Resisting Punitiveness in Europe?: Welfare, Human Rights and Democracy

by Snacken; Sonja

• ISBN13: 9780415678933
• ISBN10: 0415678935
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2011-11-04
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This volume provides an important and exciting contribution to the knowledge on punishment across Europe. Over the past decade, punitiveness has been studied through analyses of #xE2;#xAC;#xDC;increased#xE2;#xAC;" or #xE2;#xAC;#xDC;new#xE2;#xAC;" forms of punishment in western countries. Comparative studies on the other hand have illustrated important differences in levels of punitiveness between these countries and have tried to explain these differences by looking at risk and protective factors. Covering both quantitative and qualitative dimensions, this book focuses on mechanisms interacting with levels of punitiveness that seem to allow room for less punitive (political) choices, especially within a European context: social policies, human rights and a balanced approach to victim rights and public opinion in constitutional democracies. The book is split into three sections: Punishment and Welfare. Chapters look into possible lessons to be learned from characteristics and developments in Scandinavian and some Continental European countries. Punishment and Human Rights. Contributions analyze how human rights in Europe can and do act as a shield against #xE2;#xAC;#x1C; but sometimes also as a possible motor for #xE2;#xAC;#x1C; criminalization and penalization. Punishment and Democracy. The increased political attention to victims#xE2;#xAC;" rights and interests and to public opinion surveys in European democracies is discussed as a possible risk for enhanced levels of punitiveness in penal policies and evaluated against the background of research evidence about the wishes and expectations of victims of crime and the ambivalence and #xE2;#xAC;#xDC;polycentric consistency#xE2;#xAC;" of public opinion formations about crime and punishments. This book will be a valuable addition to the literature in this field and will be of interest to students, scholars and policy officials across Europe and elsewhere.

Author Biography

Sonja Snacken is Professor of Criminology, Penology and Sociology of Law at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Research Fellow at the Straus Institute for the Advanced Study of Law and Justice at the New York University School of Law. She is a member of the Editorial Board of Punishment and Society and Deviance et Socit and President of the Council for Penological Cooperation of the Council of Europe. Els Dumortier is Professor in Youth Criminology arid Constitutional Criminal Law at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Her research focuses on questions concerning (the effectiveness of) children's rights in the domain of juvenile justice, both in contemporary times and in the past (twentieth century).

Table of Contents

List of figures	p. vii
List of tables	p. ix
Notes on the contributors	p. xi
Foreword	p. xvii
Acknowledgments	p. xxi
List of abbreviations	p. xxiii
Resisting punitiveness in Europe? An introduction	p. 1
Punishment and Welfare -From Correlations to Interactions?	p. 21
Political economy, welfare and punishment in comparative perspective	p. 23
Explaining national differences in the use of imprisonment	p. 35
The Scandinavian path to welfare	p. 73
Penalization and social policies	p. 86
Punishment and Human Rights - Shield or Sword?	p. 105
The rise of the penal state: what can human rights do about it?	p. 107
Human rights and penalization in Central,and Eastern Europe: the case of Hungary	p. 133
Human rights as the good and the bad conscience of criminal law	p. 156
Punishment and Democracy - Which Role for Victims and Public Opinion?	p. 175
Victims and the penal process: roles, expectations and disappointments	p. 177
Victims and the criminal justice system: threat or promise?	p. 190
Punitivity from a victim's perspective	p. 202
Punitive needs, society and public opinion: an explorative study of ambivalent attitudes to punishment and criminal justice	p. 225
Conclusion: why and how to resist punitiveness in Europe	p. 247
Index	p. 261
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