Routledge Legitimacy and Trust in Criminal Law, Policy and Justice: Norms, Procedures, Outcomes

Whereas previous studies of legitimacy and trust have mostly dealt with procedural justice and the police, this book focuses on other crucial understudied aspects of legitimacy within criminal law, policy and criminal justice. The chapters expand and develop current criminological, legal and socio-legal research by addressing conceptions of legitimacy linked to criminal law norms, criminalisation and sanctioning; by examining EU legal and policy aspects of the phenomenon; and by exploring some specific court-related issues of legitimacy and trust, hitherto neglected. With contributions from across the EU, this interdisciplinary collection presents a valuable discussion on the importance of trust in legal institutions of modern democracies and suggests ideas for future research in this area to challenge ways of thinking about legitimacy. Review ’Recent world events have been viewed as indicative of a "crisis" in legitimacy, raising questions about trust in nation states, the legitimacy of legal institutions and the law. This edited collection makes a significant contribution to these contemporary debates by reflecting upon legitimacy, law and criminal justice within the EU.’ Margaret Malloch, University of Stirling, UK ’This book is an important contribution to the study of legitimacy and trust in criminal justice. It offers a rich discussion of various, descriptive as well as normative, aspects of legitimacy of criminal law, including European criminal law, which is particularly needed in light of this newly emerging field of law.’ Claes Lernestedt, Uppsala University, Sweden About the Author Nina PerÅ¡ak is a research professor in the field of Criminology and Sociology of Law, Faculty of Law, University of Ghent. Her research interests lie in the area of criminal law, criminology, criminal legal philosophy, victimology, sociology of law and social psychology.