INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF SOCIAL DEFENCE AND HUMANE CRIMINAL POLICY - ISSD
The International society of social defence for a humane criminal policy - ISSD (Société internationale de défense sociale pour une politique criminelle humaniste - SIDS) is a non-profit association focused on crime studies and research, with the purpose to develop a prevention system that, taking into account factors affecting the reintegration of offenders, would protect society against criminals and protect individuals against the risk of falling into or returning to a life of crime.
At the end of the 1960s, the ISSD was granted consultative status by the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The ISSD operates through an international council of experts in crime policy, social science and criminology, and through a network of regional Secretary Generals (in Asia, Africa, the United States of America, Latin America, and Europe). In agreement with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and alternating with three other international sister-associations (Association internationale de droit pénal, Société internationale de criminologie, Fondation internationale pénale et pénitentiaire) SIDS holds an international Congress every five-years to discuss priority issues in the field of crime policy. After the Seventh International Conference on Social Defense in 1966, in recognition of its strong commitment to promote the Movement, the members' assembly entrusted the Secretariat General of the ISSD to CNPDS.
The ISSD publishes its own yearly Journal Cahiers de Défense Sociale, the editorship of which is located at CNPDS in Milan. The Journal is also available on the ISSD website, with texts in English, Spanish and French.
In 2004, the ISSD instituted the "Cesare Beccaria" medal, to be awarded annually to the scholar who has most contributed, through his research and teaching, to the diffusion worldwide of the underlying principles inspiring the Society's existence. So far the medal has been awarded to Simone Rozès (France), Hans-Heinrich Jescheck (Germany), Giuliano Vassalli (Italy), Juan Guzmán (Chile), Mireille Delmas-Marty (France), Sheriff Bassiouni (Egypt), Sergio Gracia Ramirez (Mexico), Roger Hood (United Kingdom), Mario Pisani (Italy), David Baigún (Argentina) and Robert Badinter (France), Jorge Figueiredo Dias (Portugal), Perfecto Andrés Ibáñez (Spain), Gao Mingxuan (Cina) and Gianni Francioni (Italy).