RT Article
T1 Does Remorse Count? ICTY Convicts’ Reflections on Their Crimes in Early Release Decisions
JF International criminal justice review
VO 28
IS 4
SP 349
OP 371
A1 Holá, Barbora 1980-
A2 Constantini, Francesca
A2 Korhonnen, Armi
A2 Wijk, Joris van 1977-
LA English
YR 2018
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1751100952
AB Based on all publicly available International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) early release decisions as of May 31, 2017, this explorative article empirically analyzes, systematizes, and evaluates how ICTY convicts reflected on their past crimes during early release proceedings and how this affected decision-making of the ICTY President regarding their level of rehabilitation and early release. For this purpose, we developed an analytical framework distinguishing between acknowledgement of responsibility and remorse, as two forms of reflection on the past crimes, and their general and personal dimensions. Our analysis demonstrates that of all 53 individuals early released at the ICTY, 36% were considered sufficiently rehabilitated and a part of their sentence pardoned without any information regarding their outlook on the crimes they had been convicted of. Only 19% of the early released prisoners acknowledged their personal responsibility and expressed remorse for the crimes they committed. Others denied, only partially accepted responsibility and/or showed remorse on a general level, which, however, did not bar their early release. The article argues that this haphazard practice brings into question the ICTY legacy with respect to its goal of offender rehabilitation and its potential effects on reconciliation in the Former Yugoslavia.
K1 ICTY
K1 acknowledgement of responsibility
K1 Early Release
K1 Rehabilitation
K1 Remorse
DO 10.1177/1057567718766228