ABSTRACT
A number of current developments in criminal justice are as depressing as they are obvious. Prison rates worldwide are increasing steadily, despite accumulating evidence that imprisonment for the most part does more harm than good. Through legal developments that bring sexual violence within the concept of genocide, and also the broadening of individual and command responsibility, international criminal justice seems to be more in tune with our knowledge of how such events occur. There is now a rapidly growing area of comparative genocide. In relation to the factors underlying prison rates, impressive work has taken place in the last decade. Finally, globalisation, neoliberalisation and state crime are more in view than before. Local solutions, in particular in the realm of cannabis, may be picked up in other local areas in a way that simply bypasses the state. In this way, pluralisation may account for both an increased level of similarity as well as difference.
