International Criminal Justice Review

Publisher:: Sage Publications, Inc.
Publication date:: 2021-09-06

ISBN:: 1057-5677

Issue Number

Latest documents

The Role of Alcohol Intoxication on Sentencing by Judges and Laypersons: Findings From a Binational Experiment in Germany and France
Existing studies do not provide consistent results regarding the role of alcohol intoxication on sentencing, and little is known about the specificity of sentencing by judges when compared to the general population. In this study, we experimentally investigated the influence of the level of alcohol intoxication on the sentence given to a defendant who had committed an act of physical aggression toward another person. A large sample of judges (N = 1,207) and a representative sample from the general population (N = 1,972) from both Germany and France were randomly assigned to a written depiction of an assault case in which the protagonist had either previously drunk no alcohol, or 0.50 L, or 1.5 L of beer. The respondents were then asked to assign a sentence to the defendant from a range of predefined options. Based on previous studies on sentencing among judges, we hypothesized that they would deliver harsher sentences than the participants from the general population contrary to the “myth of judicial leniency.” Moreover, following attribution theory, we hypothesized that alcohol consumption would decrease the severity of the sentence chosen by the participants from the general population. It was expected that the judges would not be influenced by alcohol information because in both France and Germany, alcohol is not considered to be an aggravating factor in crime according to national laws. The results showed that irrespective of the level of alcohol intoxication, the judges recommended harsher sentences than the participants from the general population and tended to rely on fewer sentence options. However, contrary to our expectations, in both countries, the protagonist’s level of intoxication did not influence sentencing severity.
Variations in War Crimes During the Sierra Leone Civil War
This article explores the nature of, and variation within, war crimes committed during the Sierra Leone civil war. Drawing upon testimonies given before the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Committee and from trials held by the Special Court for Sierra Leone, this article establishes that crimes were committed by all belligerents in the war. However, the type of crime, the frequency, and the motivation of crimes varied widely among the different armed forces. By contexting these acts within the aims, composition, and position of the various warring parties, this article discusses the role violations of the Geneva Conventions played in the short- and long-term goals of each army.
The Role of Alcohol Intoxication on Sentencing by Judges and Laypersons: Findings From a Binational Experiment in Germany and France
Existing studies do not provide consistent results regarding the role of alcohol intoxication on sentencing, and little is known about the specificity of sentencing by judges when compared to the general population. In this study, we experimentally investigated the influence of the level of alcohol intoxication on the sentence given to a defendant who had committed an act of physical aggression toward another person. A large sample of judges (N = 1,207) and a representative sample from the general population (N = 1,972) from both Germany and France were randomly assigned to a written depiction of an assault case in which the protagonist had either previously drunk no alcohol, or 0.50 L, or 1.5 L of beer. The respondents were then asked to assign a sentence to the defendant from a range of predefined options. Based on previous studies on sentencing among judges, we hypothesized that they would deliver harsher sentences than the participants from the general population contrary to the “myth of judicial leniency.” Moreover, following attribution theory, we hypothesized that alcohol consumption would decrease the severity of the sentence chosen by the participants from the general population. It was expected that the judges would not be influenced by alcohol information because in both France and Germany, alcohol is not considered to be an aggravating factor in crime according to national laws. The results showed that irrespective of the level of alcohol intoxication, the judges recommended harsher sentences than the participants from the general population and tended to rely on fewer sentence options. However, contrary to our expectations, in both countries, the protagonist’s level of intoxication did not influence sentencing severity.
Variations in War Crimes During the Sierra Leone Civil War
This article explores the nature of, and variation within, war crimes committed during the Sierra Leone civil war. Drawing upon testimonies given before the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Committee and from trials held by the Special Court for Sierra Leone, this article establishes that crimes were committed by all belligerents in the war. However, the type of crime, the frequency, and the motivation of crimes varied widely among the different armed forces. By contexting these acts within the aims, composition, and position of the various warring parties, this article discusses the role violations of the Geneva Conventions played in the short- and long-term goals of each army.
External Procedural Justice: Do Just Supervisors Shape Officer Trust and Willingness to Take the Initiative With the Public?
Decades of empirical research have shaped our understanding of organizational justice in the workplace and public assessments of police procedures on the street, but only recently has a nascent wave of research sought to better understand the role that officer perceptions of supervisory procedural justice play in shaping their (un)fair interactions with the public. The nascent research testing this relationship has focused on the evidence that officer perceptions of trust in the public is a pathway between internal procedural justice and external procedural justice. This article tests the role of trust and a parallel pathway that incorporates the concepts of work engagement and personal initiative in the procedural justice literature. Relying on a survey of 638 Croatian police officers, this study finds that the effect of supervisory procedural justice on officers’ external procedural justice is positive but indirect through a measure of trust in the public and the proposed engagement/initiative mechanism. The implications of these findings for research and police practice are discussed.
External Procedural Justice: Do Just Supervisors Shape Officer Trust and Willingness to Take the Initiative With the Public?
Decades of empirical research have shaped our understanding of organizational justice in the workplace and public assessments of police procedures on the street, but only recently has a nascent wave of research sought to better understand the role that officer perceptions of supervisory procedural justice play in shaping their (un)fair interactions with the public. The nascent research testing this relationship has focused on the evidence that officer perceptions of trust in the public is a pathway between internal procedural justice and external procedural justice. This article tests the role of trust and a parallel pathway that incorporates the concepts of work engagement and personal initiative in the procedural justice literature. Relying on a survey of 638 Croatian police officers, this study finds that the effect of supervisory procedural justice on officers’ external procedural justice is positive but indirect through a measure of trust in the public and the proposed engagement/initiative mechanism. The implications of these findings for research and police practice are discussed.
Imageries of Self: Guilty Plea Statements in Sexual Violence Cases at the ICTY
Focusing on the guilty plea statements in sex crimes cases at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, this article investigates the ways that defendants re-present themselves, their agencies, and their offenses in response to the legal framework within which they talk. While their acts are at the core of international criminal justice (ICJ), defendants are more often spectators than participants when their guilt is negotiated and judged. They have for the most part also been absent in research on ICJ. As defendants’ voices are rarely heard during proceedings, their guilty plea statements produce rare access to war criminal’s staging of self and individual agency. At international criminal tribunals, defendants have wide audiences beyond the courtroom, and when they do speak, their stories potentially influence not only the court proceedings but also wider cultural and societal narratives about wartime agency and sexual violence. After identifying a guilty plea script, this article draws attention to a consistent and intriguing silencing of sexual crimes in the past and to how the defendants’ imageries of present and future selves align with the ICJ effect narratives about the individually disciplining and rehabilitative character of criminal justice and its general deterrent effects.
Imageries of Self: Guilty Plea Statements in Sexual Violence Cases at the ICTY
Focusing on the guilty plea statements in sex crimes cases at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, this article investigates the ways that defendants re-present themselves, their agencies, and their offenses in response to the legal framework within which they talk. While their acts are at the core of international criminal justice (ICJ), defendants are more often spectators than participants when their guilt is negotiated and judged. They have for the most part also been absent in research on ICJ. As defendants’ voices are rarely heard during proceedings, their guilty plea statements produce rare access to war criminal’s staging of self and individual agency. At international criminal tribunals, defendants have wide audiences beyond the courtroom, and when they do speak, their stories potentially influence not only the court proceedings but also wider cultural and societal narratives about wartime agency and sexual violence. After identifying a guilty plea script, this article draws attention to a consistent and intriguing silencing of sexual crimes in the past and to how the defendants’ imageries of present and future selves align with the ICJ effect narratives about the individually disciplining and rehabilitative character of criminal justice and its general deterrent effects.
Does Education Affect Environmental Crime? A Dynamic Panel Data Approach at Provincial Level in Italy
This article investigates the role of education on environmental crime in Italy using a panel of 110 Italian provinces over the period 2010–2015. We employ a system-GMM (Generalized Method of Moments) dynamic panel data approach to tackle the endogeneity that might arise in the estimations from the environmental crime dynamic path and to consider time-invariant effects on provinces. Our empirical results, even after controlling for socioeconomic and judicial efficiency characteristics, support the existence of a U-inverted relationship between education and environmental crime, which depicts an unconventional finding: At the margin, a higher level of education endowment offsets the propensity to commit environmental crimes, which are confirmed to be white-collar type of crimes. The results are robust to model specifications and endogeneity. Furthermore, to check the robustness of nonmonotonicity in the relationship between environmental crime and education and to control for unobserved provincial heterogeneity, we also exploit a semiparametric fixed effects model. There is wide room for efficiency gains that could arise from policy interventions aiming to put environmental crimes into perspective.
Does Education Affect Environmental Crime? A Dynamic Panel Data Approach at Provincial Level in Italy
This article investigates the role of education on environmental crime in Italy using a panel of 110 Italian provinces over the period 2010–2015. We employ a system-GMM (Generalized Method of Moments) dynamic panel data approach to tackle the endogeneity that might arise in the estimations from the environmental crime dynamic path and to consider time-invariant effects on provinces. Our empirical results, even after controlling for socioeconomic and judicial efficiency characteristics, support the existence of a U-inverted relationship between education and environmental crime, which depicts an unconventional finding: At the margin, a higher level of education endowment offsets the propensity to commit environmental crimes, which are confirmed to be white-collar type of crimes. The results are robust to model specifications and endogeneity. Furthermore, to check the robustness of nonmonotonicity in the relationship between environmental crime and education and to control for unobserved provincial heterogeneity, we also exploit a semiparametric fixed effects model. There is wide room for efficiency gains that could arise from policy interventions aiming to put environmental crimes into perspective.