NCJ Number
243064
Date Published
2013
Length
280 pages
Annotation
Iran's forms of criminal punishment, legal institutions, and criminal justice policy following the revolution of 1979 are compared with the development of Germany's criminal justice system from the 18th century into the early 21st century.
Abstract
The book's aim is to portray the cultural, political, and historical causes of the penal contrasts in these two countries. The first chapter reviews the historical roots of modern penal institutions, practices, and discourses in Iran from the second half of the 19th century until the Islamic Revolution. It then assesses penal development in Germany from the 18th century into the early 21st century. This culminates in a discussion of the contrasting features of penal modernization in Iran and Germany. The second chapter compares the sentencing options, institutions, and discourses in modern Iran and Germany. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the rule of law and the rule of political prudence in the two legal systems. The third chapter first presents the results of a 2008 survey that solicited the attitudes of societal elites in Iran (academics, students, lawyers, judges, students of religious seminaries (Tulab) in Qom, and police officers) toward sentencing options, human rights, and Shari'a (Islamic law). The effect of demographic variables on these attitudes is then examined. The final chapter draws general conclusions from the study and explains the variations in attitudes through a multivariate analysis of the initial data. It concludes with a discussion of penal reform and the challenges it currently faces in Iran. 14 tables, 27 figures, 4 charts, 2 graphs, and a 250-item bibliography