Penal Abolitionism

Clarendon Studies in Criminology aims to provide a forum for outstanding empirical and theoretical work in all aspects of criminology and criminal justice, broadly understood. The Editors welcome submissions from established scholars, as well as excellent PhD work. The series was inaugurated in 1994, with Roger Hood as its first General Editor, following discussions between Oxford University Press and three criminology centres. It is edited under the auspices of these three criminological centres: the Cambridge Institute of Criminology, the Mannheim Centre for Criminology at the London School of Economics, and the Centre for Criminology at the University of Oxford. Each supplies members of the Editorial Board and, in turn, the Series Editor.

Abolitionism is not only a strategy or a set of demands aimed at the reduction (or suppression) of custody, it is also a perspective, a philosophy, and approach. Penal abolitionism challenges conventional definitions of crime and the law, while defying official views of the meanings and effects of punishment. This book examines the origin, philosophy, and achievements of penal abolitionism, collecting and discussing the key arguments and view expressed by its leading proponents: Nils Christie, Louk Hulsman, Thomas Mathiesen, and Herman Bianchi. Ruggiero examines how such views took shape, their philosophical foundations, and the social and political context of abolitionist ideas and perpsectives.

Vincenzo Ruggiero is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Crime and Conflict Research Centre at Middlesex University. His research interests include social theory, urban sociology, comparative criminology, and social movements. His work has been widely published in several languages, and his books include Social Movements: A Reader (2008); Understanding Political Violence (2006) Crime in Literature (2003); Movements in the City (2001); Crime and Markets (2000); The New European Criminology (1998); Organised and Corporate Crime in Europe (1996); European Penal Systems (1995); and Eurodrugs (1995).