Eighth Annual North South Criminology Conference
The School of Law’s Institute of Criminology hosted the Eighth Annual North South Criminology Conference which was held over two days on 28 June and 29 June. More than a 100 delegates attended the conference, including lawyers, academics, policy makers, civil servants, and voluntary sector professionals.
The overarching theme of the conference was the economy, crime and punishment. This included several sub-themes: crime, punishment and recession; white collar crime; prisons and penal policy; and victims and the criminal justice system.
In all, there were some twenty separate sessions, at which sixty presentations were made. The opening address was given by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Ms. Claire Loftus and the keynote address by the distinguished criminologist Professor Richard Wright of the University of Missouri-St.Louis.
Among the highlights of the conference was the formal launch of Professor Ian O’Donnell’s and Professor Eoin O’ Sullivan’s book on Coercive Confinement in Ireland by High Court judge Mr. Justice Sean Ryan.
In his welcoming remarks the Director of the Institute, Professor Paul O’Connor, referred to a key strength of the annual conference, namely, its capacity to combine the academic with the practical and to embrace those who are not only established experts in their field but also those who are in the foothills of their careers. He drew attention to the growing international dimension to the conference and the exposure of the criminology community in Ireland to expertise and developments from abroad. Referring to the North /South dimension he said that emphasis needed to be placed on this and that the annual conference had an important role to play in promoting and developing the profile of the discipline of criminology throughout the island. Professor O’Connor concluded his welcoming remarks by calling for greater research co-operation among the various institutions, particularly at a time of ongoing cutbacks in budgets and overall reduced resources, and thanked the law school for its support of the conference.
Director of Public Prosecutions, Claire Loftus, gives the opening address at the conference
Among the conference speakers were Judge Peter Charlton, Ms Beata Kozlowska, Dr Inmaculada Ramos Tapia, visiting Professor at the UCD Institute of Criminology, Judge Garrett Sheehan, and Professor Paul O’ Connor, Director of UCD Institute of Criminology
Judge Sean Ryan giving the opening address at the book launch
Dr Eoin O’ Sullivan, Trinity College Dublin, Judge Sean Ryan, and Professor Ian O’ Donnell, UCD Institute of Criminology
Professor Paul O’ Connor, Director of UCD Institute of Criminology, Professor Richard Wright, University of Missouri, St. Louis, and Professor Ian O’ Donnell, UCD Institute of Criminology
