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Overuse in the Criminal Justice System in Greece
- from PART III - NATIONAL REPORTS 3ÈME PARTIE. RAPPORTS NATIONAUX
- Edited by Piet Hein van Kempen, Manon Jendly
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- Book:
- Overuse in the Criminal Justice System
- Published by:
- Intersentia
- Published online:
- 26 June 2019
- Print publication:
- 14 May 2019, pp 363-390
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- Chapter
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
Overuse of criminal justice is a general but not significant characteristic of the Greek justice system as a whole. Looking at the analysis and the trend to carry criminal justice too far, we can see the picture is complicated. Overcriminalization is related to overregulation, which mainly pertains to the country's EU and international commitments.
The overuse of prosecution is a cause and effect of practical difficulties, vague legislation, the reluctance of prosecutors and inadequate support for them to use the few alternatives foreseen by law.
As for the (over)use of imprisonment we have to stress that during the last three decades a decreasing trend of those convicted have been sentenced to imprisonment, and from these sentences a small part cannot be paid off. Prison overcrowding is a result of longer sentences served on convicts due to the severity of their crimes, higher pre-trial detention rates due to the overload of cases to be judged and a higher number of foreigners for whom their unstable or illegal residence statuses hinders courts from granting an early conditional release or avoiding detention.
During the last 30 years, Greek governments without exception focused primarily on the prison situation and they have tried hopelessly to control prison overcrowding with successive changes in legislation that have proven ineffective in the long run. Curiously, they continue to insist on them, while criminal justice bureaucrats, law enforcement officials and academics have also proven unable to make sound suggestions and form strategic plans for the criminal justice system as a whole.
What is not taken into account is that these policies are financed by the taxpaying Greek citizens. These citizens also pay with their safety and the consequences of crime. One of these consequences is providing funds and capital for an ever-growing prison system, which sometimes violates human rights not because of choice, but because of its inability to deal with difficult situations or simply reacting to pressing conditions. In addition, delayed court dates make citizens unjustly suffer throughout their use of the criminal justice system, while the swelling legislation undermines security and rule of law.
Women in prison in Greece
- from Part III - National Reports: 3ÈME Partie Rapports Nationaux
- Edited by Piet Hein van Kempen, Maartje Krabbe
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- Book:
- Women in Prison
- Published by:
- Intersentia
- Published online:
- 25 September 2018
- Print publication:
- 20 March 2017, pp 417-478
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- Chapter
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
In Greece the first research on prisons was carried out in the late 1970s by Elias Daskalakis and associates on six male correctional facilities, and in 1986 on female correctional facilities by the Greek-American Jennifer Panagopoulos, whose PhD study on the female prison of Korydallos was published in English. Primary research on corrections is hard to carry out and requires very active participation by the authorities and the prisoners. Given the unwillingness of the Ministry of Justice to play a role in any kind of empirical study, in particular before 1990, the reluctance of the prison staff, a lack of cooperation and mutual support among academic research teams, along with the poor economic resources, the dearth of research in this field is understandable.
Only in the 1990s did research become more systematic, but the area continues to be unexplored, and the prison situation now is much more complicated and difficult than before (overcrowding, security, many foreigners with dissimilar social, cultural and criminal backgrounds, etc.). Apart from the aforementioned practical, financial, and bureaucratic attitudes toward social research, the low criminality of women has contributed to the limited interest in it. To my knowledge the following primary studies have been carried out on imprisoned women: in 1994-95 by Thanopoulou, Fronimou and Tsilimingaki (1997) for to-be-released and released women; in 1995 by Courakis, Milioni and associates; in 1994-95 by Panoussis and associates (2003); in 2003-04 by Karydis and associates (2005) on women who had committed homicide and were serving their sentence in prison or were on remand; in 2004 by Pitsela and associates (2010) about prison law enforcement in Greece; and in 2006 by Mitrossyli and Fronimou, about the marital and social profile. However, there are some publications that either present various theoretical concepts for the general explanation of female criminality, or they also use statistical data, including such from Greece, for the same reason.
The gender issue attracted academic and political interest at the end of 1990s with the infiow of immigrants from the former communist countries, in relation to prostitutes as victims of trafficking, and afterwards with the European and international discussion of domestic violence, child abuse and equality issues. Both resulted in some legal and empirical studies, mostly PhD dissertations and MA research. There are also a few studies concerning the presentation of women in the media and of female crime.