CYIL 2012

“SUCCEEDING GENERATIONS“ IN THE UNITED NATIONS CHARTER… (The Riyadh Guidelines)” 6 emphasized in paragraph 15 the socialization function of family in the prevention of delinquency: “ Special attention should be given to children of families affected by problems brought about by rapid and uneven economic, social and cultural change, in particular the children of indigenous, migrant and refugee families. As such changes may disrupt the social capacity of the family to secure the traditional rearing and nurturing of children, often as a result of role and culture conflict, innovative and socially constructive modalities, for the socialization of children have to be designed”. Ten years later, in the “Guidelines for the prevention of urban crime”, the Economic and Social Council explicitly recommended Member States to “ Consider the relevance to the crime prevention action plan of such factors as…relationships in the family, between generations or between social groups etc ”. 7 In sum, the United Nations had paid in its legal instruments rather little rigorous attention to the meaning of “succeeding generations,” let alone to its hereditary (biological/social) meaning, including the intergenerational transmission of crime and violence between grandparents, parents and children – the core problem addressed in this essay. As of its writing, the balance of the UN’s mandate and functions involving “prevention” and “control” remains negative, not only regarding that hereditary meaning of “succeeding generations,” but also demographically and politically – despite the proclamation of the United Nations Secretary-General that “ prevention is the first imperative of justice ”. 8 Notwithstanding the above imbalance, academic and United Nations criminology studies have accumulated and reviewed evidence for diagnosing and countering crime of succeeding generations. The goal of this essay is to briefly show that they both inform the United Nations Criminal Justice Studies. 9 Below is a contribution to them, which starts with an account of how those generations may be seen in the light of criminology. 2. Passing criminal traditions The biological findings The biological findings on the (anti)criminal traditions of families started emerging in the XIXth century. Two studies of families with the fictitious names of Jukes and Kallikak presented evidence that a genetic defect passed on to offspring could condemn them to lives of 6 General Assembly resolution 45/112, United Nations Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency (The Riyadh Guidelines), 14 December 1990. 7 ECOSOC resolution 1995/9, Annex, 24 July 1995. 8 S/2004/616, Rule of Law and Transitional Justice in Conflict and Post-Conflict Societies , Report of the Secretary-General to the Security Council, 3 August 2004, para. 4. 9 S. Redo, The United Nations and criminology, in: C. J. Smith, S. X. Zhang, R. Barberet, Routledge Handbook of International Criminology , Routledge, London, 2010, pp. 125-133.

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