An abolitionist view of restorative justice

Penal abolitionism is known for its unconventional analysis of crime, the law and punishment. Some critical views of restorative justice emerge when the alternatives to imprisonment advocated by abolitionists are examined. This paper discusses such views, highlighting their critique of professionalism and their emphasis on community conflict regulation

Houses for the poor: Continental European prisons

This chapter provides sketches of the use of imprisonment in different continental European countries, identifying the groups that are mainly targeted by penal measures. These are followed by an analysis of the manifest and latent functions of punishment in the countries considered

Sustainability and financial crime

Sustainable development promises a wave of new approaches to environmental and social issues due to its perceived holistic nature. New ways of producing and consuming are purported to pave the way for smooth and consensual governance and the reduction of conflicts. The diversion of finance towards sustainable development may also impact on financial crime, at least in the views of optimists who focus on the connections between the two. It is felt that there is no really sustainable finance (the alignment of financial operations with sustainable development) without developing strong and efficient means to fight financial crime. This paper examines such optimistic views, providing, first, an account of institutional strategies relating to sustainable finance, and second, an analysis of some forms of financial crime. Focusing particularly but not exclusively on the UK, a final hypothesis is then formulated around the scenario we are likely to face in the near future if the financial sphere is coopted into the arena of sustainable development

The radicalization of democracy: conflict, social movements and terrorism

The idea of democracy is being championed across the world, with some fifty new countries embracing this type of political system between 1974 and 2011 (Freedom House, 2016). Simultaneously, however, dissatisfaction has grown due to the perceived incapacity of democracy to deal with collective problems, hence the necessity to reconfigure it and redraw some of its principles. This paper links the analysis of the recent evolution of democratic systems with the trajectory of socio-political conflicts and the changing features of contemporary terrorism. It examines, therefore, two intertwined phenomena, namely the radicalization of democracy and the radicalization of the other. It concludes by stressing that encouraging dissent and heeding contentious claims made by social movements may be one way of mitigating both types of radicalization. Embedded in the tradition of critical criminology, this paper attempts to demonstrate that only by outflanking conventional categories of analysis can the criminological community aspire to grasp such thorny contemporary phenomena

Yemen: civil war or transnational crime?

The ongoing war in Yemen, which has already displaced millions of people, possesses some typical traits that suggest its inclusion among the deadly conflicts known as “civil wars.” This article will review briefly the components that characterize these types of conflicts and, after providing a summary of recent events, will attempt to identify the aspects that render the conflict in Yemen an anomalous civil war. It will be contended that, given the anomalies observed, the war in Yemen can also be described as a form of transnational crime

Networks of Greed

Focusing on the grey areas in which white-collar crime joins and overlaps with conventional forms of organised criminality, the author identifies ‘networks of greed’ formed of individuals and groups from diverse social backgrounds and subcultures. Such grey areas thrive irrespective of booms and slumps and contain money laundering, tax evasion and bribes. A critical analysis of these three forms of financial crime is provided along with the description of the networks within which they take place

Utopian action and participatory disputes

Is abolitionism a utopian posture in the face of social events, problems, and their solution? After specifying the type of utopianism implicitly embraced by penal abolitionism, this paper traces some key features that constitute the religious, philosophical and political underpinning of this school of thought. It then discusses how proponents of abolition theory view alternatives to penality, rather that alternative penalities, within the debate around restorative justice

Returning migrants and global reparation

The decision to migrate is not a one-way choice, as many migrants return to their countries of origin after varying periods of time. Return migration can be coercive and voluntary, it may entail a ban from re-entry into the destination country and/or accompanied by incentives and practical support in the country where migrants return. After a brief examination of the controversial way in which return migration is dealt with in the UK, this paper looks at some examples of returning migrants provided by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The cases examined are then connected to campaigns that pursue reparation for slavery, leading the conclusion that a combination of successful returns and global reparation would alleviate the concerns allegedly caused by contemporary international migration

Fiction, war and criminology

This paper proposes an understanding of war and criminology through the use of the creative sources offered by literature. These sources, while communicating exemplary meanings and morals, can help describe and comprehend the social and cultural landscapes of war and crime. Stendhal and Tolstoy are chosen as classical major providers of such sources, and an analysis of their respective novels, ‘The Charterhouse of Parma’ and ‘War and Peace’, will offer support to the idea that the inclusion of war in criminological thinking is timely as well as necessary

The crimes of the powerful: between force and consensus

Power entails the ability to act and overcome the obstacles erected by those who are subject to it. It also entails the capacity to make one’s crimes acceptable, while formulating criminal imputations against others. The crimes of the powerful, in this contribution, are examined through the lenses of a number of intertwined variables: coercion, legitimacy, violence, secrecy, consensus, and hegemony. Ostentation, imitation, and admiration are also considered as components of these types of crimes and the feelings they elicit. While the controversies surrounding legal responses to the crimes of the powerful are discussed, the efficacy of concerted action against them is optimistically invoked