Popular punitiveness? Punishment and attitudes to law in post-Soviet Georgia

Slade, G. and Kupatadze, A. (2017) Popular punitiveness? Punishment and attitudes to law in post-Soviet Georgia. Europe-Asia Studies, 69(6), pp. 879-896. (doi: 10.1080/09668136.2017.1357165)

Abstract

Georgia is the only country in the post-Soviet region where incarceration rates significantly grew in the 2000s. Then in 2013, the prison population was halved through a mass amnesty. Did this punitiveness and its sudden relaxation after 2012 impact attitudes to the law? We find that these attitudes remained negative regardless of levels of punitiveness. Furthermore, the outcomes of sentencing may be less important than procedures leading to sentencing. Procedural justice during both punitiveness and liberalisation was not assured. This may explain the persistence of negative attitudes to law. The Georgian case shows that politically-driven punitive turns or mass amnesties are unlikely to solve the problem of legal nihilism in the region.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Slade, Dr Gavin
• Authors: Slade, G., and Kupatadze, A.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Central and East European Studies
• Journal Name: Europe-Asia Studies
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis (Routledge)
• ISSN: 0966-8136
• ISSN (Online): 1465-3427
• Published Online: 31 August 2017
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2017 University of Glasgow
• First Published: First published in Europe-Asia Studies 69(6): 879-896
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy