Thomas Mathiesen

Dan Kaminski

Mónica Mendoza

Marcela Gutiérrez

Henrik Tham

Jehanne Hulsman

Cielo Mariño

Douglas Durán

Marzia Dalto

Jorge Caldas

Carol L. Abaunza

Paola Bustos

Karla Enriquez

Andrea Padilla 

Giovanny Paredes

Este libro es el producto de las investigaciones realizadas durante el año 2013, que se socializaron en el Congreso Internacional de Política Criminal y Libertad, en donde se discutieron diferentes posturas hacia el “delito” y las diversas reacciones frente a él. La primera parte del libro la hemos denominado “Hacia la desprisionalizacion”, en ella se encontrará: una crítica a la penalidad y al castigo, elementos de una racionalidad neoliberal, y a los sujetos que se comportan como empresarios; una confrontación de lo normativo con la realidad de la justicia penal y penitenciaria, mostrando el incumplimiento de las funciones declaradas de la pena; la búsqueda de verdaderas alternativas que garanticen los derechos humanos de todos los actores de un conflicto social; una exposición a la estrecha relación entre desigualdad y prisionalización; y la complejidad del sistema penal y sus imaginarios sociales. La segunda parte del libro la hemos denominado “Prisión y sociedad”, para explicar las vivencias de sujetos de especial protección que son sometidos a un control punitivo excesivo y deshumanizante. En ella se encontrará: una propuesta de una justicia juvenil restaurativa fundamentada en el principio de excepcionalidad y en la alternatividad: desjudicialización y desinstitucionalización de las sanciones; los avances normativos de la justicia penal juvenil, en contraste con las detenciones y muertes de jóvenes privados de la libertad; la riqueza del derecho indígena y sus lecciones aprendidas para la resolución de los conflictos; el estigma social frente al adulto mayor en el mundo extramuros e intramuros; y la incidencia de los medios de comunicación en una política criminal coyuntural, reactiva y punitiva.

Política criminal y libertad

Prison On Trial is the classic critique of prisons and imprisonment: a book for everyone's shelf. For anyone seeking to understand the modern penchant for locking-up ever more people, it distils the arguments for and against incarceration in a readable, accessible and authoritative way - gaining in status each time prison populations increase across large parts of the world.

Prison on Trial

Intended for those people who are interested in democratic processes particularly in relation to criminology, sociology or the law. This book features the theme that there exist silent, imperceptible methods and processes of silencing opposition which are structural, which do not have clear-cut limits but are subtly unbounded.

Essays on the Creation of Acquiescence in Modern Society

Silently Silenced

This is a sociological study of a Norwegian penal institution. The author spent two years in the institution, observing and interviewing inmates and staff, the target being to learn the extent to which American prisons fit with prison life in a different culture. He gives a fascinating answer to the question: Norwegian prisons were, at the time of the study, miles away from their American counterparts. The conflicts between prison officers and inmates were certainly there, but they took a very different form. Rather than engaging in deviant practices and norms, emphasising more or less solidary opposition against the staff, the Norwegian prisoners criticised the staff and the prison fiercely on the basis of their own norms; rather than engaging in deviance, they turned the common practises and norms of Norwegian society against the staff, engaging in a kind of moral surveillance of those in power. He coined the phrase of "censoriousness" to this approach from the "bottom" of the prison. Mathiesen spells out the major causes of this different approach, from characteristics of this particular prison to broader social forces.

A Sociological Study of a Norwegian Correctional Institution

The Defences of the Weak (Routledge Revivals)

Originally published in 1974 and the recipient of the Denis Carroll Book Prize at the World Congress of the International Criminology Society in 1978, Thomas Mathiesen’s The Politics of Abolition is a landmark text in critical criminology. In its examination of Scandinavian penal policy and call for the abolition of prisons, this book was enormously influential across Europe and beyond among criminologists, sociologists and legal scholars, as well as advocates of prisoners’ rights. Forty years on and in the context of mass incarceration in many parts of the world, this book remains relevant to a new generation of penal scholars. This new edition includes a new introduction from the author, as well as an afterword that collects contributions from leading criminologists and inmates from Germany, England, Norway and the United States to reflect on the development and current state of the academic literature on penal abolition. This book will be suitable for academics and students of criminology and sociology, as well as those studying political science. It will also be of great interest to those who read the original book and are looking for new insights into an issue that is still as important and topical today as it was forty years ago.

The Politics of Abolition Revisited

Tracking the Surveillance Monster... Thomas Mathiesen describes how the major databases of Europe have become interlinked and accessible not just to participating countries but diverse organizations and third States; meaning that, largely unchallenged, a 'Surveillance Monster' now threatens rights, freedoms, democracy and the Rule of Law. As information is logged on citizens' every move, data flows across borders via systems soon to be under central, global or even non-State control. Secret plans are hatched behind closed doors and 'systems functionaries' become defensive of their own roles. Goals expand and entire processes are shrouded in mystery. Alongside the integration of automated systems sits a weakening of State ties as Prum, Schengen, Verizon, Prism and similar ventures lead to a lack of transparency, restraint or effective if any Parliamentary scrutiny. As Mathiesen points out in this penetrating account, the intention may have been fighting terrorism or organized crime, but the means have become disproportionate, unaccountable, over-expensive and lacking the verifiable results which ordinary vigilance, alertness and sound intelligence in communities should inherently provide. 'Brings into the light the hidden effects of [surveillance and warns] of the need for vigilance': Tony Bunyan, Director, Statewatch. 'A timely and highly troubling analysis [which] reinforces alarm regarding a panoptical globe': Andrew Rutherford.

The Rise of Surveillance Systems in Europe

Towards a Surveillant Society

Thomas Mathiesen

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