Civilising Criminal Justice

Civilising Criminal Justice
Author: David J. Cornwell
Publisher: Waterside Press
Total Pages: 571
Release: 2013
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1904380042

Probably the best collection there is, Civilizing Criminal Justice is an inescapable resource for anyone interested in restorative justice: truly international and packed with experience while combining history, theory, developments and practical advice.This volume of specially commissioned contributions by widely respected commentators on crime and punishment from various countries is a 'break-through' in bringing together some of the best arguments for long-overdue penal reform. An increasingly urgent need to change outmoded criminal processes, even in advanced democracies, demands an end to those penal excesses driven by political expediency and damaging notions of retribution, deterrence and punishment for its own sake. 'Civilising' criminal justice will make it fairer, more consistent, understandable and considerate towards victims of crime, currently largely excluded from participation. Principles of reparative and restorative justice have become increasingly influential in the quest to provide justice which tackles harm, compensates victims, repairs relationships, resolves debilitating conflicts and calls offenders to account. And in any case, what real justification is there for subjecting more and more people to the expensive but hollow experience of prison, especially at a time of economic stringency. Civil justice - in its various forms - can be swifter, cheaper and more effective, in court or through mediated processes focusing on the harmful consequences of offences rather than inflicting punishment that may satisfy a baying media but come home to haunt the community. This brave and generous book (600 pages) illustrates the many different ways in which criminal justice can be 'civilised' and how lessons can be learned from practical experience across the world and shared expertise. It is a volume that every politician should read, every criminal justice professional should possess, and that every student of criminology and penology will find invaluable. David Cornwell, John Blad and Martin Wright are three of the leading international experts on this topic with many publications to their names individually. Contributors: Serge Gutwirth and Paul De Hert (Belgium), Federico Reggio (Italy), Bas van Stokkom (The Netherlands), Lode Walgrave (Belgium), Susan Easton and Christine Piper (UK), Louis Blom-Cooper QC (UK), Tapio Lappi-Seppälä (Finland), Thomas Trenczek (Germany), Jean-Pierre Bonafé-Schmitt (France), Per Andersen (Norway), Claire Spivakovsky (Australia), Ann Skelton (Republic of South Africa), Borbála Fellegi (Hungary), Judge Fred McElrea (New Zealand); and the editors. John Braithwaite is a Distinguished Professor at the Australian National University, author of ground-breaking works on restorative justice and recipient of various awards.

Civilising Criminal Justice

Civilising Criminal Justice
Author: David J. Cornwell
Publisher: Waterside Press
Total Pages: 571
Release: 2013-08-19
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1908162511

Probably the best collection there is, Civilizing Criminal Justice is an inescapable resource for anyone interested in restorative justice: truly international and packed with experience while combining history, theory, developments and practical advice.This volume of specially commissioned contributions by widely respected commentators on crime and punishment from various countries is a ‘break-through’ in bringing together some of the best arguments for long-overdue penal reform. An increasingly urgent need to change outmoded criminal processes, even in advanced democracies, demands an end to those penal excesses driven by political expediency and damaging notions of retribution, deterrence and punishment for its own sake. ‘Civilising’ criminal justice will make it fairer, more consistent, understandable and considerate towards victims of crime, currently largely excluded from participation. Principles of reparative and restorative justice have become increasingly influential in the quest to provide justice which tackles harm, compensates victims, repairs relationships, resolves debilitating conflicts and calls offenders to account. And in any case, what real justification is there for subjecting more and more people to the expensive but hollow experience of prison, especially at a time of economic stringency. Civil justice – in its various forms – can be swifter, cheaper and more effective, in court or through mediated processes focusing on the harmful consequences of offences rather than inflicting punishment that may satisfy a baying media but come home to haunt the community. This brave and generous book (600 pages) illustrates the many different ways in which criminal justice can be ‘civilised’ and how lessons can be learned from practical experience across the world and shared expertise. It is a volume that every politician should read, every criminal justice professional should possess, and that every student of criminology and penology will find invaluable.

Doing Justice Better

Doing Justice Better
Author: David J. Cornwell
Publisher: Waterside Press
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2007
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1904380344

With an escalating number of criminals going to prison, longer sentences, overcrowded and ineffective regimes, high rates of re-offending and an eclectic penal policy, there is a prison crisis. In this book, the author argues that this penal malaise is grounded in media sensationalism of crime and the need of politicians and their advisers to retain electoral credibility. Change is long overdue, but it requires a fresh, contemporary penology based on restorative justice. This book challenges the status quo, asks 'different questions' and places victims of crime at the centre of the criminal justice process.

Punishment and Civilization

Punishment and Civilization
Author: John Pratt
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 227
Release: 2002-07-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1412933226

`A lucid and fascinating account of how society initially comes to be viewed as ′civilized′ on the basis of how it punishes its offenders, and the various numances and contradictions that form the backdrop to that ′civilization′ prior to 1970 and the unraveling of that process thereafter. ...He [Pratt] has at the very least broadened the boundaries of the debate about the history of imprisonment in new and novel ways that will surely become a basis for future analysis′ - The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice ′In presenting and organizing such a wealth of historical material, John Pratt′s book will be welcomed by those who teach and study the history of the prison in the English-speaking world′ - Criminal Justice Punishment and Civilization examines how a framework of punishment that suited the values and standards of the civilized world came to be set in place from around 1800 to the late 20th century. In this book, John Pratt draws on research about prison architecture, clothing, diet, hygienic arrangements and changes in penal language to establish this. The author demonstrates that this did not mean, however, that such a framework of punishment was ′civilized′. Instead it meant that punishment in the civilized world became anonymous and remote. Prison brutalities and privations could be largely unchecked by a public that did not want to be involved. In the last few decades it has become clear that civilized societies have to tolerate new boundaries of punishment. This is not because of any development of ′civilized punishment′. Instead this is due to a shift in public mood and power: from public indifference to public involvement in penal development. Throughout this text theoretical ideas and concepts are accessibly introduced and illustrated with a wide range of examples from the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It will be essential reading for students and academics of punishment, prisons and social theory.

Criminology, Civilisation and the New World Order

Criminology, Civilisation and the New World Order
Author: Wayne Morrison
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 428
Release: 2013-10-18
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1135331111

Expertly authored by the co-editor of the best-selling text Cultural Criminology Unleashed, this book re-examines criminology in a global context. Wide-ranging and up-to-date, it covers the topics of colonialism and post-colonialism, genocide, state control, the impact of September 11th and the post-9/11 world. Exploring the relationship between a modern discipline and modernity, it reworks the history and composition of criminology in light of September 11th and the prevalence of genocide in modernity. Analizing statistics, anthropology and the everyday assumptions of criminology's history, this text addresses the political and scholarly grip on the territorial state and the absence of a global criminology. Rejecting the prevalent belief that September 11th and the responses it evoked were exceptions that either destroyed or revealed the absence of global legal order, the author argues that, in fact, they confirm the nature of the world order of modernity. A compelling and topical volume, this is a must read for anyone interested or studying in the areas of criminology and criminal justice.

The Civilization of Crime

The Civilization of Crime
Author: Eric Arthur Johnson
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 308
Release: 1996
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780252065460

Along with most of the rest of Western culture, has crime itself become more "civilized"? This book exposes as myths the beliefs that society has become more violent than it has been in the past and that violence is more likely to occur in cities than in rural areas. The product of years of study by scholars from North America and Europe, The Civilization of Crime shows that, however violent some large cities may be now, both rural and urban communities in Sweden, Holland, England, and other countries were far more violent during the late Middle Ages than any cities are today. Contributors show that the dramatic change is due, in part, to the fact that violence was often tolerated or even accepted as a form of dispute settlement in village-dominated premodern society. Interpersonal violence declined in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as dispute resolution was taken over by courts and other state institutions and the church became increasingly intolerant of it. The book also challenges a number of other historical-sociological theories, among them that contemporary organized crime is new, and addresses continuing debate about the meaning and usefulness of crime statistics. CONTRIBUTORS: Esther Cohen, Herman Diederiks, Florike Egmond, Eric A. Johnson, Michele Mancino, Eric H. Monkkonen, Eva Österberg, James A. Sharpe, Pieter Spierenburg, Jan Sundin, Barbara Weinberger

Civilizing Security

Civilizing Security
Author: Ian Loader
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 9
Release: 2007-04-19
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1139464647

Security has become a defining feature of contemporary public discourse, permeating the so-called 'war on terror', problems of everyday crime and disorder, the reconstruction of 'weak' or 'failed' states and the dramatic renaissance of the private security industry. But what does it mean for individuals to be secure, and what is the relationship between security and the practices of the modern state? In this timely and important book, Ian Loader and Neil Walker outline and defend the view that security remains a valuable public good. They argue that the state is indispensable to the task of fostering and sustaining liveable political communities in the contemporary world and thus pivotal to the project of civilizing security. This is a major contribution by two leading scholars in the field and will be of interest to anyone wishing to deepen their understanding of one the most significant and pressing issues of our times.

Civilization and Barbarism

Civilization and Barbarism
Author: Graeme R. Newman
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2020-03-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1438478135

The practice of mass incarceration has come under increasing criticism by criminologists and corrections experts who, nevertheless, find themselves at a loss when it comes to offering credible, practical, and humane alternatives. In Civilization and Barbarism, Graeme R. Newman argues this impasse has arisen from a refusal to confront the original essence of punishment, namely, that in some sense it must be painful. He begins with an exposition of the traditional philosophical justifications for punishment and then provides a history of criminal punishment. He shows how, over time, the West abandoned short-term corporal punishment in favor of longer-term incarceration, justifying a massive bureaucratic prison complex as scientific and civilized. Newman compels the reader to confront the biases embedded in this model and the impossibility of defending prisons as a civilized form of punishment. A groundbreaking work that challenges the received wisdom of "corrections," Civilization and Barbarism asks readers to reconsider moderate corporal punishment as an alternative to prison and, for the most serious offenders, forms of incapacitation without prison. The book also features two helpful appendixes: a list of debating points, with common criticisms and their rebuttals, and a chronology of civilized punishments.

Making the Modern Criminal Law

Making the Modern Criminal Law
Author: Lindsay Farmer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2016
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0199568642

The Criminalization series arose from an interdisciplinary investigation into criminalization, focusing on the principles that might guide decisions about what kinds of conduct should be criminalized, and the forms that criminalization should take. Developing a normative theory of criminalization, the series tackles the key questions at the heart of the issue: what principles and goals should guide legislators in deciding what to criminalize? How should criminal wrongs be classified and differentiated? How should law enforcement officials apply the law's specifications of offences? The fifth book in the series offers an historical and conceptual account of the criminal law, as it has developed in England and spread to common law jurisdictions around the world. It traces how and why criminal law has come to be accorded with a central role in securing civil order in modernity, and justifies who and what should be treated as criminal under the law. Farmer argues that the emergence of the modern state in which criminal law is recognized as an instrument of government is a result of the distinct body of rules which have emerged from the modern criminal law. Structured in two parts, the first traces the development of the modern criminal law, including jurisdiction, codification, and responsibility. The second part engages in a detailed analysis of the development of specific categories of criminal law, focusing on patterns of criminalization in relation to property offences, offences against the person, sexual offences, and civility.

Judging Civil Justice

Judging Civil Justice
Author: Hazel G. Genn
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2010
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0521118948

A trenchant critique of developments in civil justice that questions modern orthodoxy and points to a downgrading of civil justice.