The International Criminal Court and Global Social Control ─ Global Social Control in Late Modernity

The International Criminal Court was established in 2002 to prosecute War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity and Genocide. At its genesis the ICC was expected to help prevent atrocities from arising or escalating by ending the impunity of leaders and administering punishment for the commission of international crimes. More than a decade later, the ICC’s ability to achieve these broad aims has been questioned as the ICC has concluded only two of twenty cases and has reached only one guilty verdict. Some of the world’s major powers, including the USA, Russia and China are not members of the ICC. These issues underscore a gap between the ideals of prevention and deterrence and the reality of the ICC’s functioning – disappointing victims, creating skepticism over the role of the Court, and undermining the legitimacy and power of the ICC.

This book explores the gaps, schisms and contradictions that are increasingly defining the International Criminal Court, moving beyond existing legal, international relations and political accounts of the ICC to analyze the Court from a criminological standpoint. This analysis involves viewing the ICC as a criminal justice institution and contextualizing the aims and functions of the ICC within existing understandings of the role of crime and criminalization in an increasingly global world.The International Criminal Court and Global Social Control will be of interest to academics, researchers, and advanced practitioners in international law, international relations, criminology, and political science. It will also be of use in upper-level undergraduate and postgraduate courses related to international criminal justice and globalization.

Nerida Chazal is a Research Fellow in Criminology at Flinders University, Australia. Her research examines the aims and functioning of international criminal justice in a complex and increasingly global world. Nerida has worked as a Senior Research and Evaluation Officer for the Office of Crime Statistics and Research in South Australia, and she is co-editor (with W. De Lint and M. Marmo) ofCriminal Justice in International Society (Routledge, 2014).