Crime institute's profile

Abstract

Established in 1969 within the French Ministry of Justice, Cesdip (Centre de recherches sociologiques sur le Droit et les Institutions P6nales) has been affiliated with the CNRS since 1976. Increasing our knowledge of criminal justice policies, based on scrutiny and analysis of the way policy is shaped and enforced has developed into one of the major missions of Cesdip. Both the historical framework and social context of delinquency and violence have emerged as prominent political issues playing a significant role on current education, employment and welfare services debates. The opening of European borders, the hazards of economic restructuring and increased geographic mobility with all the pressures bought to bear on the social fabric of society, have secured a new audience amongst the public for crime and criminal justice issues. Cesdip has prioritized four major areas of research. A first priority has been, under the heading of "Creation of criminal laws the interaction of social actors in that process'. In essence, how society's interests and priorities are transformed through the intervention of public power into legal norms. This research is often framed within a contemporary historical perspective. A second line of research 'Utilisation of penal resources' gives us insight into the ideological context of the mobilisation of resources by various social groups in the current debate on criminal justice policies. Thirdly, 'Organization of law enforcement', its institutions and the means available to the actors in those institutions. Finally, the fourth group of research projects has focused on the 'Logistics and statistical analysis of the criminal justice system'. The updating of our statistical data bank and reviewing and monitoring of research projects are additional areas of responsibility. The Documentation Service of Cesdip contains over 5,600 items and periodicals. It also administers a local databank containing 5,300 catalogued documents indexed by a special vocabulary. It manages the sociological reference system FRANCIS (CNRS=INIST) as well as the international reference system ICPIN in the area of delinquency