Why Compare Criminal Justice?

Abstract

Abstract Comparative studies of criminal justice seek to describe, explain, interpret, and evaluate differences in the way offensive conduct is defined and sanctioned. We may, for example, be interested in differences in what is and is not forbidden, in the justifications of punishment or regulation, in measures used to deal with deviant conduct, in who is involved in the process (e.g,, lay people or private business), or in how crime and criminal justice are reported by the media. It is easy enough to find striking examples of contrasts in criminal justice. The United States is still sending people to their death in the electric chair but, in 2008, a fairground owner in Italy was convicted of a crime against public decency for exhibiting a pretend electric chair. But what is less clear is how these could contribute to make up a coherent subject-matter. What is the comparative analysis of criminal justice (good) for? This chapter first describes some of the theoretical and policy goals of this subject and then goes on to discuss how far this sort of work can overcome the risks of ethnocentrism and relativism.

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