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Western European Penal Systems
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Western European Penal Systems
A Critical Anatomy

Edited by:

Other Titles in:
Corrections/Penology | Criminology

256 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
"Strangely, very little is known about the changing nature of imprisonment throughout Western Europe and the different types of prison regimes, which operate in these countries. In a very welcome overview of those developments, Vincenzo Ruggiero, Mick Ryan and Joe Smith have brought together a number of European experts who provide an informed and accessible account of current developments." --Roger Matthews, Criminal Justice Matters "Full of provocative questions and vigorous argument: just right for stirring up sharper debate." --The Economist Review The first detailed study of a range of Western European penal systems, this volume offers a much-needed description of how prison systems and alternatives to custody are organized in eight different countries. Western European Penal Systems highlights several common trends in policy and strategy across Europe and also demonstrates that each of the eight countries has to an important extent its own culture of punishment that is constantly being reinterpreted and reworked. Each probing chapter provides readers with a critical anatomy and empirical overview of the full range of penal sanctions used as well as analysis of how these sanctions are implemented. Examining new and recent data, the contributors consider the mix of sentences, the nature of offenses, and the class, gender, and racial composition of the penal population. This unique text offers students and researchers in criminology as well as professionals in the administration of justice an enlightening comparative study of penal systems.
Joe Sim, Vincenzo Ruggiero and Mick Ryan
Punishment in Europe
Perceptions and Commonalities

 
Ren[ac]e van Swaaningen and Gerard de Jonge
The Dutch Prison System and Penal Policy in the 1990s
From Humanitarian Paternalism to Penal Business Management

 
Vincenzo Ruggiero
Flexibility and Intermittent Emergency in the Italian Penal System
Ermanno Gallo
The Penal System in France
From Correctionalism to Managerialism

 
Mick Ryan and Joe Sim
The Penal System in England and Wales
Round Up the Usual Suspects

 
Claudius Messner and Vincenzo Ruggiero
Germany
The Penal System between Past and Future

 
Roberto Bergalli
The Spanish Attempt to Build a Democratic Criminal Justice System
Karen Leander
The Normalization of Swedish Prisons
Mike Tomlinson
Imprisoned Ireland

`Strangely, very little is known about the changing nature of imprisonment throughout Western Europe and the different types of prison regimes which operate in these countries. In a very welcome overview of those developments, Vincenzo Ruggiero, Mick Ryan and Joe Sim have brought together a number of European experts who provide an informed and accessible account of current developments. In the opening chapter the editors provide a useful overview of recent developments.... This collection of articles provides a useful overview of changing penal philosophies and penal practices in a number of countries in Western Europe and Scandinavia and although there is no uniformity in the changes which are identified by the respective authors there are some points of overlap and convergence. These include a general shift towards more punitive penal policies, a growing emphasis upon drug related crimes, the growing percentage of foreign prisoners in most European prisons, the changing role of alternatives to custody and the changing composition of the prison populations. In sum, this book raises the question of the role of imprisonment in Western Europe and elsewhere as we approach the 21st century' - Criminal Justice Matters

`A valuable and entertaining addition to the genre' - LCCJ Newsletter

'Offers those concerned with the comparative study of crime and justice in Europe an excellent example of how such comparison might be made.... Contributors have assembled much new and previously unpublished data and, for that reason alone, the book constitutes a good buy.... Western European Penal Systems marks a major advance in the comparative European study of crime and justice. It is packed with information, the analysis is sharp and intelligent, it holds many surprises, it is contentious and, most important for this reviewer, it offers a new and original perspective on contemporary developments in the penal system in the UK' - Critical Social Policy

'Western European Penal Systems will introduce the reader to a critical evaluation of the political forces which influence the development of penal policy' - Cambridge Review of International Affairs

Vincenzo Ruggiero

Mick Ryan

Joe Sim