Collective Violence and International Criminal Justice An Interdisciplinary Approach

by Smeulers, Alette

• ISBN13: 9789400000995
• ISBN10: 9400000995
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-08-17
• Publisher: Intersentia

Summary

Extreme forms of collective violence - such as genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes - can endanger international peace and security. The international criminal justice system has been set up in order to prosecute these crimes and thus to restore international peace and security. These crimes are, however, extremely complex social phenomena and it takes an inter- and multidisciplinary approach to understand the true nature of this type of criminality and to effectively prosecute the perpetrators thereof. This book enhances our knowledge of these complex phenomena and thus contributes to a better and more effective system of international criminal justice. Scholars from many different scientific disciplines - such as law, criminology, political science, psychology, research methodology, and information technology - as well as practitioners from within the field, have contributed to this book. General themes include: What kind of people are perpetrators of collective violence? How can we attribute criminal responsibility to individuals for crimes which are collective in nature? How can we study these crimes and how can we discover patterns of violence? What role can statistics play when holding individuals accountable? How do we develop strategies of prosecution? What difficulties do prosecutors and judges face? How important and useful is the International Criminal Court Case Matrix? These are just a few of the many questions addressed in the book.

Author Biography

Alette Smeulers is professor in International Criminology at the universities of Tilburg and Groningen and research fellow at Intervict and NIOD. The prime focus of her research is on the perpetrators and causes of international crimes and the international criminal prosecution thereof. She has studied the transformation process of ordinary people into perpetrators of international crimes and developed a typology of perpetrators of international crimes. In her research she takes an inter- and multidisciplinary approach and can be considered one of the founders of international criminology – the criminology of international crimes and is a leading expert within this field. She has presented many lectures in the Netherlands and abroad and has published extensively. She has also published extensively in other books and journals and is co-editor of the “series on Supranational Criminal Law: Capita Selecta”. Before starting to work at Tilburg University, Alette Smeulers worked at VU University where she initiated and was the first director of the master International Crimes and Criminology. She has also founded and manages the research network on Supranational Criminology and is co-chair of the European criminology group on atrocity crimes and transitional justice (ECACTJ).

Contributors to the book are: Xabier Agirre, Kai Ambos, Olympia Bekou, Morten Bergsmo, Catrien Bijleveld, Athanasios Chouliaras, Mark Drumbl, Don Foster, Barbora Holá, Amelia Hoover Green, Annika Jones, Salim Nakhjavani, Sarah Nouwen, Mark Osiel, Stephan Parmentier, Michael Scharf, Alette Smeulers, James Waller, Wouter Werner, Martin Witteveen, Elisabeth Wood and Estelle Zinsstag.