Suchergebnisse

The Clinton administration was an early supporter of a permanent court to try individuals accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, & genocide. When control over the court's agenda was not assigned to the UN Security Council, the U.S. position changed from support to opposition. Now that the International Criminal Court has been created, it stands as a continuing example of the unilateralism that critics say characterizes US. foreign policy. In light of the broad international support for the court, continuing U.S. opposition to it raises questions about the United States' commitment to the rule of international law.

Provides an overview of the status of gender in US hate crime policy. Discussion opens with a look at the concept of hate crime, highlighting its 1970s discursive emergence & three highly publicized cases during the late 1990s. How gender has & has not figured into institutionalized legal response to bias-motivated violence is then examined in terms of the parameters of hate crime law in general, content of state & federal hate crime law, & enforcement of gender provisions in hate crime law. Gender is seen as sort of second-class in the US social, political, & legal discourse. The inclusion/exclusion of gender in hate crime law raises the larger issue of how to resolve the dilemma of difference in policy & law making; this is taken up in closing, arguing that the inclusion of gender in hate crime policy allows the "sameness-difference" debate to be solved in a manner that treats (1) females as simultaneously a special category of crime victim & the same as other hate crime victims & (2) perpetrators of gender-based crime as simultaneously a special category of offender & the same as other types of bias-motivated offenders. 4 Figures. J. Zendejas

With the implementation of the Amsterdam Treaty in 1997, justice & home affairs & police cooperation were incorporated into the First Pillar of European Union cooperation. Early initiatives such as TREVI I, II, III, & IV (1975-1992), the Single European Act (1986), & the Coordinators Group (1988) worked to increase police cooperation within the EU. The Schenegen Agreement & the Maastricht Treaty also influenced police cooperation. By the time the Amsterdam Treaty was signed, member countries were ready to implement guidelines pertaining to asylum, visa regulations, border control, & other legal issues. Today, justice & home affairs policies are included in the EU's First & Third Pillars. Europol is in operation, & the EU is expanding cooperation in lesser-degree policing areas, moving the EU closer to achieving a common legal union. K. A. Larsen

Reviews official statistical data & discusses the underlying causes & implications of recent changes in the Dutch penal system. In the postwar decades leading up to the 1990s, the system was frequently regarded as an ideal system of humanitarian paternalism favoring rehabilitation over control & incarceration. Welfare, health care, & other community agencies sought crime prevention through education & social support, prison sentences were short, & prison time was made as educational & rehabilitative as possible. However, in the last decade the rationale of repressive social control has overwhelmed the system. In response to an eroding welfare system, pressure to conform to European Union standards, & the global replacement of moral issues with managerial & bureaucratic concerns, Dutch officials have increasingly called for more strict & repressive social control. Under these circumstances, repression has replaced education & humanity, & morality has disappeared from the discourse on social organization. However, the justifications for a more repressive system are at best questionable, & it is concluded that these changes are a response to an external & unassociated ideological shift rather than a move toward a more just & beneficial penal system. 1 Table, 24 References. T. Sevier

Examines the political & social factors leading to the transformation of the Swedish prison system. Since the 1970s, Sweden had been praised for its humane penal system, which incorporated short prison sentences, welfare benefits, the right to leave prison for special occasions, & emphasis on rehabilitation. However, perceived increases in crime rates & drug abuse led to more restrictive penal policies during the 1980s, & in 1991, a conservative government came into power, boosted by an anticrime compaign that called for longer & more repressive prison sentences. Although an economic crisis brought the Social Democratic Party back into power in 1994, this government has maintained many of the conservative government's innovations, including mandatory incarceration for 66% of a sentence, electronic tagging of certain criminals, & harsher drug policies. However, the Social Democrats have also recommitted themselves to incarceration alternatives & crime prevention through welfare, education, drug programs, etc. It is concluded that the shift toward a more punitive & exclusionary philosophy is the product of recent social, political, & media attitudes that regard crime & criminals (especially drugs) as an external attack on Swedish values. 5 Tables, 40 References. T. Sevier

Discusses the role of perceived social emergencies in determining the number & type of criminals subjected to incarceration, with a specific focus on Italian imprisonment trends since the 1960s. Analysis of statistical data suggests that the number of offenses committed does not account for the prison population. Although changes in legislation may affect the prison population, it is argued that shifts in the public perception of certain crimes & criminals are primarily responsible for changes in incarceration trends. Publicly perceived emergencies stigmatize certain crimes & criminals, & these offenses receive the greatest punishment during emergency periods. With respect to the Italian data, increases in prison populations were associated with public alarm over armed robbery (1960s), terrorists (1970s), drug users/dealers & the Mafia (1980s), & corrupt politicians (1990s). Although the emergencies initially led to high imprisonment rates for the stigmatized crimes, incarceration rates increased for all or most crimes during times of great social alarm. 4 Tables, 58 References. T. Sevier

Presents a vision of social control with specific reference to the situation of Italy at the end of the millennium, drawing on personal experience with social control policies. The situation in Italy is described as one in which the recourse to penality has increased as a means of stabilizing the social system, while a market ideology has legitimized recourse to privately funded security agencies. These processes are taken to be congruent to the extent that the Italian Left has subserved the conservative position by confusing the social demand for security with a social demand for legality. It is suggested that no definitive solution to the dilemma created by these processes is imminent, but progress may be made in incremental steps. Policy debates leading to such progress should be founded on several valid discussion points: (1) crime prevention ought to be conducted at the local level; (2) preventive efforts are effective to the extent that they mobilize people to create social consensus; (3) this consensus cannot be based on fear of crime; & (4) safeguarding public security cannot be achieved solely by the police, but must include the participation of other local democratic institutions. D. M. Smith

Draws on personal experience teaching a community college class called "Voices behind Bars" to document the situation of female prisoners as an "invisible" social group. It is contended that, in criminal justice systems around the world, the plight of women inmates is not taken as seriously as that of their male counterparts. Composing only 7% of the US prison & jail population in 1999 (though their numbers had tripled from 1985 to this date), women in prison are in a double bind: they are often not offered the same services (education, vocational training) as men, & their special situation & needs as women (child care, domestic violence victimization, poverty) are typically ignored; discriminatory attitudes by male correctional officials & guards, as well as outright abuse (rape), are also pervasive. Several individual case studies are offered, & policy implications are discussed. K. Hyatt Stewart

Examines the involvement of Russian organized crime in the trafficking of women & children for commercial sexual exploitation. The nature & global activities of the "Russian Mafia" are explored, noting that the organized crime network encompasses people from all former Soviet states. It is argued that there are far fewer sophisticated Russian criminal organizations than generally assumed, & human trafficking is primarily conducted by "Mom & Pop" operators. Although it would be simpler for law enforcement to control trafficking by organized criminal groups that are easier to infiltrate, small-time smugglers are more apt to be deterred by serious threats of being caught & prosecuted. Erroneously portraying most trafficking from Russia as Mafia-controlled is seen as counterproductive because it ignores those actually involved & diverts attention away from research focused on the consumers & providers of human commodities. The need for more effective global migration policies that hinder opportunities for exploitation is discussed. 32 References. J. Lindroth

An assessment of international, national, & regional efforts to trace terrorist funding carried out both before & after 11 September 2001 focuses on "finance warfare" in Europe & the UK & linkages with US strategies. Regulatory & legislative measures implemented since 9/11 to attack the enemy's economic assets & infrastructure are explored in relation to earlier anti-money-laundering tactics aimed at criminal activities that were not politically or ideologically driven. The Bush administration's declaration of financial war against international terrorists & their allies immediately following 9/11 was similar to earlier efforts to identify bin Laden's assets. The specifics of an agreement on fast-track measures against terrorist funding reached at an October 2001 meeting of the European Union are described. Special attention is given to vulnerabilities in the financial systems that made terrorist financing possible, as well as links between the more informal financial networks in the developing world & sophisticated financial complexes in the developed world. The need to enhance global cooperation & refine strategies intended to deal with money laundering is emphasized. J. Lindroth

It has often been pointed out that terrorist attacks place democratic values under pressure. Indeed, terrorists may well have the aim of forcing democracies to reveal their lack of commitment to such values & their readiness to embrace authoritarian measures. This chapter will argue that the AntiTerrorism, Crime & Security Act 2001 (ATCSA), introduced by the Labour government as a response to the 11 September (2001) attacks, satisfies this aim because it comes into conflict with a number of the guarantees of the European Convention on Human Rights received into domestic law under the Human Rights Act 1998. Indeed, the tension between those rights & the ATCSA measures is such that to introduce the latter the government had to derogate from the fundamental guarantee of the right to liberty of the person. The mounting tension discerned by commentators between the Labour government's increasingly authoritarian measures & the Human Rights Act that it itself introduced currently reaches its climax, it is argued, in Part 4 of ACTSA. An exploration of that tension forms the central theme of this chapter. Adapted from the source document.

Examines the impact of political disorder on the organization & composition of prisons in Ireland. Although the penal systems in British-ruled Northern Ireland & the independent South are operated by different governing bodies, their prison systems are strongly influenced by the desire to contain political disorder, especially militant Irish nationalism & republicanism. After a discussion of the various political movements that have shaped Irish penal policy before & since the British partition (1920/21), it is suggested that imprisonment remains the primary means of coping with political dissent in both regions. However, the counterterrorist policies & unlimited budget of the prison system in Northern Ireland have become increasingly unpopular, & developments in the 1990s evidence a shift toward privatization & business management of the prisons. The recent gains of the peace process suggest a future decline in the prison population due to a decrease in political prisoners. The South's prison system has also been under economic attack, a situation complicated by conflict between the Dept of Justice, prison managers, & the Prison Officers Assoc. Skyrocketing numbers of human immunodeficiency virus-positive, drug-addicted, & mentally ill prisoners highlight the need for an independent prison board & consideration of incarceration alternatives. 1 Table, 5 Figures, 76 References. T. Sevier

Discussion begins with a look at the factors underpinning a shift in the international debate on refugee protection to questioning its legal basis & how this shift has impacted the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Immigration policies restricting unwanted inflows are reviewed before addressing refugee right connections to international human rights law & how the international human rights protection regime might usefully be wedded to the international refugee regime to address gaps. Highlighted are treaties targeting the development of international human rights standards & the human rights mechanisms of the UN. Some attention is then given to international criminal law developments have influenced the idea of individual accountability for serious human rights violations. Reparations & compensation schemes are addressed as other accountability measures to handle human rights violations. The convergence between international human rights law, refugee law, & criminal & humanitarian law is seen as bolstering the international refugee protection regime. J. Zendejas

Cyber attacks to computer networks can disable security communications as well as spy on them, compromising security. The number & severity of cyber attacks has risen dramatically in the last few years, including defacements of Web sites, computer viruses, denial of service, & fraud. These increases come from 7 trends: spread of information technology (IT), increased integration of computers into real-world processes, increased mobility of information, development of hacking tools, improvements in IT performance, new vulnerabilities, & new information security challenges. New attacks are expected in the future, & even an unusable Internet. Attacks may come from criminals, thrill-seeking young adults, nation-states, & (cyber)terrorists. Policy initiatives in the US to protect critical infrastructure are described. M. Pflum

Reviews the history of the concept of social control as it was imported into Spain. It is noted that, while the term was imported into the Spanish lexicon from US sociology, it has remained more closely linked in Spain to the kind of social regulation centralized in & by the state. Due to the retardation of sociology under the Francisco Franco dictatorship, the term was not widely circulated in Spain until translations of US structural-functionalist literature appeared in the 1970s. At this time, it became strongly associated with the penal/juridical culture. It is shown that, as Spain made the transition to a democratic order, struggles for & against social control often took place around penal/juridical institutions. Eventually, the Penal Code of Democracy was implemented, which is taken as a sign of Spain's stage of democracy. While obviously more democratic than Franco's Penal Code of 1944, it is suggested that the new code is a primary instrument for the production of social order & an indication of the state's intent to centralize control. D. M. Smith