The United Nations Programme on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice
The United Nations Programme on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice

Author: Matti Joutsen

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-06-28

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 104004249X

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This book documents the evolution of the United Nations (UN) Crime Programme and its changing priorities, from the early focus on juvenile delinquency and correctional treatment, to the present preoccupation with transnational organized crime. It analyses what factors have contributed to this evolution, and to the shift from the original work on “soft law” resolutions and international standards, to “hard law” conventions, and to the expansion of technical assistance. It also examines the changing structure and working methods of the Programme, such as the UN Crime Commission and the UN Secretariat unit responsible for the Programme, the UN Crime Congresses, and the Programme Network Institutes. Drawing on almost 50 years of experience on the “inside” of the UN Crime Programme and his hands-on knowledge of the working of governmental and intergovernmental processes, Matti Joutsen explores the transitions that have taken place in the UN Crime Programme over the seven decades of its existence, assesses the changing impact of the Programme, and suggests possible future directions in international cooperation in crime prevention and criminal justice. An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, politics, criminal justice, policy makers, and those interested in the evolution of the UN Crime Programme.

Criminal Punishment and Human Rights: Convenient Morality
Criminal Punishment and Human Rights: Convenient Morality

Author: Adnan Sattar

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-03-05

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 0429861478

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This book examines the relationship between international human rights discourse and the justifi cations for criminal punishment. Using interdisciplinary discourse analysis, it exposes certain paradoxes that underpin the ‘International Bill of Human Rights’, academic commentaries on human rights law, and the global human rights monitoring regime in relation to the aims of punishment in domestic penal systems. It argues that human rights discourse, owing to its theoretical kinship with Kantian philosophy, embodies a paradoxical commitment to human dignity on the one hand, and retributive punishment on the other. Further, it sustains the split between criminal justice and social justice, which results in a sociologically ill-informed understanding of punishment. Human rights discourse plays a paradoxical role vis-à-vis the punitive power of the state as it seeks to counter criminalisation in some areas and backs the introduction of new criminal offences – and longer prison sentences – in others. The underlying priorities, it is argued, have been shaped by a number of historical circumstances. Drawing on archival material, the study demonstrates that the international penal discourse produced during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century laid greater emphasis on offender rehabilitation and was more attentive to the social context of crime than is the case with the modern human rights discourse.