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Comparative criminal justice is a subfield of the study of
Criminal justice Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the Rehabilitation (penology), rehabilitation of o ...
that compares
justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...
systems worldwide. Such study can take a descriptive, historical, or political approach.Philip L. Reichel. (2005). ''Comparative Criminal Justice Systems'' (4th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson. It studies the similarities and differences in structure, goals,
punishment Punishment, commonly, is the imposition of an undesirable or unpleasant outcome upon a group or individual, meted out by an authority—in contexts ranging from child discipline to criminal law—as a response and deterrent to a particular acti ...
and emphasis on rights as well as the history and political stature of different systems. It is common to broadly categorize the functions of a criminal justice system into policing, adjudication (i.e.: courts), and corrections, although other categorization schemes exist.Deflem, Mathieu, and Amanda J. Swygart. 2001
“Comparative Criminal Justice.”
Pp. 51-68 in Handbook of Criminal Justice Administration, edited by Toni DuPont-Morales, Michael Hooper, and Judy Schmidt. New York: Marcel Dekker Publishers.
Comparativists study the four different types of
societies A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societi ...
, their methods of enforcement and their different types of punishment such as capital punishment, and imprisonment. Within these societies they study different types of legal tradition and analyze the issues they solve and create. They use their information in order to learn effective ways of enforcing laws, and to identify and solve problems that may arise within a system due to its methods.


Societies

Comparativists in criminal justice study four different kinds of societies: Folk-communal, Urban-commercial, Urban-industrial, and bureaucratic.O'Connor, T. August 16, 2010 Comparative Criminal Justice ''Megalinks in Criminal Justice'' retrieved from http://www.drtomoconnor.com/3040/3040lect01a.htm accessed on July 12, 2011 Folk-communal societies are often seen as primitive and barbaric, they have little specialization among
law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
enforcers, and let many problems go unpunished to avoid over-criminalization however, once tempers “boil over” and the situation becomes a larger issue, harsh and unusual punishment may be administered. Examples are African or Middle Eastern Tribes, or early
puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...
settlements of America. Urban-commercial societies have few written laws and some specialized enforcement for religious or king’s law enforcement. Punishments are inconsistent and usually harsh. Urban-industrial societies enforce laws that prescribe good behavior and give incentives and disincentives for behavior and police are specialized in property crimes such as theft. Finally, bureaucratic societies are today’s modern society. They feature fully developed laws, lawyers, and police forces trained for multiple types of crime. Different “side effects” of these societies include over-criminalization, overcrowding, and even juvenile delinquency due to the extended age of adolescence these societies bring on.


Legal Traditions

Legal traditions play an important role in the development of
international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...
and justice. Comparativists for criminal justice study these traditions with the intent of finding a way to combine the views of different traditions towards a single view that allows for the successful development of international law.Zartner Falstrom, Dana. "The Role of Legal Tradition in the Development of International Law: Conflict or Compromise" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Southern Political Science Association, Hotel Intercontinental, New Orleans, LA, Jan 09, 2008 . 2009-10-27 http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p212496_index.html Many comparativists believe that the more states with similar legal views the more likely it is to be able to create international laws that please all. Reichel (2005) identifies four major legal traditions that each have their own respective body of laws: *
Common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...
is found particularly in countries that are current or former members of the
British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
. * Civil law countries include most of continental Europe and various states in South America and Africa. *
Socialist law Socialist law or Soviet law denotes a general type of legal system which has been (and continues to be) used in socialist and formerly socialist states. It is based on the civil law system, with major modifications and additions from Marxis ...
is essentially civil law with major modifications from Marxist-Leninist ideology. It is currently only used in China and a few other contemporary
Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
states, but has had enormous influence on
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
and the former
USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
. *
Islamic law Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...
is religiously-inspired law used in
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
countries.


Punishment

People who study comparative criminal justice study different forms and use of punishment across societies, including
capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
. Fifty-nine countries retain the death penalty as reported in 2007.Overview of the Death Penalty Worldwide as of 2008. http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/overview.html Comparativists study the different ways in which execution is carried out across the world including hanging, shooting, beheading, injection, electrocution, and even stoning. Comparativists find that in many developing countries such as Iran, Indonesia, Belarus, and many others, that violent methods of execution such as hanging beheading, shooting, and stoning are much more common ways of carrying out the death penalty, and in many cases the only ways. However in western culture as well as developed countries such as the United States less brutal execution such as lethal injection is utilized. Even prison sentences can come harshly. In many countries such as Burma a person can be sentenced to prison for merely disagreeing with the government.Top 10 Longest Prison Sentences in the World. Avery, L. May 2008. accessed on 28 October 2009 at Presumably ridiculous sentences such as multiple life sentences or sentences of hundreds, even thousands of years are meant to prohibit the chance of parole in the future. Although it may seem preposterous, western cultures carry out the same type of sentencing. Even though similar sentences are used across the globe leniency is varied widely between societies. Many governments such as the one mentioned above in Burma provide swift and heavy punishment to assert their roles of power.


See also

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Comparative law Comparative law is the study of differences and similarities between the law (legal systems) of different countries. More specifically, it involves the study of the different legal "systems" (or "families") in existence in the world, including the ...
*
Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
*
Criminal law Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime. It prescribes conduct perceived as threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the property, health, safety, and moral welfare of people inclusive of one's self. Most criminal law i ...
*
Criminal justice Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the Rehabilitation (penology), rehabilitation of o ...
*
Rule of Law Index The World Justice Project (WJP) is an international civil society organization with the stated mission of "working to advance the rule of law around the world". It produces the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index, a quantitative assessment t ...


References

{{Reflist Comparative law Criminal justice