Ten John Jay College faculty and students attended the Thirteenth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Doha, Qatar, this past April. The eight-day congress was attended by more than 4,000 participants from 149 countries. Nearly 200 meetings covered a wide range of topics, including the rule of law, the smuggling of migrants, wildlife crime, violence against women and children, prison overcrowding, and technological solutions in criminal justice.

First held in 1955, the U.N. congresses on crime prevention and criminal justice have brought together high-level representatives of governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, and criminal justice professionals and scholars, to share experiences and seek solutions to global problems related to crime prevention and criminal justice.

John Jay faculty in attendance included Mangai Natarajan (Criminal Justice), Rosemary Barberet (Sociology) and Beulah Shekhar, Fulbright Nehru Academic Research Fellow.  The student delegation  included Ph.D. students Marc Balcells and Martin Schönteich, graduate students Zoé Bertrand and Kelvin Rodriguez (International Crime & Justice) Nora Aly Shams and Erkut Cakmak (Public Administration), and undergraduate McNair Scholar and Political Science major Faika Kabir. 

To view photos from the congress, click here.

Natarajan and Kabir made presentations on a panel entitled “Reducing Deliberate Acid and Kerosene Attacks on Young Women and Girls in the Indian Subcontinent and Elsewhere.” Natarajan and Shekhar were also presenters on panels that discussed “All Women Police Station — Access to Justice for Victims of Crime” and “Victim Justice System: Enforceable Rights for Victims.”  Shekhar also presented on a panel entitled “Sexual Violence against Women: Strengthening Preventive Steps.”  Barberet presented her comparative research on victims of terrorism at a panel on transnational crime and justice, sponsored by the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. She presented findings from a review of women´s participation in crime prevention and criminal justice on a panel titled “From Research to Practice: Justice, Safety and Inclusion,” which can be seen here.  

Barberet also introduced a video greeting from President Jeremy Travis, filmed exclusively for the Crime Congress, on a panel titled “Educating Succeeding Generations for Justice: The 2030 Road to Dignity.” Schönteich presented on panels on prison overcrowding and “From Law to Practice: Implementing Criminal Justice Standards.”  His report from the Open Society Justice Initiative Presumption of Guilt: The Global Overuse of Pretrial Detention was widely distributed at the Congress. His panel on children deprived of liberty was covered in a Gulf Times article.  

Marc Balcells was an invited speaker on the official program for a workshop on “Strengthening Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Responses to Evolving Forms of Crime such as Cybercrime and Trafficking in Cultural Property, including Lessons Learned and International Cooperation,” organized by the U.S. National Institute of Justice, the Korean Institute of Criminology, the International Scientific and Professional Advisory Council and UNODC.  He presented from his doctoral dissertation research on “Trafficking in Cultural Property and Other Related Offences: Where Should We Go?”

As student rapporteurs, Bertrand, Cakmak, Kabir, Rodriguez and Shams worked throughout the week to cover assigned ancillary sessions and produce session summaries. Their work can be seen here.

Others attending the congress with connections to John Jay included former visiting scholars Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol of Thailand and Slawomir Redo from UNODC, and former visiting professor Matti Joutsen, Director of HEUNI in Helsinki, Finland.