Beyond the Death Penalty

Book excerpt: This book contains a selection of papers that were presented during the multidisciplinary conference "Beyond the Death Penalty: Reflections on Punishment," organized by the Maastricht Center for Human Rights. The event marked the 150th anniversary of the de facto abolition of the death penalty in the Netherlands. The aim of the conference was to reflect on punishment from a variety of angles and to give some food for thought to the contemporary debate on crime and punishment. As the title suggests, the scope of this volume moves beyond the death penalty. After a first cluster of chapters with a strong focus on capital punishment, an intriguing mixture of topics in relation to punishment is presented, including chapters on the populist context of contemporary crime control, reconciliation and rehabilitation, prison life, and efficiency and effectiveness. The book will match the interest of many academics, including legal scholars, criminologists, penologists, legal philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, and historians. (Series: Maastricht Series in Human Rights)