Violence in the Balkans: Between Myths and Realities in Times of Penal Populism

• In Event: Plenary 1 - Thursday

Abstract

Hardly any other European region is as burdened with violent images and stereotypes as are the Balkans, although compared to the rest of Europe the Balkans appear to be a low-crime region. Rates of intentional homicide victims have been rather stable or even slightly declining throughout the past decade, while not much deviating from the rates found in most other parts of Europe. Nevertheless, the Balkans are commonly perceived as a wild and violence-prone region, facilitating an internal and external discourse about crime and security that fuels penal populism. Coupled with the region’s lack in evidence-based policy approaches, a still developing criminological community and a well-established civil society sector, myths and ideologies dominate over facts and realities. With the plenary an attempt is made to debunk such myths through facts and figures while incentivizing the Balkan as well as the European criminological community to more vigorously engage in science activism aimed at taming growing penal populism.

Author

• Anna-Maria Getoš Kalac, University of Zagreb Faculty of Law