International Criminal Court

(noun)

The International Criminal Court (commonly referred to as the ICC or ICCt) is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression (although it cannot, until at least 2017, exercise jurisdiction over the crime of aggression).

Related Terms

Examples of International Criminal Court in the following topics:

  • Global Crime

    • In order to achieve their goals, these criminal groups utilize systematic violence and corruption.
    • Some espouse that all organized crime operates at an international level, though there is currently no international court capable of trying offences resulting from such activities (for example, the International Criminal Court's remit extends only to dealing with people accused of offences against humanity, such as genocide ).
    • This has led to the rise of global criminal organizations such as Mara Salvatrucha and the 18th Street gang.
    • In doing so, it has been argued, national and international criminal groups threaten the security of all nations.
    • While the International Criminal Court can prosecute individuals for crimes against humanity, it has no jurisdiction over other global crimes.

  • Rape

    • It was only in middle of the 16th century that European courts began to recognize a minimum age of consent, though this figure was typically set around six or seven years.
    • Leaders of the feminist movement started some of the first rape crisis centers, which not only provided basic services to victims, but also advanced the idea of rape as a criminal act with a victim who was not to be blamed.
    • International law is changing to recognize rape as a weapon of war.
    • The Rome Statute included rape in its definition of a crime against humanity, a definition first put into practice in the mid-1990s by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
    • In 1998, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda found that systematic rape was a crime against humanity.

  • Crime and Criminal Justice

    • Next, the courts carry out adjudication or the legal processing of offenders.
    • The courts serve as the venue where disputes are settled and justice is administered.
    • If found guilty by the court, offenders are then turned over to correctional authorities.
    • The commission advocated a "systems" approach to criminal justice, with improved coordination among law enforcement, courts, and correctional agencies.
    • The criminal justice system includes adjudication, wherein the courts legally process suspects to determine their guilt or innocence and sentencing.

  • Police

    • In the United States, concern over the power of the police has increasingly weighed upon law enforcement agencies, courts, and legislatures at every level of government since the 1960s.
    • In the United States, concern over such issues has increasingly weighed upon law enforcement agencies, courts, and legislatures at every level of government since the 1960s.
    • This includes a variety of practices, but cross-border police cooperation, criminal intelligence exchange between police agencies working in different nation-states, and police development-aid to weak, failed, or failing states are the three types that have received the most scholarly attention.
    • The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO), widely known as INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation.
    • It was established as the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC) in 1923 and adopted its telegraphic address as its common name in 1956.

  • Courts

    • A court is a form of tribunal, often a governmental institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties, and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law.
    • The place where a court sits is known as a venue.
    • The practical authority given to the court is known as its jurisdiction, or the court's power to decide certain kinds of questions or petitions.
    • A defendant is any party required to answer a plaintiff's complaint in a civil lawsuit, or any party that has been formally charged or accused of violating a criminal statute.
    • In most jurisdictions, the court system is divided into at least three levels: the trial court, which initially hears cases and reviews evidence and testimony to determine the facts of the case; at least one intermediate appellate court that hears an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal; and a supreme court, which primarily reviews the decisions of the intermediate courts.

  • Class, Crime, and the Criminal Justice System

    • Class structure within the criminal justice system helps determine the types of crimes individuals will commit.
    • They discussed the fact that inner city kids tended to be more involved in a criminal lifestyle than kids who lived in the suburbs.
    • Criminal justice is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts.
    • Within the criminal justice system, there are three basic elements that constitute it: the police, the courts, and punishment.
    • In practice, courts resolve most cases through a plea bargain.

  • Crime Statistics

    • Crime statistics are usually data collected by governments for the reporting of incidents of criminal activity.
    • Presented below are statistics on criminal activity and the criminal justice system for both the U.S. and selected nations around the world (for comparisons).
    • A relatively recent innovation in criminal justice that has been shown to moderately reduce recidivism rates is "drug courts," or alternative sentencing systems that mandate treatment and therapy rather than jail time for drug offenses.
    • Drug courts appear to reduce recidivism by somewhere between 8 and 10 percent.
    • That drug courts reduce recidivism is not all that surprising consider there is an actual intent to modify behavior rather than simply removing individuals from society.

  • The Death Penality

    • Execution of criminals and political opponents has been used by nearly all societies–both to punish crime and to suppress political dissent.
    • In militaries around the world courts, martial have imposed death sentences for offenses, such as cowardice, desertion, insubordination, and mutiny.
    • In addition, opponents of the death penalty use the argument that executing a criminal costs more than life imprisonment does.
    • Many states have found it cheaper to sentence criminals to life in prison than to go through the time-consuming and bureaucratic process of executing a convicted criminal.

  • Juvenile Crime

    • Most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centers and courts.
    • Delinquency: crimes committed by minors that are dealt with by the juvenile courts and justice system;
    • Status offenses: offenses which are only classified as such because one is a minor, such as truancy, also dealt with by the juvenile courts.
    • Delinquency prevention is the broad term for all efforts aimed at preventing youth from becoming involved in criminal or other antisocial activity.

  • The Movement for Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights

    • The Stonewall Riots are often cited as the first major protest by LGBT people against the criminalization of homosexuality.
    • It was not until 2003 that the Supreme Court decided that states could not criminalize homosexuality.
    • Court cases challenging the legality of these bans are currently underway, as are legal challenges to the constitutionality of DOMA.
    • This map depicts when anti-sodomy laws that criminalized non-heterosexual sex were overturned by state in the United States.