Abstract Forfeiture, a potent tool in law enforcement’s battle against crime, especially organized activities, raises a legal conflict involving third parties’ rights. This includes the offender’s family, investors, creditors, property owners, and victims. Balancing criminal law objectives with civil property rights, this study explores the tension arising from forfeiture affecting innocent parties. It argues for a guided approach to forfeiting third-party property based on legal theories, seeking an optimal balance point that respects the rights of these parties. The study aims to conceptualize a cohesive theory for third-party rights in forfeiture law, enhancing judicial decisions and achieving a refined equilibrium between forfeiture crime-fighting efficacy and the protection of innocent parties.

Abstract This paper presents a novel argument proposing greater recognition of the stigmatic nature of the ‘psychopath’ label in the corporate crime context, particularly in relation to its use within academic research and in criminal judgments. Labelling theory and a communicative account of criminal law and punishment are applied to the issue. The stigmatic nature of the label, as well as its potential to over-stigmatise corporate offenders is assessed. Recommendations are forwarded, primarily in relation to the need for greater judicial engagement with the topic of psychopathy and corporate crime, and greater recognition of the stigmatic nature of the psychopathy label. Alternative labels are forwarded.

Abstract Suspended prison sentences are the most commonly imposed sanction type in the majority of post-communist European countries. In Czechia, they began to be widely used within a year after they were first introduced in 1919 despite having been conceived as a rather exceptional measure. Since the 1989 Velvet revolution they have come to dominate the Czech penal landscape, in part due to the unavailability of intermediate sanctions, increasing crime rates, limited state resources and the historic overuse of short prison sentences. Now, in 2024, when none of these factors apply any longer, suspended prison sentences continue to occupy a central position within the Czech penal system. The prominence of suspended prison sentences complicates principled sentencing because the legal provisions that govern them have not changed as their scope and use have increased. This has led to suspended prison sentences being considered a separate type of sanction rather than as a variant prison sentence by practitioners, making it difficult to formulate a coherent conception of this sanction and to define rules governing its imposition. The revocation of suspension after very long suspended prison sentences were imposed in Czechia was also one reason for the country’s very high prison population. I argue that one of the main reasons why the scope of suspended prison sentences was enlarged so much without any consideration of the harmful effects this would cause was an ill-considered penal policy created in the absence of sophisticated sentencing scholarship and a lack of attention to sentencing principles.

This study examines the spatial patterns of homicide in three 14th-century English cities—London, York, and Oxford—through the Medieval Murder Map project, which visualizes 355 homicide cases derived from coroners’ inquests. Integrating historical criminology with contemporary spatial crime theories, we outline a new historical criminology of space, focused on how urban environments shaped patterns of lethal violence in the past. Findings reveal similarities in all three cities. Homicides were highly concentrated in key nodes of urban life such as markets, squares, and thoroughfares. Temporal patterns indicate that most homicides occurred in the evening and on weekends, aligning with routine activity theory. Oxford had far higher homicide rates than London and York, and a higher proportion of organized group-violence, suggestive of high levels of social disorganization and impunity. Spatial analyses reveal distinct areas related to town-gown conflicts and violence fueled by student factionalism. In London, findings suggest distinct clusters of homicide which reflect differences in economic and social functions. In all three cities, some homicides were committed in spaces of high visibility and symbolic significance. The findings highlight how public space shaped urban violence historically. The study also raises broader questions about the long-term decline of homicide, suggesting that changes in urban governance and spatial organization may have played a crucial role in reducing lethal violence.

The article discusses the factors that explain the substantial differences in imprisonment rates between Germany and the U.S.; starting point is Michael Tonry’s thesis that these differences ‘mostly reflect deliberate policy choices’. The author points out that explanations must be more varied and that structural features of criminal justice systems are of great importance. Another argument made is that not every development deserves praise simply because it has the side effect of moderating imprisonment rates (such as bureaucratic and thus inefficient prosecution).

Michael Tonry’s life and work are an exception to American exceptionalism. His lifelong concern with American parochialism and antipathy to its punitiveness, racism, and historical lawlessness have led him to look beyond its borders for explanations of such a dysfunctional sentencing regime and the means of reforming it. This article examines his interest in and contributions to comparative sentencing research and reform, his articulation of fundamental principles of justice, and his vision of an ideal sentencing system. It identifies some future directions for comparative sentencing research by extending his ideas and methods beyond the Global North.

Over the last 15 years imprisonment rates have declined in Europe on average by 15 percent and in the United States by 30 percent. Does this imply that, after decades long prison growth, we are facing a period of penal moderation? Since crime has also decreased, any assessments of a “moderate turn” are premature without considering how much of this decline is just a consequence of declining crime. This article begins to answer these questions first by examining previous attempts to measure the impact of crime on prison populations. To obtain a more precise view of the causal mechanisms, and to overcome some of the controversies in earlier research, a distinction between volume effects and policy effects is introduced. Empirical analyses are reported using two samples. The long-term sample from the 1960s onwards exemplifies the diversity of penal responses and differing prison trends during the times of increased crime in nine Western countries. Comparisons with 35 European countries from 2008 to 2024 show that prison populations followed declining crime quite closely. The answer to the initial question remains negative: There are ever more prisoners relative to recorded crime and convictions, suggesting a lower custody threshold than before. The number of admissions has declined, but the average length of prison terms has grown in almost all European countries. Despite the nominal decline of prison populations there is no indication that European penal policy is shifting toward leniency.