scholarly journals Urban violence

2004 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 208-217
Author(s):  
D. Herbert

Abstract. Urban violence has become an endemic feature of cities in all parts of the world. The consensus is that levels of violence are increasing generally but that there are significant differences between different parts of the world. Recent studies review these assumptions and examine the problems associated with monitoring the incidence of violent crime. There are new dimensions to urban violence that include the rise in the drug trade, more organized crime and the trend towards more use of firearms. Cities offer specific situations in which violent crime is more likely to occur. There are geographies of violent crime that not only point out differences between cities but also highlight local concentrations of crime within individual cities. Society seeks to control violent crime, principally through its criminal justice Systems but also by involving Community action and local initiatives.

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Isha Jain

Theoretical models of criminal justice are important tools for identifying the value systems that underpin the various criminal justice systems of the world. Hailed as the ‘victims’ court’ for conferring wide-ranging participatory rights to victims at all stages of the criminal process, the International Criminal Court and its constitutive treaty, the Rome Statute, offer an interesting subject matter of analysis from this theoretical standpoint. The focus of this article will be on studying the ICC’s practice and procedure in relation to victim participation, in order to identify the values of criminal justice that influence these processes.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 87-96
Author(s):  
N I Kostenko

The article examines the role of international criminal justice in fulfilling the important tasks set by the world community in the 21st century to stabilize the criminal justice system, which should become a fundamental element of the rule of law structure; on the recognition of the central role of the criminal justice system in the development of international criminal justice. The work focuses on the need for a holistic approach to reforming the criminal justice system in order to improve the effectiveness of international criminal justice systems in the fight against crime.


2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 502-518 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meredith Rossner ◽  
Jasmine Bruce

Enthusiasm for restorative justice has seen conferencing brought in to the mainstream of criminal justice systems around the world. This raises concerns over how integration into criminal justice will impact conference dynamics. In this article, we present new findings from a study of restorative justice conferences at the pre-sentencing stage for adult offenders. By documenting the interactional dynamics of conferences it reveals the emotional trajectories that conferences take, and the factors that shape immediate conference outcomes. Our results show both the positive aspects of what restorative justice is capable of achieving as well as the tensions that arise when it is integrated within conventional criminal justice. We offer a refined vision of what success can mean in restorative justice at the pre-sentence stage.


1977 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene Doleschal

This paper discusses the rate and length of imprisonment in The Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden, which have possibly the most advanced and most humane criminal justice systems in the world. Sen tencing policy and practice in these countries produce commitment figures which carry a message for the United States: increasing the harshness of criminal penalties and the size of the prison population is an irrational— and certainly ineffective—response to crime.


Babel ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 63 (6) ◽  
pp. 813-834
Author(s):  
Aída Martínez-Gómez

Abstract Criminal justice systems throughout the world are becoming increasingly aware of the challenges posed by language barriers. However, that awareness is still limited to the realm of court proceedings, whereas legislation aiming to protect language rights of foreign prisoners is scarce and vague. In the particular case of Spain, only a few provisions in the Prison Rules envisage the notion of language assistance, making it explicit that such support is to be provided by other prisoners or staff. This paper aims to analyze the implications of an underdeveloped language policy in the realm of Spanish penitentiary institutions, focusing on how the specific measures stemming from that policy affect the rights of imprisoned foreign nationals. Against the backdrop of the limited legislative coverage of language issues, communication strategies seem to be based on the linguistic assimilation of foreign language-speaking inmates, either to communicate directly with staff or to serve as interpreters for newly arrived fellow inmates. Causes and consequences of these strategies are discussed in this paper, including an analysis of the quality of the interpretations that nonprofessional prisoner-interpreters are able to provide.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. e0258241
Author(s):  
Kay L. Ritchie ◽  
Charlotte Cartledge ◽  
Bethany Growns ◽  
An Yan ◽  
Yuqing Wang ◽  
...  

Automatic facial recognition technology (AFR) is increasingly used in criminal justice systems around the world, yet to date there has not been an international survey of public attitudes toward its use. In Study 1, we ran focus groups in the UK, Australia and China (countries at different stages of adopting AFR) and in Study 2 we collected data from over 3,000 participants in the UK, Australia and the USA using a questionnaire investigating attitudes towards AFR use in criminal justice systems. Our results showed that although overall participants were aligned in their attitudes and reasoning behind them, there were some key differences across countries. People in the USA were more accepting of tracking citizens, more accepting of private companies’ use of AFR, and less trusting of the police using AFR than people in the UK and Australia. Our results showed that support for the use of AFR depends greatly on what the technology is used for and who it is used by. We recommend vendors and users do more to explain AFR use, including details around accuracy and data protection. We also recommend that governments should set legal boundaries around the use of AFR in investigative and criminal justice settings.


Author(s):  
Federico Varese

The “Solntsevo fraternity” (Solntsevskaya bratva) is the mightiest organized crime group to emerge from the wreckage of the Soviet Union. Estimates of the size of the brotherhood (possibly exaggerated) range from five to nine thousand members. The group comprises no fewer than ten semiautonomous brigades (brigady), which operate under the umbrella name of Solntsevskaya. The Russian police claim that it controls various banks along with about a hundred small and medium-size enterprises. Although little is known of the inner workings of the group, former members have claimed that the organization is governed by a council of twelve individuals, who meet regularly in different parts of the world, often disguising their meetings as festive occasions. This chapter examines efforts by the Solntsevskaya to create subsidiaries in Rome and Budapest.


2019 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Crofts ◽  
Tyrone Kirchengast

The ability to distribute private intimate images across public networks including social media through smart devices or computers has emerged as a serious 21st century concern. Initially, legal systems and operators within criminal justice systems were slow to respond to the reported harms associated with the non-consensual distribution of intimate images (colloquially referred to as revenge porn). However, increasing recognition of the serious harm and victimisation that may result from this behaviour has led many jurisdictions across the world to create new criminal offences. This article reviews the appropriateness of offences that have been created or proposed with a particular reference to developments in Australia. It takes the most recent proposed offence in Western Australia as an opportunity to review the significant differences in how offences have been defined. In suggesting how new offences might be defined, this article relies on the ‘ladder principle’ and recommends that there should be a ladder or hierarchy of new offences to respond appropriately to both the seriousness of harm and culpability of the perpetrator.


2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-20
Author(s):  
Susanne Karstedt

Across the world, the most marginalised groups of society are overrepresented in prisons and institutions of the criminal justice system. Besides racial and ethnic minorities, prisons worldwide disproportionately house individuals who count among the least educated, most unemployed and poorest groups of society. However, it is one of the paradoxes of penality that whilst it is obvious that criminal justice systems across the world target disadvantaged populations, the link between imprisonment and socio-economic inequality has been mostly elusive on a global and cross-national scale. This contribution addresses this paradox and aims at unravelling it. It will focus on those processes and mechanisms through which social inequality is transmitted into unequal criminal punishment, and how criminal punishment reproduces inequality. I will first present the evidence from a macro- and comparative perspective, and then explore the relationship between punishment and inequality within societies. Imprisonment growth and concentration of imprisonment are identified as routes towards exacerbating and entrenching inequality, thus being a cause rather than a consequence of inequality.


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