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Social Defence. Uncovering the Transnational Epistemology of the Punitive Age

Objective

The commonly accepted reason for the right to punish is the defence of society, or social defence. However, its meaning in Western criminal justice remains unclear. In an increasingly punitive age, punishments have become harsher, irrespective of the seriousness of the crime. It is therefore necessary to scrutinise the episteme behind punishment. In fact, despite its profound impact on individuals’ lives, the penal system lacks an adequate normative foundation because social defence functions as an implicit paradigm without a clear elaboration. P-AGE’s objective is to analyse the long-term discourse on social defence and its current transnational relevance, with the ultimate goal of understanding how and why punishment came to be perceived as an adequate response to various societal issues. More specifically, P-AGE sheds light on the criminological legal debate on the concept of social defence, a debate that has been largely overlooked in scholarly literature. Social defence was first theorised at the turn of the 20th century within the underexplored field of Positivist Criminology. This concept has persisted until today, due to the post-WWII emergence of the New Social Defence (NSD) movement, an association of criminal law reformers who worked in concert with the United Nations Social Defence Research Institute (UNSDRI), now called the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), in shaping current crime policy programmes. P-AGE investigates this historical setting and development in order to understand what social defence means and to make the implicit paradigm of the punitive age explicit. P-AGE’s methodology employs the epistemic community model to identify and analyse the transnational network of actors and ideas that substantiate social defence. The project blends critical criminology, intellectual legal history, and policy analysis to rewrite the history of punitive reason by foregrounding the key concept of social defence.

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2024-STG

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Host institution

UNIVERSITA CA' FOSCARI VENEZIA
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 499 049,00
Address
DORSODURO 3246
30123 VENEZIA
Italy

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Region
Nord-Est Veneto Venezia
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 499 049,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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