Book Review: Alternative Systems of Crime Control: National, Transnational, and International Dimensions (original) (raw)

2019, THE NEW JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN CRIMINAL LAW

At the heart of Alternative Systems of Crime Control lies what the editors eloquently describe as a 'paradigm shift' in crime control. This shift is manifested in criminal law's turn from repression to prevention, and in the multitude of alternative security regimes that sprang like mushrooms following the realization that traditional criminal law has reached its limits in the face of the modern criminal landscape. This volume brings together a series of eminent scholars and practitioners, in order to shed light on these new mechanisms of crime control. It is divided in four parts: Part 1 provides the reader with a conceptual framework and introduces her to the contributions to follow; Parts 2 and 3 focus on the national and international justice systems, respectively; and Part 4 closes the volume by drawing the reader's attention to a series of special regimes, such as antiterrorism measures. The reader will soon discover that, although the topics dealt with in this collection fit comfortably under the umbrella of alternative crime control, they nonetheless vary significantly. This variety should not be read as a sign that the collection is incoherent. There is a common thread that runs through this book, and that is the issue of whether these mechanisms adequately respect the rule of law, human rights and due process. With that in mind, let us take a closer look at the individual contributions. In the first contribution, which makes up the entirety of Part 1, Sieber takes us on a tour de force of the new crime control regimes employed in today's 'global risk society'. His contribution brings us a step closer to understanding just how numerous-and diverse-these mechanisms are. From preventive criminal law (which extends criminal liability to preparatory acts) to legal regimes that rest entirely outside the realm of criminal law (such as administrative sanctions, United Nations (UN) targeted sanctions, non-conviction-based civil confiscation, the surveillance of financial transactions and travel movements), one gets a taste for just some of today's alternative systems of crime control. And while this smorgasbord of security measures significantly increases the crime-fighting tools that states have at their disposal, the author neatly points out that there is another side to the coin: the drastic loss of civil liberties. Turning to Part 2, Billis and Knust focus our attention on the national level and, in particular, alternative conflict resolution procedures in criminal law-such as discretionary prosecutions and plea bargaining. In the penetrating analysis that follows, they scrutinize those procedures through the lens of social legitimacy and remind us that 'judicial mechanisms that are open and fair (.. .