ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
Eugene Trivizas was born in Athens, Greece. He
received his LL.B degree at Athens University in 1969 In 1972 passed
the Athens Bar examinations and in the same year he was called as a
barrister to the Athens Bar. In 1973 he received a B.Sc. degree in
Politics and Economics from the University of Athens and the following
year he received an LL.M degree in Comparative Criminal Law and
Procedure from the University of London (University College) and a
diploma in Shipping Law from the City of London Polytechnic. In 1977
he was made a Fellow of the Salzburg seminar in American studies and
in 1979 he was awarded his Ph.D. degree in Criminology from the
University of London (London School of Economics and Political
Science, Law Department)
TEACHING
Since 1978 Dr. Trivizas he have been the
responsible for the teaching of criminology in the Department of
Sociology at the University of Reading. He is currently teaching a
course on crime and society and he has been awarded the titles of
director of criminal justice studies and senior research fellow.
During the past years Dr. Trivizas taught part of
the course, 'History of Sociological Theory' at the same University.
He also taught criminology on a part-time basis at the Polytechnic of
Central London and in the London School of Economics (Law Department
1983-4 ) Since 1992 he is a visiting professor at the Pantion
University of Greece.
At the postgraduate level, he taught part of the MA
course, 'Morals, Law and Elites in Contemporary Society', an option in
the University of Reading MA course in Sociology and the course
'Comparative Criminology' in the Graduate School of European and
International Studies and in the MA degree in Criminal Justice. Since
1982, he has been supervising candidates for the degree of PhD and
acting as one of the internal examiners for PhD students.
RESEARCH
Dr. Trivizas was one of the first academics to
complete a systematic study of crowd disorders in England and their
implications for the British system of criminal justice. He studied
(a) the crowd participants and their interaction with the Police and
(b) the attitude of the courts to them. This involved studying the
problems deriving from football crowds, political demonstrations and
pop festivals in the Metropolitan Police Area. In order to undertake
the above research I was attached to the Metropolitan Police
Department (New Scotland Yard) for two years and spent a considerable
amount of time in the Statistics Branch (Z10) and the Operations
Branch (A8) at Scotland Yard in the Police Records Office at Peel
House and in eight London Police stations. In the course of my
research I was given complete access to the records of police and
courts.
The Home Office and Scotland Yard gave him
permission to participate in various types of police activities. I was
able to accompany police officers in their crowd control and
observation duties and to attend the briefing of police officers and
the interviewing of offenders in the police stations.
He used his findings to make a comparative analysis
of political and football crowd disorders in London - the first
comparative empirical study in this field. He followed up this study
of police and crowd behaviour with a detailed investigation of the
ways in which offenders arrested as a result of various forms of crowd
disorder were prosecuted and sentenced by the courts. In particular he
was able to demonstrate the high degree of procecutorial discretion
available to the police as a result of the existence of the many
overlapping statute and common law offences, and to show how this
affects police policy with regard to prosecuting. He was further able
to show that similar events occurring in a variety of different types
of crowd disorder were regarded very differently by the courts and
were the subject of major discrepancies in sentencing.
He has also published extensively on many aspects of criminology,
the sociology of deviance, the human right implications of the
electronic monitoring of offenders and has written about censorship on
a comparative basis.
His last
study, published in the British Journal of criminology deals with on
of the most controversial issues in modern criminal justice policy,
that of general deterrence.
The underlying assumption of general deterrence
theory and associated policy, is that individuals calculate the risk
involved and refrain from criminal activity, because of the fear of
punishment. Opponents of general deterrence, on the other hand,
dispute the thesis that the potential criminals calculate risks in
rational manner and that the perception of the danger that they will
be apprehended and punished for their misbehaviour, has any
significant deterrent effect.
The issue of the deterrence is notoriously
difficult to research, because of the methodological and ethical
problems involved Rarely researchers are presented with the
opportunity to find the right circumstances to conduct research on
this issue.. Dr. Trivizas study takes advantage of such an
opportunity: The incidents of terrorist bombs in railway stations and
the publicity. His hypothesis was that in periods immediately
following publicised terrorist incidents in railway stations, the
number of cases of stolen luggage, will be lower compered to the
number of cases of stolen luggage in other periods preceding and
following such incidents. This hypothesis was based on the assumption
that potential thieves will be less likely to commit offences of
luggage theft in periods immediately following publicised terrorist
incidents, because of their fear that: a)) Higher police vigilance
following such incidents increases the chances of them being
apprehended. b) The luggage may contain explosives and thus endanger
their lives, by stealing it. If therefore deterrence assumption are
valid, one should expect a reduction of luggage thefts in periods
following publicised terrorist incidents.
His research on theft of luggage covered all three
aspects of general deterrence: a) probability of sanctions, i.e..
perceived certainty of arrest (due to extra police vigilance) b)
celerity of sanctions and c) severity of sanctions. (the potentially
lethal effects of stealing a piece of luggage containing explosives)
The analysis of his data showed that in the periods
immediately following a terrorist incident there was a sharp, if short
lived decline in the number of cases of luggage theft. This indicates
that either police vigilance or the fear that the items may contain
explosives have had a deterrent effect.
He is currently working on project concerning the
offence of verbal abuse
His hypothesis is that the insults used by members
of various social groups reflect (indeed they are an inverted picture)
of the fundamental values held dear by those groups. ( such as
intelligence, moral character, patriotism, masculinity, honesty etc.)
The insults and therefore the values they reflect would differ (1)
diachronically, (2) from country to country and (3) among various
social groups. That is persons of different sex, age, race social
class, nationality etc. would use different categories of words to
insult each other because their value systems would be different
.Therefore research in this area provides a useful way to study values
in society. (both differences in values and changing values) Another
part of the research will be a study of verbal assault as precursor to
physical assault.
LITERATURE
Dr. Trivizas has published many books on literature
and he is one of Greece's leading writers for children . He has
produced more than a hundred books of enduring popularity, all of them
currently in print, that are enjoyed as much by grown ups as by
children and he has received more than twenty national and
international literary prizes and awards.
Reviewers have described him as 'a miracle worker
who brings to life a whole new world 'and as 'the author who with a
distinctive combination of lyricism and surrealism, humour and poetic
imagination has revitalised the whole of our children's literature. '
Much of E.Trivizas work has been transferred to the
stage and serialised for television as well as the radio. He is
currently the most frequently performed writer of plays for children
in Greece, In 1986 his play ''THE CARECROW''was placed on the
International Board on Books for Young People's "Honour
List" and awarded a Diploma for excellence in writing,
His first book for children published in the
English language was ''The three little wolves and the big bad pig
(1993) The English ''Economist'' wrote about this book that ''only the
most talented of writers can tamper with a classic nursery tale and
produce something almost as amusing and thought-provoking as the
original. ''The three little wolves'' has reached the second place in
the American best seller list for picture books, has won many
distinctions (including A.L.A. notable book and A.S.L.J. Best book ,
and the ''Parents Choice Amazing Accomplishment Award'') and has been
translated in fifteen languages.
The book cased an international debate about the
stereotypes of evil in children's literature (see relevant entries in
the Internet)
The coca-cola case
In 1997 E. Trivizas won the first stage of a legal
battle against Coca-Cola, preventing the multinational company from
registering in Greece the title of his T.V. serial and comic-strip
books ''Fruitopia'' as a trade mark for soft drinks. The court decided
that Coca-Cola has unlawfully appropriated his intellectual property.
Coca-cola appealed against the decision and in December 1999 the
relevant court of appeal ruled once again in his favour prohibiting
the use of his intellectual property as a trademark for soft drinks.
Dr. Trivizas plans to pursue his case beyond Greece an he would
appreciate any help in this matter.
SELECTION OF PUBLICATIONS
Football crowd events in the Metropolitan Police
Area', The Kingston Law Review, vol.9, No.3, December 1979.
'British Prisons', The Lancet, 5 April 1980,
vol.I, 1980 (editorial)
'Offences and offenders in football crowd
disorders', The British Journal of Criminology, vol.20, No.3, July
1980.
'Sentencing the football hooligan', The British
Journal of Criminology, vol.21, No.4, October 1981.
'The Drugs-Crime Connection', International and
Comparative Law Quarterly, October 1982.
'Crowd Dynamics and the prevention and control of
crowd disorders', The Police Journal, April-June 1983, vol. LVI,
No.2.
'Crime, Justice and Underdevelopment',
Reviewing Sociology, vol.2, June 1983.
'Public order in the twentieth century: a study in
the exercise of Police Prosecutorial Discretion', Police and
Policing, The Past and Present Society, Oxford 1983.
Types of incidents and selection of charges in
disturbances associated with football matches', The British
Journal of Criminology, vol.24, No.4, October 1984.
'Tactics of legal reform: learning from the recent
past', The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, vol.25, No.l,
February 1986.
'Pornography in Greece', in International
Aspects of Pornography, Greenwood Press. 1988.
The influence of cultural developments on sport and
violence, Proceedings of the first European Congress on Violence
Control in the World of Sport, 1989 (with C.H. Davies).
Legal sanctions against Football Hooligans :
Dangers and problems. Proceedings of the first European Congress
on Violence Control in the World of Sport, 1989.
Aidos and depravity: A comparative study of
responses to Pornography in Greece and England and Wales, Annales
Internationales de Criminologie, Vol. 28 - No 1 and 2, pp 67-94,
1990
(With Ch. Davies).
The strange revival of the censorship of obscenity
in the media in Britain In Franco- British Studies, No 9, pp.
43-53, Spring 1990.
The behaviour of football supporters, Cultural
attitudes and cultural responses, Colloquium paper 67/90 (7)
European University Institute, Florence, 1990.
Disagreements About Penal Policy. Basic Sentiments
And Public Argument Volume In Honour Of E. Dascalakis, Pantion
University Press , Athens 1992, pp. 631-651 (with C. Davies).
The Perfect Panopticon: The Electronic Monitoring
of Offenders and the Criminal Justice System. Chroniques Penal,
Laboratoire de Criminologie et de Psyciatrie Legale, Faculte de Droit,
Universite de Thrace, December 1993, pp. 19 -52 (with C. Davies).
The Temptations of Censorship. In International
Alliance of Women Annals, A. Yotopoulos (Ed.) Women’s Rights, Human
Rights, 1994, pp. 248-264, (with C. Davies).
A Neo Paretian Model Of Discourse About Penal
Policy. Revue Europeenne Des Sciences Sociales, Universite De
Lausanne, Tome XXXII , No 99 pp, 1994, pp. 147-167, (with C. Davies).
The deterrent effect of terrorist incidents on the
rates of luggage theft in railway and underground stations The
British Journal of Criminology, Vol. . 37, No. 1, Winter 1997 (with D.
Smith).
The global and the local: The collapse of the
national Morality and national Moral Boundaries of small peripheral
countries: not globalizaion butthe imposition of Liberty, Protosoziologie
Vol 13 1/1999 pp. 210-25 Special volume on a sociology of Borderlines;
Social Process in a time of Globalization (with C. Davies).
The failure of calendar reform (1922-1931)
Religious minorities, Businesmen, Scientists and Bureaucrats. Journal
of Historical Sociology. Vol 12, No 3, September 1999, pp 251-270 (with
C. Davies).
Sadomasochism and consent in the criminal law In Nestor
Kourakis and Nico Kolouris (eds) Anti-crime policy vol 11in series
Pinika (Penal Matters) Athens, Sakulas (written in English -
Translated into Greek - expected 2000) (with C. Davies).