Overview
Grave violations of human rights have become increasingly criminalized in recent decades. Chances that perpetrators will be charged in criminal courts, including international criminal courts, have grown. These developments culminated in the creation of the first permanent international criminal court, the International Criminal Court in 2002. This entry first provides a summary of the history of criminal justice intervention against perpetrators of human rights crimes. A brief discussion follows concerning the societal conditions that advanced this trend. A further section examines challenges of criminal justice intervention against human rights violators and issues of debate: the building of functioning international criminal courts, their institutional incentives and constraints, the scope of their jurisdiction, the question of individual versus collective...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Recommended Reading and References
Alexander J et al (2004) Cultural trauma and collective identity. University of California Press, Berkeley
Bass GJ (2000) Stay the hand of vengeance: the politics of war crimes tribunals. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Hagan J (2003) Justice in the Balkans. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Hagan J, Levi R (2007) Justiciability as field effect: when sociology meets human rights. Sociol Forum 22(3):372–84
Hayner PB (2001) Unspeakable truths: confronting state terror and atrocities. Routledge, New York
Heberer P, Matthäus J (eds) (2008) Atrocities on trial. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln
Keck ME, Sikkink K (1998) Activists without borders. Cornell, Ithaca
Landsman S (2005) Crimes of the holocaust: the law confronts hard cases. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia
Meierhenrich J (2006) Conspiracy in international law. Annu Rev Law Soc Sci 2:341–57
Meyerstein A (2007) Between law and culture: Rwanda’s Gacaca and postcolonial legality. Law & Social Inquiry 32(2):467–508
Minow M (1998) Between vengeance and forgiveness: facing history after genocide and mass violence. Beacon, Boston
Osiel MJ (1997) Mass atrocities, collective memory, and the law. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick
Roht-Arriaza N (2005) The Pinochet effect: transnational justice in the age of human rights. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia
Savelsberg JJ (2010) Crime and human rights: criminology of genocide and atrocities. Sage, London
Savelsberg JJ, King RD (2011) American memories: atrocities and the law. Russell Sage, New York
Schabas WA (2007) An introduction to the international criminal court. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Sikkink K (2011) The justice cascade: how human rights prosecutions change world politics. Norton, New York
Snyder J, Vinjamuri L (2003/2004) Trials and errors: principle and pragmatism in strategies of international justice. Int Security 28:5–44
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Savelsberg, J.J. (2014). Human Rights Violations in Criminal Court. In: Bruinsma, G., Weisburd, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_392
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_392
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5689-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5690-2
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law