberación y a través de un análisis de contenido, este artículo identificó la manifestación de las variables posicionamiento, tipo de pensamiento, cambio de discurso, tema, forma, racionalidad, fuente, estrategia retórica y recursos argumentativos. Los resultados apuntan a la polarización y los altos niveles de conflicto. Predominan los comentarios racionales, pero la principal fuente de justificación son las experiencias y valores personales.

The article considers the attitude of the society of the Under-Russian Ukraine of the 19th – early 20th centuries to abortion through the prism of confronting the values of traditional culture with its condemnation of abortion as a sin of infanticide, and new urbanization trends that justified abortion. The growth in the number of abortions in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which was a natural consequence of the deformation of the family institution against the background of modernization processes, has been demonstrated. The reasons that pushed women to have an abortion have been analysed. If among rural girls the main reason was the fear of being punished by the community for premarital sex or adultery, becoming an outcast (single mother), etc., among urban residents the material factor dominated (inability to feed a large number of children). At the same time, it was determined why abortions were low popularity among peasant women (strong positions of the Christian doctrine of infanticide, high probability of death during the operation, the dominance of the cult of the mother). Methods of abortion (mechanical and chemical) are given. The criminal liability of women and midwives for miscarriage is shown. The author provides significant statistics on the number of people convicted of criminal abortion not only in the Russian Empire, but also in the world, as well as examples of public struggle for the decriminalization of abortion. Legislation of the Russian Empire in the early twentieth century demonstrates a much more loyal attitude towards women who have resorted to abortion, given the new realities and challenges of the time. The probability of punishment for abortion was low, because, on the one hand, most miscarriages were made voluntarily, and therefore cases were rarely sent to court, except in the case of a woman’s death during surgery, and on the other hand – jurors often acquitted abortions. women and midwives.

A solution to the problem of “overcriminalization” appears to be decriminalization of certain crimes. This Essay focuses on a group of crimes that has been labeled “proxy crimes” as a candidate to be eliminated. What are proxy crimes? Douglas Husak defines them as “offenses designed to achieve a purpose other than to prevent the conduct they explicitly proscribe.” Michael Moore describes them as involving situations where we “use one morally innocuous act as a proxy for another, morally wrongful act or mental state.” Put that way, proxy crimes seem highly problematic, and Larry Alexander and Kimberly Ferzan bluntly put it, “We reject proxy crimes.” This Essay asks whether we should reject proxy crimes by presenting and evaluating Alexander and Ferzan’s treatment of the subject. After describing several different types of crimes that may be characterized as proxy crimes and Alexander and Ferzan’s rejection of most of them and their arguments for doing so, this Essay argues that their rejection of proxy crimes is incomplete, which leaves their theory open to a range of possibilities regarding the proper place of proxy crimes in criminal law. This Essay concludes that getting a handle on the problem of proxy crimes and overcriminalization requires a theory of the state and an articulation of the proper relationship between the state and its citizens that can give guidance on when the state can demand obedience from citizens to support the state and when failures to comply with such demands render one criminally culpable. Without such a theory, proposals to address overcriminalization cannot travel very far.

This crime, introduced in our KZ as an obligation a resulting from the provisions of the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, has almost no practical significance in judicial practice. This confirms the past 12 years, since it has existed in the Criminal Code, and although by all parameters, given the "nonexistence" of this crime in judicial practice, its decriminalization should be performed, obligations undertailing from the aforementioned Convention do not allow us to do so. But even if we abstrate this fact, we still believe that there are objections that we have pointed to in the work, which the lawmaker has not addressed, and they are in paragraph 1 of this law offence of an essential nature, while in paragraph 2 of this Article, terminological nature. Therefore, in paragraph 1, it is a complaint that allegations of witnessing sexual acts of a criminal character such as rape on the one hand of other punishable sexual acts (adultery with a child, adultery against a powerless person, adultery by abuse of office and illicit sexual activity) on the other hand and especially as a third voluntary sexual relationship. These tentatively stated three types of sex acts cannot be treated in any way together nor can they have the same range of threatened punishment (no matter how much of that range of punishment is). In some future amendments to the KZ, this "anomaly" should be corrected by iciting the child to attend sexual acts such as rape should be incrimination as a more severe form and therefore foresee greater punishment than the existing one. The reason is more than clear and logical, because the presence of a child in the act of rape inevitably creates dangerous and long-lasting consequences for his mental (mental) health. Regarding paragraph 2 of this Constitution, terminologically difficult to subjugation under the notion of forcing a child to attend sex acts. In this sense, corrections should be made that could be in the title of the crime itself, and that correction could be - bringing and forcing the child to attend sex acts.

Analyzing the principles, considerations, and official explanations underpinning the (de)criminalization of sexual relations between same-sex partners can highlight that around the mid-twentieth century medicalizing references were used in legal and societal judgments on same-sex intimacy in Hungary (and elsewhere). In this study, we want to illustrate the medicalization process of social issues that otherwise seem difficult to “solve” (i.e., these issues, in this case, were put within a psycho-medical ambit) by focusing on a twentieth-century historical example from Hungary. The background of the decriminalization of consensual sexual acts between adult men in the 1961 Hungarian Penal Code will be explored in detail using previously unknown original archival material from 1958. This article will introduce the changes proposed by the Neurology Committee of the Health Science Council (HSC; Egészségügyi Tudományos Tanács) in 1958 leading to the HSC’s unanimous support for a proposal to decriminalize “unnatural fornication” between consenting adults and to the actual decriminalization of homosexuality (i.e., decriminalization of consensual sexual acts between adult men) in 1961. The empirical foundation of the present study includes archival records from the National Archives of Hungary and other primary sources.

This paper presents the results of the content analysis of 25 bills that went through the Brazilian National Congress between 2015 and 2018 on the theme of criminalization and decriminalization of abortion. The objective is to describe and discuss the arguments used by the parliamentarians to support or reprove those bills. The analysis reveals that women’s reproductive rights are not protagonist of the discourse presented in the bills, which focus on the natural status of the fetus and on increasing penalties to the women who perform self-induced abortion. Even if the religious discourse is not so explicit, we can find many traces of it, though disguised behind a definition of the beginning of human life, to demarcate in time the recognition of the fetus as a subject of rights. El artículo presenta los resultados del análisis de contenido de 25 leyes sobre la penalización y la despenalización del aborto que pasaron por el Congreso Nacional de Brasil entre 2015 y 2018. El objetivo es describir y debatir los argumentos utilizados por los miembros del Parlamento para apoyar o reprobar dichas leyes. El análisis revela que los derechos reproductivos de las mujeres no protagonizan el discurso presentado en las leyes, que se centran en el estatus natural del feto y en crecientes penalizaciones a las mujeres que realizan abortos autoinducidos. Incluso si el discurso religioso no es tan explícito, encontramos muchos rastros de él, si bien enmascarado tras una definición del comienzo de la vida, para demarcar en el tiempo el reconocimiento del feto como sujeto de derechos. Available from: https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1162

Based on the experience of Georgia, the Russian Federation, Italy or the USA in counteracting organizes crime the article presents analysis of provisions of the Criminal Code of Ukraine on liability for offences committed by criminal association. It ascertains that a common feature of the analyzed foreign criminal legislatures is establishing severe criminal liability for offences committed by criminal associations. A peculiar feature of the criminal legislatures of Georgia and the Russian Federation is establishing criminal liability for occupying a leading position in criminal association. A counterargument for presenting such norm in the Criminal Code of Ukraine is practical inability to prove this fact without ascertaining actual organizational or supervisory actions of the leader of criminal association. Furthermore, introducing colloquial folksy language into official normative act leads to contamination of the Criminal Code and vagueness of its provisions.The article defines drawbacks of the provisions of the Criminal Code of Ukraine that criminalize activities of criminal associations, namely: unsuccessful attempt to define the notion of criminal influence; lack of systematization of the introduced amendments (there is a need to provide relevant amendment to the Articles 28 and 43 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine); actual decriminalization of involvement in the offences committed by criminal association; impossibility to ascertain termination of the offence provided in the Art. 255-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine); badly constructed definition of a person, who has a status of a subject possessing great criminal influence, including the status of «thief in law».The article presents the ways of enhancing the norms of the Criminal Code of Ukraine in the part of providing criminal liability for offences committed by criminal association. Issues of enhancing organizational-legal, economical, social and ideological means of counteracting activities of criminal associations in Ukraine require further research.

The history of suicide in Russia, especially prior to the nineteenth century, remains understudied. While in most European countries the process of decriminalization and secularization of suicide was underway, in Russia, with the introduction of the Military Article of 1715, it was formally criminalized. On the basis of the study of more than 350 newly examined archival cases, this article examines how the transfer of suicide investigations to secular authorities also entailed secularization, while the peculiarities of the Russian judicial and investigative system, as well as lacunae in the legislation, actually led to the gradual decriminalization of suicide. At the same time, although among Russians, as well as among other peoples, a number of superstitions were associated with suicide, there is no evidence in the archival documents studied in this article of a particularly emotional perception of suicide. The phenomenon of suicide in eighteenth-century Russia, when compared to early modern Europe, did not have any significant, fundamental differences. However, the features of the Russian judicial-investigative system made this phenomenon less public, less visible and less significant for public consciousness.

El artículo analiza las estrategias de comunicación de la contramovilización conservadora frente al derecho de las mujeres a decidir sobre su propio cuerpo en México. A partir de la coyuntura escenificada en el estado de Veracruz en el año 2018, planteamos que las organizaciones conservadoras aprovechan las estructuras de oportunidad de mediación que brindan los medios tradicionales y las redes sociodigitales para la circulación de ideas, siguiendo estrategias de adaptación de sus argumentos a los contextos políticos nacionales y subnacionales. Combinando la etnografía digital, el análisis de prensa estatal y de discursos públicos, identificamos dos tipos de mensajes que tuvieron eco en las discusiones legislativas que impidieron la despenalización del aborto en el estado: 1) la injerencia y presión externa como imposición de agendas; 2) la equiparación del aborto como exacerbación del contexto de muerte y crimen organizado.

The most important reason for the criminalization (decriminalization) of acts is their social danger, but this criterion often raises many questions, especially when it comes to offenses in the field of business. One of the key problems here is the constant fluctuation between the mitigation or tightening of criminal law impact on this sphere of public relations. At the same time, its decision is largely politically motivated, being rather the result of the confrontation between the state and business, rather than a scientifically based approach to determining ways to maintain a balance of public and private interests. Often, individual novels are brought to life by high-profile cases of violation of the rights and legitimate interests of citizens. All this leads to the implementation of an insufficiently thought-out approach to the reform of criminal legislation. In order to assess the practice of criminalization of acts in the sphere of business activity, the authors analyzed the novelties of the current legislation in terms of establishing liability for violation of the established procedure for carrying out business activities in terms of their effectiveness and compliance with legal technology. It is concluded that there is a need for a more restrained assessment of proposals to liberalize criminal liability for economic crimes, while simultaneously reviewing the composition of crimes for decriminalization, the negative consequences of which can be prevented or leveled by other organizational and legal means.

The Indian Supreme Court in the Navtej Singh Johar vs Union of India judgement (6th September 2018), decriminalized homosexuality. However, the space cleared by the legal judgement cannot be immediately availed of by those affected by it because legally determined/defined space doesn’t necessarily become social space. This essay looks at the formation of this social space and the perception of homosexuality in civil society. It will examine the impediments of communication that homosexuals encounter in the heteronormative world, and the ensuing misunderstandings regarding homosexuality. It argues that a proper medium is necessary to provide communication in a social space that would then treat homosexuality as ‘normal’. I argue that Mahesh Dattani’s plays enable the imagination and the construction of such an accepting civil society.

In July of 2018, the Constitutional Court of Georgia ruled that any punishment for cannabis use is unconstitutional. The study aimed to examine changes in the behavior of regular cannabis users fol...

Many publications are devoted to the identification of social conditionality of criminal regulations. However, the science of criminal law does not have any comprehensive research on the social conditionality of establishing criminal responsibility and punishment for military personnel. In this regard, its essence, features and criteria for identification remain practically unknown. The paper reveals the problematic aspects of the concept and meaning of social conditionality of establishing criminal responsibility and punishment for military personnel; the author’s definition is given. Based on the widespread opinion in the theory of criminal law that the mechanism for identifying this social condition consists of criteria that are studied by the legislator at the appropriate stages of the processes of criminalization (decriminalization) and penalization (depenalization) of military socially dangerous acts, the author analyses them in detail. The problem of ways of legal regulation of criminal responsibility and punishment of military personnel is touched upon. It is stated that the peculiarity of the definition of this social conditionality is the resolution by the legislator, among other dilemmas, of the question of the need for normative fixing of a special military or ordinary prohibition and (or) fixing of the corresponding special military regulationsin the general part of the Criminal Law.The author concludes that the identification of social conditionality of the criminal-normative prescription on responsibility and punishment of military personnel is one of the important tasks of modern science of criminal law, which necessitates the development of a unified approach to the structure and content of this process. The establishment of the theoretical and legal essence of this conditionality should be considered as the most important step in this direction. The author offers the following definition. It is the compliance of criminal regulations that establish responsibility and punishment for criminal behavior of military personnel, resulting from the demand of society in the objective need for criminal law protection of military law and order and other public relations that are most important for the individual, society and the state.

This article explores the impact of the 1969 Criminal Code amendments partially decriminalizing homosexuality on the subsequent development of the gay legal subject and gay legal resistance. It argues that the language of privacy constituted the very terms of the resistance to the continued criminalization of many dimensions of gay sexuality.

Fifty years after Canada’s partial decriminalization of gay sex, this article pursues two aims. First, it complicates understandings of the reform as a rational, liberal move to divert the criminal law from private, victimless conduct, in line with the image of removing the state from bedrooms. It does so by thematically rereading the House of Commons debates. Even the leading reformers insisted that homosexuality would remain illegal and laboriously affirmed their disgust for it. Second, the article reads the measures on homosexuality as part of the larger enterprise of defining and protecting the family by criminal means – criminal family law. Such prohibitions are typically studied separately, but they are a key part of how the state regulates family, and they show abiding anxieties and insecurities. The article reminds scholars and students to read behind the legislative text and to look beyond legal categories to seek broader patterns in the exercise of repression and other state power through law.

Recently, it has been estimated that nearly 200 million people use marijuana with growing usage being attributed to the legalization and decriminalization of the drug around the world. A concerning implication of increased marijuana use is the alarming number of individuals who report driving under the influence of the drug, which has prompted the development of detection technologies. An electrochemical-based detection technology, akin to how the alcohol breathalyzer functions, would provide an attractive solution to this growing societal problem. The first step toward this goal is to develop a reaction that converts Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ(9)-THC), the primary psychoactive substance in marijuana, to a derivative with diagnostic spectroscopic changes. We report the development of a mild electrochemical method for the oxidation of Δ(9)-THC to its corresponding p-quinone isomer. The photophysical and electrochemical properties of the resultant quinone show a dramatic shift in comparison to Δ(9)-THC. This simple protocol provides the foundation for the development of an electrochemical-based marijuana breathalyzer.

The subject of the research is criminal law rules that provide for criminal liability for hate crimes and the judicial decisions of the European Court of Human Rights on hate crimes. The purpose of the article is to confirm or refute the hypothesis that a unified approach to the definition of the legal concept of hate speech and the limits of its application is nec-essary. This approach must be based on the legal positions of the European Court of Hu-man Rights The research methodology includes analysis and interpretation of court decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, as well as a dialectical approach to the analysis of vari-ous points of view to the definition of extremist activity. The main results and scope of their application. The relevance of the research proposed for publication is due to the lack of uniform practice of applying the articles of the Russian Criminal Code on so-called "hate crimes" by Russian courts and the presence of signifi-cant contradictions in the positions of the European Court of Human Rights and the state position of the Russian Federation in defining key concepts in this area that are extremely important for criminal procedure and administrative activities. The paper considers scien-tific and practical attempts to define "hate crimes" in the global and regional human rights systems, basic recommendations of the UN on countering such crimes, and offers an interpretation of the term hate speech in relation to the related criminological concept of hate crime. The text provides statistical data describing the level of such crime and the practice of the ECHR in this area, mentions a list of criteria according to which "hate crimes" can be motivated by language differences, gender, sexual orientation and other characteristics, as well as criteria that distinguish hate speech from freedom of expres-sion, and suggests decriminalization of part 1 of article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code. Conclusions. It is necessary to unify the concepts of "hate crimes" (and the practice of their application) in the direction of, in particular, reducing the number of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights against the Russian Federation and increasing the level of legal protection of both the individual citizen of the Russian Federation and freedom of speech and expression.

Purpose Human trafficking (HT) is a local, national and international problem with a range of human rights, public health and policy implications. Victims of HT face atrocious abuses that negatively impact their health outcomes. When a state lacks protective laws, such as Safe Harbor laws, victims of HT tend to be seen as criminals. This paper aims to highlight the legal present gaps within Missouri’s anti-trafficking legislation and delineates recommendations for the legal protection of victims of HT and betterment of services needed for their reintegration and healing. Design/methodology/approach This case-study is based on a policy analysis of current Missouri’s HT laws. This analysis was conducted through examining current rankings systems created by nationally and internationally recognized non-governmental organizations as well as governmental reports. Additionally, other state’s best practice and law passage of Safe Harbor legislations were examined. The recommendations were based on human rights and public health frameworks. Findings Missouri is a state that has yet to upgrade its laws lately to reflect Safe Harbor laws. Constant upgrades and evaluations of current efforts are necessary to protect and address HT at the state and local levels. Public health and human rights principles can assist in the upgrading of current laws as well as other states’ best-practice and integration of protective legislation and diversion programs to both youth and adult victims of HT. Research limitations/implications Laws are continually being updated at the state level; therefore, there might be some upgrades that have taken place after the analysis of this case study was conducted. Also, the findings and recommendations of this case study are limited to countries that are similar to the USA in terms of the state-level autonomy to pass laws independently from federal law. Practical implications If Safe Harbor laws are well designed, they have greater potential to protect, support and assist victims of HT in their process from victimization into survivorship as well as to paving the way for societal reintegration. The creation and enforcement of Safe Harbor laws is a way to ensure the decriminalization process. Additionally, this legal protection also ensures that the universal human rights of victims are protected. Consequently, these legal processes and updates could assist in creating healthier communities in the long run in the USA and around the world. Social implications From a public health and human rights perspectives, communities in the USA and around the world cannot provide complete protection to victims of HT until their anti-trafficking laws reflect Safe Harbor laws. Originality/value This case study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is a unique analysis that dismantles the discrepancies of Missouri’s current HT laws. This work is valuable to those who create policies at the state level and advocate for the protection of victims and anti-trafficking efforts.

Melissa Gira Grant’s latest book examines the denial of basic labour rights for sex workers, and the external factors behind this, including the attitudes of the police, media and politicians. The book is a sharp critique of the sensationalist treatment of the industry and behaviors of establishment figures that proves timely in the wake of Amnesty’s recently declared support for global decriminalization.

With proliferating efforts to regulate the quality of cannabis on legalized markets, and recent discussions about drug quality assessment by darknet buyers, it seems timely to explore definitions of the quality of cannabis among consumers. An inductive analysis of in-depth interviews with people who had used cannabis in the past 12 months was conducted, which focused on the respondents’ subjective definitions and assessments of the quality of cannabis. The data are drawn from convenience samples in four localities (Florida [United States], Czechia, Spain, and New South Wales [Australia]) where cannabis was illegal or decriminalized. The findings suggest that the respondents across all four localities used a range of visual and sensory indicators to assess the quality of cannabis. For many respondents, these were independent indicators of the quality of cannabis suggesting that cannabis was not merely an “experience” good. For others, visual and sensory assessments were used as indirect indicators of quality in that they represented the effect of the cannabis. The desired effect was more complex than simple potency (strength) and several respondents preferred mild and not-sedating cannabis. Across the four localities, the respondents also included “proxy” indicators of the safety of cannabis in their definitions of quality. In other words, high-quality cannabis was defined as not causing excessive intoxication or physical harm. Altogether, cannabis was a specific “credence” good when its quality was seen as a result of cultivation techniques, production location, or producers’ (profit) motivations - depending on the locality. These findings suggest that cannabis policies that regulate the cultivation process can be relevant to people who use cannabis. Given that consumers take the safety of cannabis into consideration when assessing its quality, their involvement in the development of quality standards is warranted. Consumer-led self-regulation should also be considered in policies that seek to regulate cannabis supply.

The article investigates one of the fundamental principles of family law aimed at clarifying the boundaries between legal and arbitrary interference of the state and third parties in the affairs of the family. The Author argues that acts committed in accordance with the law and contrary to the principle of proportionality and proportionality do not constitute arbitrary interference in the affairs of the family. It is noted that at the moment the normative implementation of the principle of prohibition of voluntary interference in family affairs is controversial. On the one hand, the decriminalization of family violence is decreasing interference of state and society in the family business, on the other hand, we see the strengthening of the role of the juvenile justice system, which means the increase of state intervention in the affairs of the family.

Human rights and the UN drug control regime have long had an uneasy relationship, which is evident today in the tensions that exist between criminal justice reform advocates, the institutions of the UN drug control regime, and economic interests that stand to benefit from decriminalization and legalization efforts. The UN drug control regime's relationship with human rights cannot be properly discussed without acknowledging its colonial and racist roots. From the earliest agreement on drug control in 1909, born out of the crisis of opium dependency caused by the forced opening of China to trade in opium by the British, to the 1988 United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, which was a product of America's war on drugs, international efforts to regulate drugs have never been for the benefit of those who have suffered the most from both the supply of drugs and its criminalization. The war on drugs has been a global war from the beginning, arising out of colonial structures that centered white/European racial dominance. The inadequacies of the international drug regime and current efforts to reform it are rooted in this historical legacy. In light of this, we argue that efforts by international bodies to center human rights in the discussion on reforming the UN drug control regime are, so far, insufficient. Only through recognizing the power imbalances at play can we advance the possibility of a system that values individuals and responds to a changing landscape where corporate interests are coming to the table in the context of decriminalization and legalization.

The necessity of combating human trafficking is often justified by the violation of human rights of the victims of human trafficking. Criticism has, however, repeatedly been voiced that the victim-centred, human rights-based approach has not been consistently applied - because, in reality, state interests in effectively combating (organized) crime and securing borders against illegal migration take precedence. An opposite tendency criticizes the criminalization of human traffic on the grounds that human rights are not violated in every case within the definition of human trafficking, and criminalization is inappropriate in such cases. Furthermore, various parties point out that there is little empirical data on trafficking in human beings, and the available data is unreliable. This contribution aims to provide an overview of these issues and argue in favour of a nuanced examination of phenomena covered by the legal definition of human trafficking.

Article is the first step in explaining complex relation between drugs and organized crime. Firstly, in order to better understand those relations, there are definitions of organized crime (type of property crime, determined by the existence of criminal organization which runs a permanent illegal business with the intention of maximizing profit, using violence to establish a monopoly over certain territory and the corruption of authority representatives) and drugs (illicit psychoactive substances - PAS - that affect addiction or changes in consumer consciousness). After that, author present their classifications and put an accent on "the new drugs" - club drugs and designer drugs. Before processing to the other considerations, he emphasize the distinctions among "drug-related crime" and "drug-addict crime" (crimes done by drugabusing offenders). Special attention is directed at the considerations of scientific research about influence of drugs on human behavior, especially on criminal conduct. It was concluded that between these phenomena there is a correlation, but not causality, which means that drug-abusing does not presume a crime. The importance of this assertion lies in the fact that media, general public, and even legislators often have completely opposite opinion on this problem. This is the reason why, on the one hand, citizens of various countries think that drugrelated crime means criminal activity, and on the other hand, political decision makers are constantly making criminal reaction too harsh not only towards wrongdoers who puts drugs into circulation ("dealing") only, but for drug-abusers, too. Unfortunately, the same thing has happened to Serbia which made criminal reaction quite severe in the area of drug-related crimes for many times in the last decade. Subjects who present considerable data about number of persons who are arrested or been serving a sentence in penitentiary institutions for drug-crimes should explain a few things. Firstly, they should account how many of them are deprived because they have been engaged in producing or selling substances that are declared narcotics. Secondly, they should clarify how many prisoners abused drugs before deprivation and how many during a sentence serving. Criminologists had an important assignment to persuade public and legislators that the most of actual beliefs about criminal reaction on drug-related crime are not based on scientific opinions. The biggest mistake is thinking that drug-abusing only leads to crime. In the environment where criminologists had major influence on the public and politicians, an apparent trend of reduction of criminal reaction or even decriminalization of some conducts in the area of drug-related crime has been noticed. They are treating narcotic addiction as medical, not criminal problem.

This chapter reviews the evolving consensus in international human rights law, first supporting the liberalization of criminal abortion laws to improve access to care and now supporting their repeal or decriminalization as a human rights imperative to protect the health, equality, and dignity of people. This consensus is based on human rights standards or the authoritative interpretations of U.N. and regional human rights treaties in general comments and recommendations, individual communications and inquiry reports of treaty monitoring bodies, and in the thematic reports of special rapporteurs and working groups of the U.N. and regional human rights systems. This chapter explores the reach and influence of human rights standards, especially how high courts in many countries reference these standards to hold governments accountable for the reform and repeal of criminal abortion laws.

This article provides analysis of the criminal procedure for exemption from punishment on the ground of legal act on decriminalization provided; analysis of current status of the problem provided; the key problems and legislative gaps identified, and respective solutions developed. The study revealed that the procedure for exemption from the court-sentenced punishment on the ground of legal act on decriminalization provided, has no sufficiently and precise regulations in the criminal procedural legislation. In the framework of the analysis of the recent studies, researches and respective publications it has been examined the current status of the scientific researches of the issues on exemption from the court-sentenced punishment on the ground of legal act on decriminalization provided (part 2 of the article 74 of the Criminal Code). The grounded conclusion reads that that the procedure for this type of exemption from the court-sentenced punishment is insufficiently studied. In particular, the application of legal act on decriminalization at the criminal proceedings does not require a specific regulations. However, the general procedure for examining issues while executing a sentence requires taking into account specific cases of exemption from court-sentenced punishment. The ensuring of the prescribed by the part 2 of art. 74 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine "immediate" release of a person from a punishment sentenced by a court, should be supported by improving the procedural terms of consideration of the petition for release and introduction of a separate regulations. The article recommends to implement into the criminal procedure a list of grounds (issues) that the court must consider during a trial and resolving the issue of release from punishment on the ground of legal act on decriminalization provided, and to oblige the court in deciding whether to release a person from punishment on the ground of legal act on decriminalization provided, while applying the exemption from punishment under part 2 of art. 74 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, to consider the issue of eradication of conviction the person who was sentenced.

Human rights, while broad in their universal definition, are distinctly identifiable when the absence of such rights threatens an individual’s quality of life or likelihood of survival. Social grou...

Background The abortion law in Uruguay changed in 2012 to allow first trimester abortion on request. Implementation of the law in Uruguay has been lauded, but barriers to care, including abortion stigma, remain. This study aimed to assess women’s experiences seeking abortion services and related attitudes and knowledge following implementation of the law in Uruguay. Methods We interviewed 207 eligible women seeking abortion services at a high-volume public hospital in Montevideo in 2014. We generated univariate frequencies to describe women’s experiences in care. We conducted regression analysis to examine variations in experiences of stigma by women’s age and number of abortions. Results Most of the women felt that abortion was a right, were satisfied with the services they received, and agreed with the abortion law. However, 70% found the five-day waiting period unnecessary. Women experienced greater self-judgement than worries about being judged by others. Younger women in the sample (ages 18–21) reported being more worried about judgment than women 22 years or older (1.02 vs. 0.71 on the ILAS sub-scale). One quarter of participants reported feeling judged while obtaining services. Women with more than one abortion had nearly three times the odds of reporting feeling judged. Conclusions These findings highlight the need to address abortion stigma even after the law is changed. Some considerations from Uruguay that may be relevant to other jurisdictions reforming abortion laws include: the need for strategies to reduce judgmental behavior from staff and clinicians towards women seeking abortions, including training in counseling skills and empathic communication; addressing stigmatizing attitudes about abortion through community outreach or communications campaigns; mitigating the potential stigma that may be perpetuated through policies to prevent “repeat” abortions; ensuring that younger women and those with more than one abortion feel welcome and are not mistreated during care; and assessing the necessity of a waiting period. The rapid implementation of legal, voluntary abortion services in Uruguay can serve in many ways as an exemplar, and these findings may inform the process of abortion law reform in other countries.

Earp et al. (2021) provide a robust justification for the decriminalization of drugs based on the systemic racism that fuels the “war on drugs” and the ongoing harms of drug policies to individuals...

The drug policies of the Nordic countries have been relatively strict. Since this seems to contradict the internationally recognized liberal criminal policy in general, analyses have been devoted to try to understand this gap. Why doesn’t the “Scandinavian exceptionalism” apply to the drug policies? The new question in relation to drug policy is, however, if and how the Nordic countries will adapt to a situation when several countries all over the world are questioning ‘the war on drugs’ and orienting themselves in the direction of decriminalization and legalization. An analysis of a possible change in drug policies must be undertaken against the background of the existing policies. There are both similarities and differences between the five countries. A common feature is a stress on the demand side through both treatment and punishments directed against the user and abuser. Differences are shown in degrees of toughness in drug policies with Sweden strongest stressing a zero-tolerance stand and Denmark being the most liberal in the Nordic context. The strong welfare state ideology of all the countries is important for understanding the obstacles to a more liberal and permissive drug policy. The welfare state is an interventionist state. To not do anything about what is considered to be a problem both for the individual and the society is just not an option. In most of the countries the traditions from the temperance movements also have influenced the drug policies through the stepping-stone or gateway theory, not making a distinction between soft and hard drugs. At the same time, a number of facts and processes work in the direction of change. The drug policies of the countries have not delivered, including high numbers of drug-related deaths. The debate has opened up in just a short period of time. Many of the political youth parties demand decriminalisation of use of drugs and so have some public authorities. Human rights arguments are increasingly being put forward as a critique of police interventions. A tendency for politicians to meet the critique seems to be to separate the marginal abuser from the recreational user. The first one should be given treatment and care according to welfare state ideology. The second one, however, could be punished since the user in line with neo-liberal theory can choose and by the use contributes to the drug trade and even the killings in poor suburbs. The Nordic countries stand at a crossroads, but what new roads will be taken is far from clear.

We argue commercial sex workers have rights to healthcare and psychosocial support. While decriminalization is not legally enacted in most countries, we would suggest these workers rights include freedom from harassment and opportunities to lead healthy lives. The need for healthcare access for all is heightened in the COVID-19 pandemic where some people flout rules on lockdown by engaging with commercial sex workers and may unwittingly spread SARS-CoV-2 in so doing. Unrestricted healthcare access without stigma for commercial sex workers protects them, and has a beneficial societal effect on those who engage with them and on their contacts.

(1) Under repressive policies, sex workers are at disproportionate risk for violence and sexually transmitted infections. The decriminalization of sex work provides increased social and health benefits to both sex workers and society. This is the first research that complements human rights-based messages with a quantifiable economic impact of such a law and a model for future calculations. (2) This research assesses the potential economic consequences of decriminalizing sex work in the District of Columbia (DC) in three areas: (A) income tax revenue, (B) criminal justice system savings, and (C) health sector savings (due to averted cases of violence, HIV, gonorrhea, and herpes). (3) An economic model is developed and utilized based on data from a literature search and agency records. (4) Decriminalizing sex work in DC will generate USD5348.68 per sex worker and USD2.53 per client annually, plus USD20,118.48 in criminal justice system savings a year. Per sex worker, USD5058.08 will be gained from income tax revenue, and USD290.60 will be generated through health sector savings (USD274.65, 0.02, 15.64, and 0.29 from averted cases of violence, HIV, gonorrhea, and herpes, respectively). Per client, decriminalization will generate USD0.05, 2.32, and 0.16 from averted cases of HIV, gonorrhea, and herpes, respectively, or USD8462.35 annually, after considering the total number of clients. Estimates are reported in 2020 USD. (5) The potential economic impact of decriminalizing sex work is widespread. The presented model, in conjunction with a rights-based foundation, should urgently be used by advocates, sex workers, decision makers, and other researchers.

Focusing on collective action for abortion rights in Chile, this chapter examines feminist activist discourses and practices for unrestricted abortion from the 2000s onwards. Some of these strategies focus on legal reform, and others on the social decriminalization of abortion and accompaniment practices. The authors particularly analyze the strategies of activists who provide information on pregnancy termination with pills as well as give physical and emotional accompaniment to women undergoing abortions, arguing that these constitute forms of experimental, prefigurative politics of care. Thus, beyond the traditional venues of struggle and debate (e.g., changes in the legislation based on discourses of human rights, choice, and autonomy), the chapter focuses on the ways different women have been “doing the work of the state,” in their own independent networks, exploring and including new perspectives, actors, and voices in the abortion debate, particularly those of sexual dissidence and decolonialism.

Objetivo: Atualmente no Brasil é recorrente a discussão sobre a descriminalização da interrupção voluntária da gravidez ou a manutenção da criminalização. Em razão disso, a importância do presente trabalho para uma análise constitucional sobre o tema e quais princípios fundamentais a criminalização estaria ferindo. Ademais, o estudo objetivou conceituar o aborto e como hoje este é estruturado no sistema jurídico brasileiro, quais possibilidades existentes de realizar o abortamento no Brasil sem que exista a criminalização, e apontamentos sobre a criação da Portaria nº 2.561/2020 e se ela viola direitos fundamentais das mulheres. Há ainda uma análise da ADI 3.510 sobre uma visão de equilíbrio de direitos entre feto e ser humano no judiciário. Métodos: A metodologia utilizada para a pesquisa foi a revisão bibliográfica sobre o tema e análise jurisprudencial. Conclusão: O estudo resultou na inconstitucionalidade da criminalização da interrupção voluntária da gravidez, por infração dos princípios da dignidade da pessoa humana e da autonomia da vontade, não podendo o Estado interferir na decisão íntima e privada da mulher.

The chapter will examine the role of culture and religion in the criminalization of homosexuality in Nigeria and propose a middle ground where the rights of gay people can be respected. It will examine relevant provisions of Nigerian law which had criminalized homosexuality long before the introduction of the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act of 2013 and argue that these laws contradict provisions of the Nigerian Constitution and principles of fundamental human rights. The chapter will discuss Nigeria’s history of criminalizing homosexuality, derived from the mentality that homosexuality is against African culture and debunk this assertion through sociological review of literature. A more realistic approach will be suggested in the form of short and long-term goals. The short-term goals will be to relax the country’s tough stance on homosexuality, while long-term goals will be the protection of gay rights in Nigeria, and the eventual decriminalization of homosexuality in the country.

Portugal decriminalized the public and private use, acquisition, and possession of all drugs in 2000; adopting an approach focused on public health rather than public-order priorities. Arguing that the Portuguese Drug Policy Model has not proven influential enough to emancipate drug use from the stigma that associates it either with crime or pathology, this article critically discusses the developments and current challenges the Portuguese drug policy confronts, namely the growing diversity of drug use patterns observed in Portugal as well as in Europe. To this end, international and national legal instruments concerning drugs and official local data were analysed. Despite encouraging results, conclusions indicate that these policies are marked by contradictions and ambiguities that have permeated its history since the very beginning, and modest ambitions, particularly regarding the implementation of harm reduction measures. Moreover, the polemical Supreme Court judgment that reestablished, in 2008, drug use as a crime when the quantities at play exceeded those required for an average individual’s use for 10 days, might have impacted the landscape of drug use penalization. The last decade saw an increase of punitiveness targeted at drug users, including criminal sentences of jail terms. We finish with some suggestions that could be employed in the practical application of drug policy.

The present study provides analysis of the institutionalization of historical revisionism in Ukraine and examines the impact of this revisionism on the formation of modern Ukrainian criminal policy. The characteristics of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and its armed wing, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, will be determined, and their role during World War II will be analyzed, with special emphasis placed on their involvement in crimes against humanity. The study focuses on the fact that the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army have all the features of profascist organizations, and in this regard, the institutionalization of their heroization not only creates the prerequisites for modern glorification of Nazism, but also constitutes a legal basis for the decriminalization of glorification of Nazism, as well as for the criminalization of behavior disputing this glorification.

This paper is one of the first studies on a relatively new type of criminal activity, namely organized begging.Modern begging is no longer associated with deprivation, poverty, homelessness, starvation and unemployment. The results of the study suggest that now begging is one of the ways of parasitism on mercy and naivety (the number of real people in need of financial support is 5-10%, and in Moscow and St. Petersburg this figure is even lower and does not exceed 2-3 %). Under the leadership of organized criminal groups, begging has become a criminal industry.The paper investigates the causes of organized begging. The author concludes that the condition of its occurrence was the decriminalization of systematic vagrancy or begging together with the abolition of administrative responsibility for these anti-social actions. The study is relevant because the modern legal literature lacks a single concept of begging as a type of illegal activity supervised by organized crime. The analysis made it possible to conclude that the most acceptable and reflecting the specifics of the considered anti-social phenomenon is the concept of «organized begging». For the first time in the Russian legal literature the definition of organized begging is given. According to the author, it is understood as a negative social phenomenon, which is an organized criminal activity aimed at making a profit from begging by others.The features of organized begging are defined: 1) organized nature of activity; 2) the use of voluntary forced labor; 3) the commission of crimes against the freedom, honor and dignity of the individual; 4) pronounced ethnic or related nature of the formation; 5) obtaining super profits; 6) corruption of state bodies.