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Criminology in Europe Prague Welcomes the ESC Miroslav Scheinost on Crime and Criminology in the Czech Republic 1 MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT Michael Tonry IS THERE, SHOULD THERE BE, ����| 2 A EUROPEAN CRIMINOLOGY? VOL. �� The question in the title could be Criminology in Europe is published by the European Society of Criminology. interpreted in a number of ways. It could mean, is there and should there Web www.escnewsletter.org be a recognisably European scholarly Editor CSABA GYŐRY community of people interested in Editorial office: crime and the justice system? The Max Planck Institute for Foreign and answers are obvious. Yes and yes. International Criminal Law Günterstalstrasse 73 From the organisation of the Euro- 79100 Freiburg i. Br. pean Steel and Coal Community Phone: +49 (761) 7081-314 under the 1951 Treaty of Paris through Fax: +49 (761) 7081-294 the creation of the Council of Europe Email: [email protected] and the latest contortions of the The European Society of Criminology is a European Union, serious efforts have scientific institution founded under the Literary and Scientific Institutions Act 1854, a statute of been underway to fashion a geopo- the Parliament of the United Kingdom. litical Europe that is greater than the President MICHAEL TONRY sum of its parts. Part of that effort in President-Elect GERBEN BRUINSMA every field has been to foster cross- Past President VESNA NIKOLIĆ-RISTANOVIĆ national interactions and institutions Executive Secretary MARCELO AEBI at the European level. Journal Editor PAUL KNEPPER Except for scholarly communities within countries or language group- Newsletter Editor CSABA GYŐRY Member KLAUS BOERS ings, and relatively small numbers of individuals involved in European expert Member DINA SIEGEL groups, until recently it would have been hard to claim there was a European Member MIKLÓS LÉVAY criminological community. The creation of one was the principal aim of the (organiser of the 2013 meeting) organisers of the European Society of Criminology (ESC). Both the ESC Member JERZI BURIANEK (organiser of the 2014 meeting) and the development of an integrated and interacting scholarly community remain works in progress, but their ambitions are clear. Communications should be addressed as follows A harder version of the question is to ask whether, as an intellectual To the president: matter, a “European Criminology” exists or should exist. Those answers are University of Minnesota School of Law 312 Mondale Hall less obvious. In many scientific disciplines, for example, in the physical and 229–19th Ave. South biological sciences, it would be odd to work toward creation of distinctively Minneapolis, MN 55455 European or Asian or Latin American versions. For reasons of history and Email: [email protected] language, there are national and regional societies. No doubt there are, To the business office: among them, different focal interests, funding arrangements, and career University of Lausanne structures. Even so, few physical or biological scientists would want to ESC-ICDP-Sorge-BCH argue that there should be different intellectual frameworks and standards CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland Phone: 41 21 692 4638 for mathematics, physics, or neurobiology on different parts of the planet. Fax: 41 21 692 4645 The relevant intellectual communities in DNA sequencing, neurology, and Email: [email protected] theoretical physics are global. ISSN 1729-8164 Much the same seems to me to be the case with most of the humanities and social sciences. Different countries have different intellectual traditions in philosophy or history or sociology. Traditions cluster geographically, because For advertising and marketing queries, of proximity and long-standing patterns of interaction and influence. This including advertising on the Newslet- probably means that there is some empirical validity to the idea that there are ter website, please contact the editor. distinctively European or Latin American ways of “doing” history or philoso- 2 CRIMINOLOGY IN EUROPE • ���� | � phy. However, in most fields this does not imply there are decades of wars on crime and drugs in England, the different conceptions of philosophy or history, but only US, New Zealand, and parts of Canada and Australia, that different methodologies or cultural traditions exist. and the narrower adoption of more repressive policies Structural settings and social psychologies vary between in many European countries, much of American crimi- (and within) countries and regions, but for much social nology abandoned humane values and shifted toward science—for example, sociologists interested in social technocratic approaches to what were, in the end, deeply stratification or social movements—there are important normative issues. empirical differences but not intellectual ones. Here, too, One great strength of European criminology is that its the relevant intellectual communities are at least mostly leading practitioners unembarrassedly admit normative global. premises. This is clear in the work of most qualitative and For applied disciplines or subject matter concentra- theoretical criminologists but also in the work of those tions like criminology, education, and social administra- sometimes called administrative or positivist criminolo- tion, the situation is different. There are no overriding gists. People working on prisons, community penalties, intellectual frameworks as in the physical sciences. or youth justice generally are explicit about their goal Instead, individual researchers choose topics to study of making them more humane, less intrusive, and either and intellectual frameworks to be deployed, and there less destructive of human life chances or more effective are seldom objective ways to characterise some as better at enhancing them. Even work aimed at reducing and and some as worse. preventing crime, seeks ways to do so that are humane Criminologists decide what to study and how to study and non-repressive—social, situational, community, and it. Much more than in the natural sciences, national and harm-reduction focused prevention over repressive law regional traditions make it possible to describe “Euro- enforcement. pean criminology,” “American criminology,” “Scandi- Much of American criminology, by contrast, is primar- navian criminology,” and “English and Commonwealth ily non-normative. Researchers seldom choose their top- criminology.” Some of the regional criminologies can be ics or research designs in order to foster development of claustrophobic. Only a Brit could seriously care about or more humane policies or to improve the lives of troubled explain the differences among radical, critical, Marxist, people. Instead they accept recent policies as they are left realist, and a host of cultural criminologies. Likewise, and look to measure their effects, or look for ways to mostly Americans become excited by repetitive, cookie- make them more effective in narrow instrumental ways. cutter-style, statistically sophisticated, secondary analy- American work on sentencing and correctional program- ses of large data sets. ming, for example, has tended toward single-mindedness There are, of course, huge overlaps between regions. in seeking to reduce recidivism (rather than enhance People within each do every kind of mainstream work. human capital). Work on crime prevention has tended to Even so, I hope European criminology survives and focus on the deterrent effectiveness of penalties (rather thrives. than on social prevention. Work on policing has tended “American criminology,” by which I mean something to focus on reducing crime rates rather than on develop- primarily empirical, primarily predicated on the adop- ing strong community relationships and strengthening tion of physical science ways of knowing, and primar- community institutions. ily non-normative, has recently been on the march. “European criminology”, as I have described it, is more Sub-disciplines and specialty groups that 15 years ago an ideal than a reality, as European friends will firmly existed almost entirely within North America are now inform me. I know that. Ideals should not be cast aside taking hold within Europe. That’s not a bad thing per quickly, however, or underestimated. Trying to live up se. Especially in the parts of criminology that border to them motivates us, and our governments, to look for on the behavioral and medical sciences, it is no doubt a better, more humane ways to respond to crime and the good thing if it can show better ways to enhance human social problems that give rise to it. And, as Montaigne life chances. However, it could be a bad thing if it is a said, it makes us better people. harbinger of a movement toward a general adoption of American ways. Michael Tonry is McKnight Presidential Professor in Crimi- One measure of a good life for Montaigne was to nal Law and Policy at the University of Minnesota Law retain one’s humanity in inhumane times. During recent School and the President of the ESC 3 EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF CRIMINOLOGY • ���� | � TOPIC OF THE ISSUE Miroslav Scheinost CZECH CRIMINOLOGY: HISTORY AND CURRENT STATE THE ROOTS inception of Czech criminology was Vladimír Solnař, Although the institutional foundations of Czech crimi- who published a study on Criminality in the Czech nology were laid only the 1960s, the roots of the disci- Lands 1914—1922 from the Perspectives of Criminal Aeti- pline go much further into the past, namely to the turn ology and Penal Law Reform. At the same time, perpe- of the 19th and 20th centuries. Like in other
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