2015|2 • VOL. �� • WWW.ESC-EUROCRIM.ORG Newsletter of the European Society of Criminology CRIMINOLOGY IN EUROPE Porto Welcomes the ESC MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT Michael Tonry EUROPEAN CRIMINOLOGY AND ����| � THE ESC—CONTINENTAL CURES VOL. �� Criminology in Europe is published by the FOR AMERICAN AILMENTS European Society of Criminology. Web www.escnewsletter.org Gerben Bruinsma and the ESC board CSABA GYŐRY Editor much regret that unexpected medical Editorial office: matters made it impossible for him to Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law write the president’s column for this Günterstalstrasse 73 mid-summer issue of Criminology 79100 Freiburg i. Br. in Europe or to attend what should Phone: +49 (761) 7081-314 have been ‘his’ ESC annual meeting Fax: +49 (761) 7081-294 Email: [email protected] in Porto. The prognosis for Gerben’s recovery, however, is good, thank The European Society of Criminology is a scientific institution founded under the Literary goodness, and some of the fruits of and Scientific Institutions Act 1854, a statute of his efforts will be evident in Porto. the Parliament of the United Kingdom. These include the fine general pro- President GERBEN BRUINSMA gram, which he helped shape, and a President-Elect FRIEDER DÜNKEL pair of ‘presidential panels’ showcasing Past President MICHAEL TONRY Executive Secretary MARCELO AEBI work of promising young European Journal Editor PAUL KNEPPER scholars. Newsletter Editor CSABA GYŐRY Although there is no sense in which anyone can ‘replace’ Gerben Bruinsma, Member ANNA-MARIA GETOŠ Frieder Dünkel and I will perform some of what would have been his tasks. Member EDWARD KLEEMANS Member MAY-LEN SKILBREI Frieder’s term as active president of the ESC would normally begin the last Member JERZI BURIANEK day of the Porto meeting. He has kindly agreed to perform some of the roles (organiser of the 2014 meeting) Gerben would have played. I agreed to write this column. Member PEDRO SOUSA For me and no doubt for others involved in the ESC since its beginning, it is (organiser of the 2015 meeting) hard to believe the upcoming ESC annual meeting will be the fifteenth. Communications should be addressed as follows In 1999 and 2000, when the ESC was little more than glimmers in the eyes To the president: of Josine Junger-Tas, Martin Killias, and a few other people, no one would NSCR Postbus 71304 have predicted that annual meetings would attract more than 1000 partici- 1008 BH Amsterdam pants. It happened in Budapest and in Prague. Pre-registration for Porto The Netherlands exceeds the prior record by several hundred. Email: [email protected] Increased size is a mixed blessing. It demonstrates the maturation of crimi- To the business office: nology as an academic discipline in Europe, and results in part from prolifera- University of Lausanne tion of new departments, degree programs, and courses. It also means that ESC-ICDP-Sorge-BCH CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland meetings will become less cozy and less intimate. That, while regrettable, is an Phone: 41 21 692 4638 inevitable by-product of growth. Fax: 41 21 692 4645 During my active year as ESC president culminating in the Prague meet- Email: [email protected] ing, I wrote newsletter columns on the nature and development of ‘European’ ISSN 1729-8164 as opposed to American or British criminology. I celebrated what I saw as three distinctive European characteristics. Neither primarily quantitative like American criminology nor primarily qualitative and social theoretical like For advertising and marketing queries, British, European criminology is less tribal and more genuinely multidiscipli- including advertising on the Newslet- nary. European criminology is to a significant extent, more than American or ter website, please contact the editor. British, openly concerned with policy. European criminologists are unafraid to Cover picture: © bokeboke.co.uk 2 CRIMINOLOGY IN EUROPE • ���� | � take and promote normative stances aimed at protecting and directors of conservative and liberal justice system human rights and respecting human dignity. reform organizations. Recent developments in the United States have made The aim was to show American politicians and officials those European characteristics clearer and demonstrated that it is possible to operate systems of punishment for their wisdom. Anyone involved in criminology for more crime that involve imposition of proportionate, deserved than a short time in Europe or anywhere else knows that punishments, that respect the human dignity of offend- the United States is the land of mass incarceration, capital ers, and that attempt in constructive ways to help offend- punishment, mandatory prison terms measured in dec- ers build law-abiding lives. ades, life sentences without possibility of parole (LWOPs), The effect has been transformative. Prosecutors in and sentencing of children as if they were adults. California and Wisconsin, prison directors in several People outside the US do not typically know that all states, and governors have been persuaded and have of those policies and practices are under reconsideration, become outspoken agents of change in their states. and that Americans are looking to Europe for guidance. Whether major changes in law and policies result remains So far, there have been many hundreds of changes to to be seen. American state and federal laws in recent years that have However, as Nick Turner, president of Vera, and Jer- in small ways made American policies less severe and emy Travis, former National Institute of Justice director more respectful of human rights ideas. However, none and now president of New York’s John Jay College of of the worst, most severe laws—’three-strikes,’ ‘truth in Criminal Justice, wrote in the New York Times: ‘Truly sentencing,’ preventive detention, ‘career criminal,’ and transformative change in the United States will require us ‘sexual predator’ laws—have been repealed or fundamen- to fundamentally rethink values. How do we move from tally altered. That may change, under European influ- a system whose core value is retribution to one that prior- ence. itizes accountability and rehabilitation? In Germany we For reasons too complex to summarize here, ‘human saw a potential model: a system that is premised on the rights’ and ‘human dignity’ are concepts without legal protection of human dignity and the idea that the aim significance in American constitutional law. Vaguer of incarceration is to prepare prisoners to lead socially concepts of ‘due process’ and ‘equal protection’ have to responsible lives, free of crime, upon release.’ do that work, but they have been interpreted narrowly by The ESC can claim no direct credit for the greater courts and establish few limits on legislators’ or correc- decency and humanity of most European compared with tional administrators’ decisions. Correctional practices American and British justice systems, but it no doubt and sentencing policies that are unimaginable in Europe plays a role. It embodies the three characteristics of are commonplace. European criminology that I described above. It con- Influential Americans are beginning to understand and tributes to building networks and forging collaborations. regret this and are beginning to look to Europe for better By stimulating the growth of criminology and the activi- models to emulate. Scholarly writings are available, such ties of criminologists, it has catalyzed changes in policy, as Dirk Van Zyl Smit and Sonja Snacken’s fine book on practice, and law. Those are not small accomplishments European prison law. However, few practitioners or policy for an organization that is about to enjoy its fifteenth makers or their staffs read academic writings. A better way birthday party. is to show them how Europe does things differently, more What happens in future years will depend on the humanely, and no less effectively. younger European criminologists Gerben Bruinsma is Frieder Dünkel and I have been involved in projects determined to encourage and promote. Gerben will that demonstrate the positive role that European not be with us in person to celebrate their promise and criminology may play in remaking the American accomplishment in Porto, but he will be there in spirit. I criminal justice system. Two years ago and again in and the ESC board wish him a speedy recovery and look June this year, the Vera Institute of Justice in New forward to being with him next year in Münster. York City, with support from major US foundations, organized ‘study tours’ of European prosecution and prison systems. Participants included governors of Michael Tonry is the McKnight Presidential Professor in states, heads of state prison and probation systems, Criminal Law and Policy at the University of Minnesota elected prosecutors, print and electronic journalists, Law School, and the former President of the ESC 3 EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF CRIMINOLOGY • ���� | � TOPIC OF THE ISSUE Cândido da Agra CRIMINOLOGY AND THE PORTUGUESE EXPERIENCE OF CRIME AN EPISTEMOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL APPROACH* INTRODUCTION way of life. Here, I privilege the archeological method The analysis of the past and present history of science (Archéologie du Savoir, 1969), although I will sometimes can be accomplished in two manners: a simplistic style refer to the other two. or a critical and complex style. The first stores dates and The historical segment we will consider extends for authors across time, without any method of analysis. The about 150 years, from the last