Criminal Definitions Research Articles

The Burning of Bédoin

Abstract On May 28, 1794, a criminal investigation that had begun almost a month before concluded with the execution of sixty-three men and women, the imprisonment of fifteen more, and a few days later the destruction of an entire village. This article examines the burning of Bédoin, the crime that provoked it, and the judicial process that accompanied it, to explore the relationship between criminal cause and punitive effect during the Terror of year II. As a case study in revolutionary justice, this episode appears extreme, but this article argues that it allows us to interrogate the meanings that ordinary revolutionaries attached to terms like crime and complicity when the survival of the state seemed at stake. In looking beyond the Terror to the controversies that enveloped this village's destruction, this article also examines the aftermath of atrocity to consider how a society comes to terms with crime when both the definition of criminality and the identity of the criminal are in flux.

Unpacking LGBT+ hate crimes discourse in Italy: between symbolic recognition and claims for sexual citizenship

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to provide a critical account of the hate crime (HC) paradigm by exploring its historical legal definition and the limitations in addressing the multiple and structural discriminations faced by minority groups. Specifically, the article focuses on the case of Italy, where in recent years a fierce debate over a proposed law on HC against LGBT+ and disabled people ended in its rejection due to neoconservative and Catholic opposition.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on critical socio-criminological literature on HC, the paper analyses the Italian debates and socio-legal context over the past two decades regarding discrimination against LGBT+ groups and its (lack of) criminalization. It also provides a secondary analysis of recent data on violence and discrimination against LGBT+ people, collected by the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA).FindingsThe analysis of the debate and the data collected shows that the criminal definition of HC is insufficient to capture the wider range of social and cultural violence and discrimination against LGBT+ people. Indeed, data analysis shows the effect of the low level of recognition of rights on the propensity of people to denounce and of social practitioners to recognize, discrimination and violence against LGBT+ people. It is therefore argued that the discussion on HC should move beyond the criminalization of individual violence to be entrenched in a broader reflection over the lack of recognition of sexual citizenship rights which perpetuates the vulnerability of LGBT+ people.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the international socio-criminological debate on HC. It argues for a comprehensive framework that recognizes the structural nature of discrimination and violence against vulnerable groups by framing discrimination and violence against LGBT+ people as a citizenship right rather than a criminal justice issue.

Criminalising the Violation of EU Restrictive Measures: Towards (Dis)Proportionate Punishments vis-à-vis Natural Persons?

This paper aims at providing a critical perspective on the European Union’s adoption of criminal law as a key mechanism for enforcing sanctions against Russia and Belarus following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. It scrutinizes the evolution and expansion of the EU’s sanctions regime, revealing a strategic shift towards a criminal law-based enforcement approach. With an emphasis on the EU’s legal framework, this contribution highlights the diverse national responses to breaches of these sanctions, ranging from administrative to criminal penalties. The lack of uniformity in these responses has sparked a significant EU initiative to criminalise sanction breaches, leading to a proposal for harmonizing criminal definitions and penalties across Member States. This initiative, while aiming to streamline enforcement and eliminate impunity, raises questions about the proportionality and appropriateness of using criminal law in this context. This paper delves into these concerns using the principle of proportionality of penalties enshrined in Article 49(3) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union as a benchmark. It critically analyses the proposed criminal penalties, questioning their alignment with the severity of the offences and the rationale behind categorising offence as either minor or serious. Besides, the examination extends to the impact of monetary thresholds on determining the gravity of offences, the cumulative effect of linked offences, and the potential risks of overcriminalisation. Finally, it offers insights into the latest developments in the legislative process, discussing the European Parliament and Council’s stance on the proposal. The paper concludes by advocating for further refinements to ensure that the criminalisation of violation or circumvention of restrictive measures remains proportional and effective, ultimately upholding the EU’s commitment to justice and accountability in the face of international crises.

Criminal Definition of Violating the Safety Rules of Vehicle Operation or Their Use

Criminal Definition of Violating the Safety Rules of Vehicle Operation or Their Use

Low Self-Control, Substance-Using Peers and Intimate Partners, Pro-Drug Use Definitions, and Inhalant Use Among Convicted Offenders in South Korea

Hirschi has repeatedly argued that the relationship between social learning variables and crime is a product of “self-selection” driven by low self-control (LSC). Akers’ has suggested that social learning mechanisms, such as affiliations with deviant individuals and acceptance of criminal definitions, can mediate the effects of LSC on crime. Interestingly, there has been little comparative work done to explore this mediation hypothesis in the realm of substance use for offender populations outside of the United States. This study helps fill these gaps in the literature by exploring the potential mediation effects of social learning variables on the relationship between LSC and inhalant use among a sample of 739 male offenders in South Korea. Our results provide strong support for the mediation hypothesis that LSC indirectly influences self-reported inhalant use through social learning mechanisms.

Coercive Persuasion As a Specific Type of Violence in Criminal Law

The field of cults, and that of destructive or coercive cults in particular, has received little attention from the perspective of criminal law doctrine. Supporters of such groups often claim to be victims of a violation related to freedom of will. In this article, I consider various methodologies and manipulation techniques used by such groups and suggest that comparative law, criminal definitions, and regulatory problems provide the basis for a more comprehensive understanding of criminal phenomenology that includes these concerns: the loss of freedom through coercive persuasion, and thus being the victim of a crime, or through becoming an instrument for the commission of crimes ordered by third parties. Research shows that the conventional definition of crime against freedom of will and physical injury is inadequate. I posit that a new approach to legal doctrine and criminal classification is required to fight against new crime phenomenology. I propose a criminal classification aimed at considering coercive persuasion as a crime, and a definition for the criminalization of certain organizations that engage in willful misconduct or reckless conduct.

The Object of Russian Criminology

The authors analyze the content of the object of criminology, which includes criminality, criminalization of actions, decriminalization of actions, the personality of the criminal, determinants of crime, criminological prevention of crime. They support the definition of criminality according to which it is a social (socially dangerous, relatively mass, historically changing) and criminal law phenomenon that includes a system-forming aggregate of crimes and persons who have committed them in a certain territory within a certain period of time. The authors believe that the object of criminology should include the criminological conditionality of the existence or the change of the criminal law prohibition, while the object of the science of criminal law should include the social conditionality of establishing the criminal law prohibition as well as the legislative methodology of criminalizing and decriminalizing actions. It is stated in the article that the best approach to the personality of the criminal views this personality as an aggregate of social, biological and psychological qualities of the person who has committed a crime. The authors stress that the existence of criminality should be explained from deterministic positions which make it possible to show the diverse influence of many social phenomena on criminality. Criminality originates from its causes as a natural consequence, the conditions form or contribute to the emergence of the causes of crime, the factors create a certain favorable background for the existence of criminality. The authors describe changes in the action mechanism of general social determinants of crime under the influence of globalization. They begin to exercise their negative influence on a person not through small social groups in which socialization takes place, but directly, especially though the Internet. The authors state that the object of criminology is the criminological prevention of crime in the form of coercion not connected with the implementation of criminal law measures, as well as in the form of protecting the rights and lawful interests of a person and providing social and legal support.

Political Motives in Term of Criminal Definition on Terorism Law in Indonesia

In Law Number 5 Year 2018, the definition of terrorism with political motives is regulated. This is different from the previous regulation, namely Law Number 15 Year 2003 concerning the stipulation of Government Regulations in lieu of Law Number 1 Year 2002 concerning Eradication of Terrorism Criminal Acts. The issue raised is how the political motives as the goal of terrorism and what are the fundamental changes of the latest terrorism law. This research uses normative legal research in which the study legal material contains normative rules. With the ratification of the Terrorism Law, political motives are used as an element of the offense formula. Some changes are on the Definition of Terrorism, Terrorism Organizations, Military and Paramilitary Training, Incitement, involvement of children, time of detention, arrest, wiretapping, protection, victims' rights, prevention, BNPT, TNI involvement and oversight by the DPR.

Conceptualizing the role of consent in the definition of rape at the international criminal court: a norm transfer perspective

ABSTRACTOver the past three decades, international criminal legal standards on sexual and gender-based violence have developed rapidly, sparking debate within feminist circles over the extent to which these developments might be relevant to domestic contexts in a process termed “norm transfer.” Indeed, non-governmental organizations and feminist scholars have called for domestic adoption of the International Criminal Court (ICC) definition of rape due to its omission of the element of the absence of consent. However, the place of consent in an international criminal definition of rape is a hotly contested topic, with disagreement as to whether rape in conflict should be considered “exceptional” or a continuation of everyday violence against women. This article provides a new lens through which to explore these questions by situating the feminist strategy of norm transfer within the complementarity-based system of the ICC. It uncovers a number of gaps within the ICC definition that raise questions not only about the status of the definition as a candidate for norm transfer but also about the robustness of the definition itself. The article concludes by considering the role of consent as an implicit element within the ICC definition and its operation as a defense.

La caracterización del feminicidio de la pareja o expareja y los delitos de odio discriminatorio

This article aims to specify a coherent and useful interpretation of feminicide behavior (or as preferred by the author “femicide”), which is included, in a non -uniform manner- in several criminal definitions in Latin American legislations. Indeed, the author asserts the need for an individualized criminal protection of women against gender violence, and confirms the praiseworthy work it is being done in Latin America, yet femicide as a criminal offense in the region is not defined accurately. Thus, the author concludes this is the reflection of a criminal policy that suffers from inaccuracies, duplicities and, in some cases, excessive punitiveness. The author questions the criminal definition of femicide as the death of a “woman because of her condition as such” or other similar definitions that include the murder of a woman because of the mere fact of being a woman. When referring to the death of a woman committed by her partner or former partner, the author characterizes feminicide as a form of violence which constitutes an instrument of discriminatory domination, in other words, violence against women with the purpose of maintaining or re-establishing unequal power relationships or simply to reaffirm the discriminatory sense of his act, denying the victim his right to equality. From this perspective, the author discusses considering partner or former partner femicide as a hate crime, since the characteristic of this criminal definition is its collective dimension (the implicit threat to the collective) and the parallel fungible condition of the victim. In the opinion of the author, in partner or former-partner femicide the woman’s death is related to both the bias that exists towards women, how they should behaved (machismo), and what was expected of the victim (as herself). It is an individual phenomenon, of only one dimension. Under all these considerations the text culminates analyzing the Peruvian criminal type of femicide, acknowledging some successes but also reiterating their mistakes.

Giuseppe Sergi. The portrait of a positivist scientist.

Giuseppe Sergi (1841-1936) was one of the most important anthropologists and psychologists of the age of positivism and this article focuses on three domains of his scientific research: degeneration, eugenics and race. His concept of degeneration is defined as the development of special forms of human adaptation to the environment. This issue is closely related to his theory of the "stratification of character", which had a profound impact on Italian psychiatry and criminal anthropology in the late nineteenth century. Thus, special emphasis is placed on the differences between Sergi and Cesare Lombroso regarding their definitions of criminality and genius. Concerning eugenics, the article analyzes Sergi's key role in the Italian context, discussing his eugenic program based on both repression and education. His remedies against the spread of degeneration included not only radical and repressive measures, but also the improvement of popular education and the living conditions of the working class. In the field of physical anthropology, the article examines Sergi's morphological method of classifying ethnic groups. Although sharply criticized in Italy and abroad, this method had two major effects. First, it led to the definitive split between Sergi and Paolo Mantegazza and to the foundation of the Societá Romana di Antropologia in 1893. Second, it was the starting point for Sergi's theory of Mediterranean "stock", which claimed that European populations were of African origin in contrast to contemporary theories of Aryan supremacy. The article ends with a look at the heated debate over Sergi's Mediterraneanism during the period of Fascism.

WAR CRIMES, OR WHEN INTERNATIONAL LAW MOVED AHEAD DOMESTIC LAW

War crimes are the cornerstone of the concept of international individual criminal responsibility. This essay tries to elucidate whether the definition of such crimes and the methods of prosecution thereof were initially a domestic criminal law concern in certain states that found its way towards international law cooperation efforts and regime or whether the domestic regulation has been the result of ex novo international legal obligations. This is called the epic question. For that purpose, the study analyses the evolution of international treaties on the topic while confronting them with two national legal orders, the United States of America and Spain’s legislation on war crimes, mainly from nineteenth century onwards. These two very different legal orders show various options, including a dual path for military and ordinary criminal definition and prosecution of war crimes at a national level under shifting international and domestic rules. The result of the cross-checking clarifies an interpretation that answers the epic question accordingly.

A veszélyes fenyegetéssel elkövetett zaklatásról


 
 
 
 A Legfőbb Ügyészség által közzétett statisztikák azt mutatják, hogy a regisztrált emberi méltóság és az egyes alapvető jogok elleni bűncselekmények között a Btk. 222. § szerinti zaklatás miatt indult büntetőeljárások az utóbbi években jelentős többséget (az elmúlt öt évben átlagosan 70%-ot) tesznek ki. A zaklatás büntetőjogi tényállása 2008-ban jelent meg a magyar büntetőjogi szabályozásban, és igen nagyszámú, előre nem látott dogmatikai és jogalkalmazási kérdést hozott magával.
 
 
 

Problematic issues in defining terrorism

Terrorism, as a socio-pathological notion in society, generates a high degree of social danger, which makes the material legitimacy of predictions the same notion as a category of criminal law. The process of criminalization of terrorist activity depends directly on the degree of development of solutions in the definition of this phenomenon in the field of political science, since in addition to the objective character of this phenomenon, embodied in the destruction of and damage to life, body and the destruction of property of high value, it is also characterized by a subjective element, which implies political orientation of the listed behaviors. The political goal, which it in itself possesses, makes the differentia specifica of such conduct, establishes a relationship of dependency between politicology definitions of terrorism, which determine what and in what circumstances is considered a political purpose, and criminal definitions that define the elements of the offense in the national legal systems. This paper provides an overview and analysis of some political and criminal definitions, focusing on the type and character of their relationship, which is embodied in the accessoriness of criminal law definitions of terrorism in relation to the ones offered by political science. The paper also analyzes the reasons that underlie this relationship and the implementation of some issues related to the definition of terrorism as a category of criminal law.

Innocence and burdens of proof in English criminal law

Since the Human Rights Act 1998, scholars and courts have dedicated considerable attention to the presumption of innocence. A major strand of the ensuing debate has focused on the scope of this safeguard. Many academics have argued in favour of according to the presumption a substantive—as opposed to a procedural—role. In other words, these scholars maintain that the presumption set in art. 6(2) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) should have some influence on the definition of criminality. Courts seem sympathetic to this approach, albeit not following it to the full extent. The article, instead, defends a procedural understanding of the presumption of innocence, on the basis of interpretive arguments concerning art. 6(2) ECHR. Besides, it shows that adopting this conception does not entail lowering the protection of the individual before the substantive criminal law.

Constructing the “Extraordinary Criminals”: Mappila Muslims and Legal Encounters in Early British Colonial Malabar

The British colonial state in India, as part of establishing key sites of law and order, constructed certain tribes, groups, castes, and individuals as “criminals.” These criminal definitions came to play a prominent role in imperial criminal justice policies in India. This type of construction of criminality in the colonies also portrayed the stereotypical sense of the West, who depicted the indigenous in the East among other things as “criminals,” “robbers,” “rebels,” “docile Hindus,” “fanatic Muslims,” “untrustworthy Arabs,” and so on. Such nomenclatures were invented to describe how those groups reacted against the colonial invasion and were an important tool in delegitimizing such local uprisings. The discourses to label the non-Western population as inherently dangerous in the colony were also to alleviate its own fears and anxieties. An array of colonial scholars have worked on the making of criminal communities and groups in northern India through the discourse of race, caste, and tribe, especially Thuggees and Sansis, who were known for their perceived criminal propensities. Most studies on native criminality in colonial India have focused on the mid or late nineteenth century, with special reference to the ways and reasons by which the native tribes, peasants, and groups were labeled “criminals” by the colonial state. This paper looks into the ways in which “native criminality” was perceived during the early days of British rule in India, with special reference to the British rule in Malabar, where the colonial state maneuvered to classify certain sections of the Malabar population as distinct from the rest.

Criminality in Spaces of Death: The Palestinian Case Study

This study examines how Palestinian dead bodies and spaces of death in occupied East Jerusalem are ‘hot spots’ of criminality. The arguments raised challenge traditional hot-spot theories of crime that build their definition of criminality around official state statistics and information and visible spaces of crime. The paper offers a bottom-up analysis of crimes against the dead and their families in East Jerusalem, examining the manner in which modes of denial, the logic of elimination and accumulation by dispossession shape experiences of death and dying in a colonial context.

Kicking the hornet’s nest: The rhetoric of social campaigning in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy

Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy has attracted huge audiences all over the world. Interest in the trilogy has been fuelled by revelations about the life and death of the author, and by clever publicity campaigns for both the books and the film adaptations, but little attention has been paid so far to the language and style of the novels. This article will focus on Larsson’s attempt to incorporate social campaigning and politics into the crime genre, and the extent to which he is able to combine rhetorical attacks on the injustices of contemporary Swedish society with a gripping plot. The article will offer a close analysis of the stylistic ‘gear shifts’ in the novels (Page, 1973), along with an examination of the various types of paratextual matter (Genette, 1997 [1987]) they incorporate. In addition, I will explore how far Larsson’s writing participates in the reworking of definitions of criminality and deviance within the genre (Gregoriou, 2007). Finally, the article will consider how far the film adaptations dilute Larsson’s social and political agenda, and tone down or glamorise the sexual violence which is such a feature of the novels.

STATE AND CRIMINALITY: THE COLONIAL CAMPAIGN AGAINST THUGGEE AND THE SUPPRESSION OF SIKH MILITANCY IN POSTCOLONIAL INDIA

Crime and policing, as outlined in the policies of independent India, can be traced to the definitions of criminality espoused by the British Empire. I am particularly interested in examining the role of the centralizing State, in colonial and postcolonial India, in defining ordinary (‘individual’) and extraordinary (‘collective’) crime. This project postulates a contextual definition of criminality, and interrogates the political ideology that links the colonial to the postcolonial by tracing the lineage of the Indian State’s policies toward Sikh separatism.

The Oasis Poets: Perpetrators, Victims, and Soldier Testimony

This article examines the categories of victim and perpetrator testimony in relation to the writing contained in the Salamander Oasis Trust archive in the Imperial War Museum at Duxford. In Dimensions of the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel famously commented that the Holocaust produced the new literary genre of testimony. Although critics — such as James Young in Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust — have pointed out that testamentary accounts abound in relation to many other wars and atrocities, studies of testimony have — following Wiesel — mainly focused on the Holocaust. In this article, I explore British soldiers' poetic accounts of the Second World War in the Oasis archive, which contains around 20,000 items by over 200 authors. The concepts of victim and perpetrator testimony are both relevant and problematized in relation to soldier testimony. Clearly, the origin of the terms “victim” and “perpetrator” lies in a judicial context, but with the development of critical discussions about testimony outside the courtroom — as in the notion of literary testimony — the efficacy of these terms has been questioned. For Primo Levi, the trace of legal discourse is important, since it allows us to distinguish his tormentors from his fellow prisoners. However, Levi himself introduced the notion of the “grey zone” in which the “guilt” of, for example, the Sonderkommando does not sit easily with legal notions of criminality. In relation to soldier testimony, these categories are similarly vexed, since — as the variety of writing in the Oasis archive attests — an Allied recruit, as a reluctant conscript, or subsequently traumatized individual, or even a violator of the Geneva Convention, could be considered a victim. Sometimes the categories blur within an individual poem, as when Oasis writers celebrate the killing of German soldiers, but then also engage with troubling memories that surface in relation to such events after the war. Who (or what) is a perpetrator in the context of soldier testimony (as opposed to a perpetrator of genocide)? Should the term only be used in a legal sense, or should critical discussions of literary testimony draw on the dictionary definition of a perpetrator as an instigator of (potentially heinous) acts, which may include — whatever the pertinent definition of criminality — the killing of others in combat (OED, 2nd ed.)? Is a soldier only ever a victim (a common descriptor of soldiers after Vietnam and the advent of PTSD in 1980) or something between these two testamentary categories? And — most pertinent for this article — is there such a thing as a perpetrator voice, perspective, or aesthetic when the poet dispassionately records enemy deaths, or — as in Keith Douglas's “Elegy for an 88 Gunner” — voyeuristically mulls over the corpse of an enemy soldier? This article addresses such questions in relation to both the canonical poet Keith Douglas and other, relatively unknown, writers in the Oasis archive.