Towards a Human Rights Centred Criminology

Human rights undertakings by governments seldom translate seamlessly into human rights compliance. In the worst-case scenario, governments may have little or no intention of upholding human rights standards to which they have publicly committed and can use their ratification of international instruments and domestic implementation as a veneer to obscure or legitimise continuing abuses. Even in the best-case scenario, local implementation of international human rights agreements may be patchy, overlook the needs of diverse population groups or give rise to unforeseen consequences. In this opening chapter, the editors set out the variety of ways in which applied, theoretically informed criminological research can help to identify systemic human rights abuses and advance a critical human rights agenda and introduce readers to the critiques and strategies set out in the substantive chapters.