Working Groups

Chair: Victor van der Geest (v.vander.geest @ vu.nl) & Janna Verbruggen (j.verbruggen @ vu.nl)

Origins

The development of antisocial behaviour within individuals’ lives is the focal point of Developmental and Life-course Criminology (DLC), an exciting and growing research area in criminology. Much of the knowledge base on the longitudinal patterning of delinquency and crime over the life span has emerged from using data from the United States, Great Britain and more recently Australia. Yet, developmental patterns result from the complex interplay between individual and contextual factors, including societal and legal institutions. Since these institutions differ cross-nationally, developmental patterns may do so accordingly. DLC-research from other – European – countries is thus inexplicable to gain detailed knowledge on criminal careers and test developmental criminological theories. Fortunately, longitudinal projects on the development of antisocial behaviour are underway in various European countries and the number of European researchers on DLC-topics is substantial and growing. In order to stimulate DLC-research in Europe and to promote contact between the various European research groups working on DLC-issues, we have established the European Developmental and Life-course Criminology working group. We would like to invite ESC members involved in longitudinal studies on the development of delinquency and crime to combine their expertise and join the working group.

Aim

To facilitate research on developmental and life course criminology and maximize international dissemination of DLC-research results.

Objectives

A number of specific objectives in support of this aim have been established:

• • promote communication between European DLC-researchers
  • organize thematic DLC-sessions at the annual ESC meetings
  • establish cross-national research ties and promote international collaboration on DLC-topics
  • offer a ‘best European paper’ award for outstanding research in the DLC-field

Membership

The working group is chaired by and its activities coordinated by Arjan Blokland and Paul Nieuwbeerta. All ESC-members involved in longitudinal research projects are invited to join. If you would like to join, please send your name, position, affiliation, and a description of the research project you are working on to edlc.esc@nscr.nl.

Chair: Nora Markwalder (nora.markwalder @ unisg.ch)

Origins

Homicide is one of the most dramatic and tragic offences. It has very high priority in research, public opinion, policy, and prevention in the European nations. Unfortunately, it is one of the most difficult crimes to be studied due to the low frequency and the high variability of events.

Moreover, most statistical sources on homicide that exist in European countries are hardly cross-nationally comparable. Regrettably to date our knowledge and information on homicide in Europe is rather limited.

Therefore, it is of importance to stimulate the study of homicide in each of the different European countries. Furthermore, there is a need to describe differences in homicide patterns across European countries and examine various explanations for the (cross-national) differences in these patterns. Violent crimes result from the complex interplay between individual and contextual factors, including societal and legal institutions. Since these institutions differ cross-nationally, homicide patterns may do so accordingly. Cross-national research thus is inexplicable to gain detailed knowledge on homicide and test criminological theories on violence.

In order to stimulate homicide research in Europe and to promote contact between the various European researchers working on national homicide studies, we have established the European Homicide Research working group. Fortunately, homicide research projects are underway in various European countries and the number of European homicide researchers is substantial and growing. We would like to invite the ESC members involved in these homicide studies to combine their expertise and join the working group.

Aim

To facilitate research on homicide in Europe and maximize international dissemination of homicide research results.

Objectives

A number of specific objectives in support of this aim have been established:

• • promote communication between European homicide researchers
  • organize thematic homicide sessions at the annual ESC meetings
  • establish cross-national research ties and promote international collaboration on homicide research
  • offer a ‘best European paper’ award for outstanding research in the area of homicide research

Membership

The working group is chaired by and its activities coordinated by Marieke Liem. All ESC-members involved in homicide research projects are invited to join. If you would like to join, please send your name, position, affiliation, and a description of the research project you are working on to ehr.esc @ nscr.nl.
The EHRG Website is online and can be found here: http://www.violenceresearchinitiative.org/ehrg.html

Contact address

Nora Markwalder University of St. Gallen, Switzerland (nora.markwalder @ unisg.ch)

Acting Chairs: Jake Phillips (jake.phillips @ shu.ac.uk) and Sergio Grossi (sgrossi @ ucm.es)

Members:

– McNeill, Fergus, Professor of Criminology & Social Work, Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, University of Glasgow, UK (Scotland), f.mcneillb @ blbss.gla.ac.uk

– Bauwens, Aline, PhD Student, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Department of Criminology, Belgium, aline.bauwens @ vub.ac.be

– Blay, Ester, Visiting lecturer, Law Department, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona), Spain, ester.blay @ upf.edu

– Boone, Miranda, Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Law, Willem Pompe Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology, University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, M.M.Boone @ uu.nl

–  Cid, Jose, Lecturer in Criminal Law and Criminology, Departament de Ciencia Politica i Dret Public Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain, josep.cid @ uab.es

– Carr, Nicola, University of Nottingham, UK lqznc @ exmail.nottingham.ac.uk

–  Duenkel, Frieder, Professor, Department of Criminology, Faculty of Law and Economics, University of Greifswald, Germany, duenkel @ uni-greifswald.de

– Durnescu, Ioan, Lecturer, School of Sociology & Social Work, University of Bucharest, Romania, idurnescu @ gmail.com

– Fellegi, Borbala, Hungary, borbala @ fellegi.hu

– Fitzgibbon, Wendy, Middlesex University, UK (England), W.Fitzgibbon @ mdx.ac.uk

– Gelsthorpe, Loraine, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, UK (England), lrg10 @ cam.ac.uk

– Grafl, Christian, University of Vienna, Austria, christian.grafl @ univie.ac.at

– Healy, Deirdre, University College Dublin, Ireland, deirdre.healy @ ucd.ie

– Herzog-Evans, Martine, Professor, Criminal Law, Law Faculty, University of Reims, France, martineevans @ ymail.com

– Hucklesby, Anthea, Reader in Criminology, University of Leeds, UK (England) A.Hucklesby @ bham.ac.uk

– Kensey, Annie, Demographer, Prison Administration, Associated Researcher at CESDIP/CNRS, France, Annie.kensey @ justice.gouv.fr

– Kerezsi, Klara, Hungary, kerezsi @ okri.hu

– Lulei, Martin, Slovakia, martin.lulei @ gmail.com

– McIvor, Gill, Professor, University of Stirling, UK (Scotland), gillian.mcivor @ stir.ac.uk

– Maguire, Mike, Professor, Cardiff University, UK (Wales), maguireathome @ btinternet.com

– Maguire, Niamh, Waterford Institute of technology, Ireland, NMAGUIRE @ wit.ie

– Mair, George, Professor, Liverpool John Moore’s University, UK (England), mairg @ hope.ac.uk

– Maruna, Shadd, Professor, Queen’s University Belfast, UK (Northern Ireland), s.maruna @ qub.ac.uk

– Morgenstern, Christine, Research Associate, Department of Criminology, Faculty of Law and Economics, University of Greifswald, Germany, mostern @ uni-greifswald.de

– Larrauri, Elena, Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology, Law Department, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08005 Barcelona, Spain, Elena.larrauri @ upf.edu

– O’Donnell, Ian, University College Dublin, Ireland, ian.odonnell @ ucd.ie

– Ravagnani. Luisa, University of Brescia, Italy, ravagnani @ jus.unibs.it

– Raynor, Peter, Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Centre for Criminal Justice and Criminology, Swansea University, UK (Wales), p.raynor @ swansea.ac.uk

– Robinson, Gwen, Senior Lecturer, Department of Law, University of Sheffield, UK (England), G.J.Robinson @ sheffield.ac.uk

– Snacken, Sonja, Professor, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, Sonja.Snacken @ vub.be

– Storgaard, Anette, Ass. Prof., School of Law, University of Aarhus, Denmark, as @ law.au.dk

– Svensson, Kerstin, Professor, Lund University, School of Social Work, Sweden, kerstin.svensson @ soch.lu.se

– Tata, Cyrus, University of Strathclyde, UK (Scotland), cyrus.tata @ strath.ac.uk

– Ugelvik, Thomas, University of Oslo, Norway, thomas.ugelvik @ jus.uio.no

– Ugwudike, Pamela, Lecturer in Criminology, Centre for Criminal Justice and Criminology, Swansea University, UK (Wales), p.ugwudike @ soton.ac.uk

– Van Zyl Smit, Dirk, University of Nottingham, UK (England), Dirk.Van-zyl-smit @ nottingham.ac.uk

– Varona Gómez, Daniel, Senior lecturer, Department of Public Law, University of Girona, Spain, daniel.varona @ udg.edu

– Beyens, Kristel, Professor, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Department of Criminology, Brussel, Belgium, kristel.beyens @ vub.ac.be

– Schinkel, Marguerite, University of Glasgow, School of Social and Political Science, UK, Marguerite.Schinkel @ glasgow.ac.uk

This working group (formed in December 2007) exists to encourage networking, foster discussion, stimulate empirical research, enable theoretical development and encourage critical and comparative work on community sanctions in European jurisdictions. Its specific interests and concerns include:

1. The historical development of community-based criminal justice sanctions in European jurisdictions, how community sanctions in European jurisdictions are currently configured (both as legal orders and as related penal practices) and whether, in what ways and to what extent they are subject to significant ongoing reconfiguration or transformation

2. The emergence and significance of new forms of community sanction, such as compulsory drug treatment and electronic monitoring

3. The effectiveness of these sanctions and their impacts:

a. on sentencing
b. on offenders
c. on victims
d. on communities
e. on other stakeholders

4. Public attitudes to and media representations of such measures

The group will be formally launched at the ESC conference in Edinburgh in September 2008 through a series of themed sessions addressing the four issues identified above.

ESC members interested in finding out more about the group or in joining it, should contact at Jake Phillips (jake.phillips @ shu.ac.uk) and Sergio Grossi (sgrossi @ ucm.es).

Contact Person: Frank Weerman (FWeerman @ nscr.nl)

ESC members with an interest in developing an understanding of the scope, causes, nature and consequences of gangs through systematic, comparative and multi-method research are welcome to join the Eurogang Network. The Network was formed in the late 90s and since then has held 9 international workshops, developed a set of protocols for comparative research, and organized the publication of several edited volumes. In spring of 2008 the Network became affiliated with the ESC as a working group.

Our objectives are:

1. 1. To develop conceptual and methodological research tools for carrying out comparative gang research
   2. To build a body of knowledge about the scopes, causes, nature and control of gangs across Europe
   3. To foster a constructive and amicable dialogue between different theoretical, disciplinary and national research traditions in the study of the relationship between the group aspects of youth transitions and offending
   4. To offer support, mentoring, and training to scholars interested in the comparative study of gangs and generally assist European scholars interested in the study of gangs
   5. To facilitate transfer of knowledge from academic research to the policy and practitioner community in the area of youth street gangs
   6. To develop specific funded research collaborations between our members.

Membership remains informal and everybody that shares our aims is welcome. Those interested in active participation should email Frank Weerman (FWeerman @ nscr.nl) for an initial contact. You will also need to contact Professor Kerner (hans-juergen.kerner @ uni-tuebingen.de) for inclusion in the Eurogang distribution list.

The Eurogang Network is governed through a Steering Committee composed of:

Jan Dirk de Jong

Finn-Aage Esbensen

Cheryl Maxson

Chris Melde

Elke van Hellemont

Frank Weerman

For more details you can visit our website (https://eurogangproject.com/).
Twitter account: (@Euro_Gang)

Chairs:

– Leonel da Cunha Gonçalves (Leonel.daCunhaGoncalves @ hcuge.ch) please direct all future correspondence regarding the group to this email.
– An-Sofie Vanhouche (An-Sofie.Vanhouche @ vub.be)
– Stéphanie Baggio (stephanie.baggio @ unibe.ch)

Origins

Imprisonment is currently the most severe governmental sanction imposed on criminal offenders in Europe. Approximately one million persons are confined in penal institutions across Council of Europe countries, and prison populations have been growing in two thirds of them. Therefore, substantial numbers of people have had a prison experience and increasing numbers of people are released from prisons back into society. It is important to know the impact of incarceration on these (ex-)prisoners and whether there are long-term unanticipated consequences of imprisonment on the further lives of ex-prisoners and their families.

Despite its manifest importance in crime prevention, there is surprisingly little knowledge on life in prisons as well as the (causal) effects of imprisonment. While some literature is available about prison climate and the effects of imprisonment on recidivism, far less is known about the effects of imprisonment on more conventional life domains such as socio-economic status (employment, living conditions), family formation and disruption, social integration, and health. Moreover, the methodological designs of most existing studies are inadequate to overcome selection effects and, therefore, cannot make causal inferences about the relationships between imprisonment and the further life course. Additionally, most prior studies did not address questions regarding mechanisms that might explain the effects of imprisonment on life-course circumstances.

This means that basic questions regarding the (causal) effects of incarceration on criminal behavior and life course circumstances of convicted persons and their family members remain largely unanswered.

In order to stimulate prison research in Europe and to promote contact between the various European research groups working on imprisonment, we have established the ESC working group on imprisonment. We would like to invite all ESC members involved in studies on prison life and the consequences of imprisonment to combine their expertise and join the working group.

The specific interests of the working group include:

1. Life in prison

2. The effectiveness and impact of prison sentences on:

a).life courses of ex-prisoners (e.g. socioeconomic status; labor participation; social networks; health)

b).future criminal behavior of ex-prisoners

c).life courses and criminal behavior of ex-prisoners’ families

3. Causal effects of imprisonment on the further life course of ex-prisoners and their families

4. Mechanisms explaining the (causal) effects of imprisonment

5. Theories and a theoretical integration of knowledge on the effects of imprisonment

Aim

To facilitate and encourage research on life in prisons and the consequences of imprisonment, and to maximize international dissemination of prison research results.

Our objectives are

1. 1. To promote communication between European researchers on imprisonment
   2. To organize thematic sessions at the annual ESC meetings
   3. To establish cross-national research ties and promote international collaboration on prison research

Membership

The working group is chaired by and its activities coordinated by Anja Dirkzwager. All ESC-members involved in research projects on prison life and its consequences are invited to join. If you would like to join, please send your name, position, affiliation, and a description of the research project(s) you are working on to: adirkzwager @ nscr.nl.

Former chairs of the working group

– Anja Dirkzwager (chair and founder, 2010-2024)
– Kirstin Drenkhahn (co-chair, 2010-2018)

Contact address:

Dr. Leonel da Cunha Gonçalves

Geneva University Hospitals

Division of Prison Health

Domaine de Belle-Idée – Les Voirons

Chemin du Petit-Bel-Air 2

CH-1226 Thônex

Tel.: 0041 22 305 52 23

Email: leonel.dacunhagoncalves @ hug.ch

Chair: Marleen Easton (Marleen.Easton @ UGent.be)

Steering Group: Sarah Charman, Larissa Engelmann, Andy Newton, Jasper De Paepe

Contact: escpolicingworkinggroup @ gmail.com

The Policing Working Group was established at the 8th annual meeting of the European Society of Criminology in Edinburgh in 2008. From the outset it has sought to act as a ‘hub’ through which to connect members of the ESC with interests in policing (broadly defined), and through this to foster the sharing of ideas, collaboration and networking amongst them. The group underwent a change of leadership in 2019 and, since that time, has sought to engage with even greater numbers of police scholars and practitioners.

To achieve this, we have introduced:

• • ‘A directory of members. Membership is open to all members of the ESC. To join, please click on the following link: https://forms.gle/3s9KL9zAaP9aGALq8
  • A mailing list for interested parties who may not be members of the ESC but who would like to be kept up to date with the group’s work. To join the mailing list, please email us at escpolicingworkinggroup @ gmail.com
  • A regular newsletter to update group members/members of the mailing list about current projects being worked on and possible opportunities for collaboration. If you would like any news to be shared with the PWG, please e-mail escpolicingworkinggroup @ gmail.com
  • A Twitter account (please follow us at https://twitter.com/WorkingEsc).

Going forward, we have a number of aims:

• • To continue to develop an extensive, inclusive, and supportive network for individuals with an interest in police research and practice.
  • To provide a substantial presence within the programmes of ESC conferences through Policing Working Group ‘badged’ panels.
  • To provide opportunities for added value at ESC conferences, where possible, through organising pre-conference events.
  • To provide opportunities for social events at future ESC conferences.
  • An annual prizes event to recognise achievement in our field.
  • To support early career police scholars in all our work.

For further information, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us at:  escpolicingworkinggroup @ gmail.com

Chairs: Stefan Harrendorf (stefan.harrendorf @ uni-greifswald.de ) & Marcelo Aebi (marcelo.aebi @ unil.ch)

The European Sourcebook Group is a group of experts that produces on a regular basis the European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics. The European Sourcebook Group became an ESC Working Group in 2008.

The first European Sourcebook project started in 1996. In that year the Council of Europe established a committee to prepare a compendium of crime and criminal justice data for its member states. Information was collected from 36 European countries covering the period 1990 to 1996. It included both statistical data and information on the statistical rules and the definitions behind these figures. This resulted in the publication by the Council of Europe of the first European Sourcebook in 1999. Also a ‘Key Findings’ bulletin was published in 2000 and an issue of the European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research (Vol. 8, No. 1, 2000) was mainly devoted on some results of the Sourcebook data.

A second European Sourcebook project sponsored by the governments of Switzerland, United Kingdom and the Netherlands was completed and the findings were published in December 2003 by the Dutch WODC in their publications series (nr. 212). The publication reports on criminal justice data for 40 European countries covering the period 1995 – 2000. A special double issue of the European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research (Vol. 10, Nos. 2-3, 2004) was devoted to the results of the Sourcebook data.

In June 2006 the third edition, sponsored by France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, was published again in the WODC publication series (nr. 241). This edition is a limited one: not all tables were updated. It covers the years 2000 – 2003 for 37 countries.

The fourth edition, covering the years 2003-2007, was sponsored by the Netherlands and Switzerland (University of Lausanne). It was published in 2010 in the WODC publication series (nr. 285). It is a full edition, with some new crime types added.

The 5^th edition of the European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics (Aebi, Akdeniz, Barclay, Campistol, Caneppele, Gruszcynska, Harrendorf, Heiskanen, Hysi , Jehle et al. (2014) European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics. 5^th ed. Helsinki: HEUNI Publications Series 80) was published in 2014, and a revised second printing from 2017 is available for free download on the European Sourcebook Website (www.unil.ch/europeansourcebook). In addition, the database, including police, prosecution, court and prison statistics from 40 European countries, has been made available for researchers through the same website, run by Marcelo Aebi and hosted by the University of Lausanne. Furthermore, in-depth analyses were conducted by members of the European Sourcebook Group and published in a special issue of the European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research on “Crime and Criminal Justice in Europe” (2018). In a European comparative perspective, this issue includes articles on the attrition process within the criminal justice system, trends in police recorded crime, special juvenile criminal justice statistics, development of community sanctions and measures, as well as the development of homicides.

The preparation for the next data collection wave started in 2017, and an improved questionnaire has been developed. For this sixth edition, the European Sourcebook Group will be collaborating with the Council of Europe in the framework of the project LINCS (Linking International Criminal Statistics). The first meeting of the LINCS project, with the participation of national correspondents from all the member states of the Council of Europe, took place at the premises of the Council, in Strasbourg, on 16 and 17 April 2018. The data collection should be completed by the end of 2018, and a second meeting, whose aim is to validate the data received, will take place in Spring 2019. Thus, in principle, the 6^th edition of the European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics should be available, in print and electronic versions, by the end of 2019. The Group is planning to organized panel sessions about it in the upcoming conferences of the European Society of Criminology in Sarajevo (2019), Ghent (2020) and Florence (2021).

All editions of the European Sourcebook (and the original data) are available for free download in the group’s Webpage:
www.unil.ch/europeansourcebook/

Chair: Rita Faria – rfaria @ direito.up.pt (University of Porto), Board: Nicolas Lord – nicholas.lord @ manchester.ac.uk (University of Manchester), Wim Huisman – w.huisman @ rechten.vu.nl (VU University Amsterdam) and Eva Inzelt – inzelteva @ ajk.elte.hu (Eotvos Lorand University Budapest)

Origins

In order to stimulate research in the field of organizational crime in Europe and to promote exchange and collaboration between the various European research groups working in this field, we set up a working group on organizational criminology.

European criminology has traditionally focused on the conventional offender and on conventional crime, whereas organizational crime remains a theoretical and empirical challenge. In recent decades there is increased attention for the field, also in the European context, and this working group intends to contribute to this further theoretical and empirical underpinning of the research domain.

The working group on organizational crime focuses on crime, deviance or semi-legal «cosmetic compliance» behavior, committed by corporations, firms, organizations, or state actors or by individuals in an organizational context. These acts can be financial-economic crime (financial market fraud, cartels, corruption, etc.), environmentally damaging or green crimes, product safety violations, state-corporate crime, or war crimes. This entails a focus on victims’ and perpetrators’ perceptions on, and experiences with, corporate and organizational crime. We pay attention to the etiology of the phenomenon, by focusing on issues of criminalization, motives and opportunities on macro, meso and micro level.

Besides this etiological focal point, our focus goes to the reactions and approaches (regulation, governance and enforcement) to organizational crime from the perspective of a variety of public and private actors, such as various local, national and international governments and state institutions (police, inspection services, judiciary, policy makers, etc.), private regulators such as NGO’s and private security firms, and internal regulatory forces such as compliance officers, auditors and accountants.

Aim

To stimulate and facilitate research in the international field of organizational crime.

Objectives

A number of specific objectives in support of this aim have been established:

• • to promote communication between European researchers on organizational crime;
  • to exchange experience with empirical research in the field of organisational crime;
  • to inform researchers on new fields of research, new approaches, et cetera;
  • to stimulate permanent discussion;
  • to organize thematic EUROC-sessions at the annual ESC-conferences.

Becoming a member

If you are a member of the European Society of Criminology working on the topic of corporate and organizational crime, we invite you to join our working group. In order to join, please send your name, position, affiliation, and a short description of the research project you are working on to euroc.wg @ gmail.com

For further details you can also contact Rita Faria (rfaria @ direito.up.pt), Nicolas Lord (nicholas.lord @ manchester.ac.uk), Wim Huisman (w.huisman @ rechten.vu.nl), Eva Inzelt (inzelteva @ ajk.elte.hu)

Chair: Cyrus Tata (Cyrus.Tata @ strath.ac.uk)

Background

At the Tenth Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology (ESC) held at Liege, the Executive Committee agreed to accept a proposal to create a new Working Group on Sentencing & Penal Decision-Making. The proposal arose from two recent small European symposia held at the University of Strathclyde (2008); University of Leiden (2010); and a stream of five pre-arranged panel sessions (16 papers) organised for the 2010 ESC conference.

Aim

The aim of the Working Group is to bring together scholars working in the field of sentencing and penal decision-making (and others with a serious interest in academic work in that field) in order to: share research; ideas; and to encourage interest in the field across Europe. The Working Group seeks to foster discussion and fresh thinking; stimulate research; encourage theoretical development of the field; and critical as well as comparative European work. Specifically the proposed ESC Working Group on sentencing and penal decision-making is intended:

• • To facilitate the collaboration and networking of scholars, policy officials and practitioners across Europe, including countries whose sentencing and penal decision-making processes are not well-known to international audiences
  • To unlock the potential for cooperation among individuals and groups across Europe so that there is greater mutual knowledge and understanding of national sentencing systems and European-wide developments
  • To provide a visible forum so that scholars, policy officials and practitioners can discuss research, develop ideas, and disseminate knowledge to each other and also those in the policy and/or practice communities who might not otherwise be aware of that research (e.g. through the ESC web-presence; annual symposia; visiting fellowships; etc)

Ambit of ‘Sentencing and Penal Decision-Making’

Because of its comprehensive focus on sentencing as an exercise in decision-making, the Working Group’s remit extends well beyond those issues connected solely with the judicial selection of punishment. Many other decision-making processes which either affect or are affected by judicial sentencing practices are also of interest. So-called «back-door» decisions, such as the grant of remission, parole or other early release to sentenced prisoners, clearly fall within this category. But so also do other decisions, at earlier and later stages of the overall criminal process, including prosecution charging practices, plea decision-making and, where it exists, plea bargaining, which may have a significant impact on the sentence ultimately imposed.

An indicative areas of interest to the Working Group include, for example: influences in the sentencing decision process; the politics of sentencing and penal policy-making; judicial discretion; the use of non-executive penalties; judicial and penal cultures; victims and sentencing; public opinion, public attitudes and knowledge of sentencing and punishment; multi-disciplinary courts; sentencing reform structures; penal aims and justifications; (in)equality and punishment; consistency and disparity in sentencing and penal decision-making; legitimacy and decision-making; the role of new technologies; release from custody; plea-bargaining. However, it is stressed that these are indicative examples only and this list is not intended to be exhaustive.

In all of these areas the Working Group aims to bring comparative perspectives and a focus on changes in European law and policy, as well as theoretical rigour and search for fresh approaches.

Rationale for the Working Group

Although sentencing and penal decision-making is a long-established field which attracts numerous papers to ESC each year there is no Working Group dedicated to sentencing and penal-decision-making.

Developments at the levels of the Council of Europe and the European Union provide further impetus for the creation of the proposed Working Group. Throughout much of its history, the European Court of Human Rights did not deal very extensively with sentencing issues as such, apart from matters connected with life sentences. More recently, however, it has decided many cases involving the extent to which prison conditions in some member states comply with Article 3 of the Convention. Meanwhile, European Union institutions are becoming more closely involved in criminal law matters, particularly through the creation of framework decisions on judicial co-operation and mutual recognition of judicial decisions. States may now, for example, refuse to surrender a person under a European Arrest Warrant if, at the time of the proposed surrender, he or she is at risk of suffering a violation of his/her rights under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights on account of prison conditions (or, presumably sentencing practices) in the requesting state. Here, then, we see the legislation and case law of the two major European institutions combining to have a potentially profound impact on the sentencing and custodial regimes of member states. Thus, the WG seeks to examine the legal, social and policy implications of these developments also.

Activities

The Working Group builds on the stream of five panels organised for Liege conference and continue to organise a stream of panels for the annual ESC conference. In addition, it is intended to organise regular symposia examining European sentencing and penal decision-making issues. The Working Group warmly welcomes new members, (some of whom may not otherwise become ESC members nor ESC conference delegates), including from countries where sentencing and penal decision-making scholarship does not have a high international profile. The Working Group will also seek to forge links with policy and practice communities in different countries and also at EU level. For instance, we actively seek to promote our activities to a range of policy and practice audiences, such as sentencing councils (eg that in England & Wales, and in Scotland); judicial studies organisations, etc.

Cooperation with the Community Sanctions Working Group

The Community Sanctions Group refers to some aspects of sentencing at its meetings in so far as it is pertinent to community sanctions. To the extent that there are some areas of common interest, the two Working Groups have agreed to cooperate. The Chair of the CS Working Group is also a member of the Sentencing and Penal Decision-Making Working Group, and the Chair of the Sentencing & Penal Decision-Making WG is also a member of the CS Working Group. Similar cooperation will be sought with other Working Groups where appropriate.

Membership

Membership is open to anyone with a scholarly interest in European aspects of sentencing and penal decision-making. This includes those who are not active academic researchers themselves but have a strong interest in such research (e.g. policy officials, NGOs, criminal justice practitioners). We also warmly welcome the interest of early career researchers (eg PhD students) and other post-graduate students. We are also particularly interested in contact with individuals from national jurisdictions whose sentencing and penal decision-making is less well known internationally.

If you are interested in joining the WG please contact the WG Chair (Dr. Cyrus Tata). Cyrus.Tata @ strath.ac.uk

Initial Members:

The following list of individuals is mainly composed of those participating in the sentencing ‘stream’ of pre-arranged panels for the 2010 ESC conference, and others who others who have requested to join at September 2010.

Cyrus Tata, University of Strathclyde, Scotland (Chair of the WG)

Kristel Beyens, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Belgium Miranda Boone, University of Utrecht, Netherlands
Andreia de Castro-Rodrigues, Universidade Fernando Pessoa, Porto, Portugal
Ioan Durnescu, University of Bucharest, Romania
Hank Elffers, Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime & Law Enforcement
Les Humphreys, University of Lancaster, England & Wales
Jan de Keijser, University of Leiden, Netherlands
Elena Larrauri, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
Miklos Levay, Etos Lorand University, and, Constitutional Court of the Republic of Hungary
Niamh Maguire, Waterford Institute of Technology, Republic of Ireland
Grazia Mannozzi, University of Insubria, Como, Italy
Christine Morgenstern, University of Griefswald, Germany
Julian Roberts, University of Oxford, England & Wales

https://www.strath.ac.uk/humanities/lawschool/centreforlawcrimeandjustice/ourresearchandknowledgeexchange/europeangrouponsentencingandpenaldecision-making/

Chair: Beatrice Coscas Williams (law @ beacw.co)

Aims

The victimology working group aims to encourage networking and exchange of ideas, research cooperation as well as development of theoretical knowledge about victims and victimology, and critical analyses of victim related legislations and policies in Europe.

Its specific interests and concerns include:

1. 1. Victim needs, rights and standing in criminal procedure
   2. International documents and national and European legislations, as well as victim policies and their evaluations
   3. Media representation of victims
   4. Victims of conventional crime, as well as victims of gender-based violence, cross-border crime, terrorism, war crime and gross human rights violation, white collar crime etc.
   5. Politics of victimisation, including particularly political misuse of victims and victimisation
   6. Finding balance between victim’s and offender’s rights
   7. Development and challenges of victim support in Europe
   8. Victimisations surveys
   9. Victims and crime prevention
   10. Victims and restorative justice

Purposes working group

1. 1. To develop and propose panel sessions at ESC conferences
   2. To exchange research and publications
   3. To enhance networking and cooperation between victimological scholars in Europe
   4. To provide information on European projects, to cooperate and participate in (the development) of such projects
   5. To develop an overview of university-level victimology courses and teachers
   6. To attract victimological scholars -whether or not they identify themselves as such (transitional justice, human rights, trauma studies, social psycholgy of victimisation) to the ESC conference
   7. To connect European victimologists to Victimology in other parts of the World, for instance Latin America and Asia

Members

Chair: Beatrice Coscas Williams (Chair, Judicial Conflict Resolution Collaboratory – JCR)
http://jcrlab.com/
law @ beacw.com
054-2405714

Chairs: Andy Aydin-Aitchison, Barbora Hola , Nandor Knust, Kjersti Lohne, and Alette Smeulers

Europe as a region has been the site of unspeakable mass atrocity crimes and genocide, and Europeans have been involved as perpetrators in mass violence across the globe. However, Europe was also the site of the Nuremberg Trial, where for the first time perpetrators were brought to justice, and it has been seminal in the proliferation of legal instruments, and procedures ever since then, including International Criminal Tribunals and the International Criminal Court. The world owes the term ‘genocide’ to Raphael Lemkin, a Polish migrant in the US.

It is only recently that these crimes have become the object of systematic criminological research. Criminology is particularly well prepared to address the changing landscape of mass atrocity crimes and to study the mushrooming strategies and mechanisms of transitional justice, given its multiple theoretical and conceptual frameworks and extensive methodological toolboxes. These include micro-level analyses of collective violence, the contextual analysis of state and organizational crime, and perspectives from victimology. Criminologists are well equipped to study the aetiology of such crimes, measure its magnitude, e.g. with victim surveys and evaluate the transitional post-conflict period.

These crimes are equally challenging for criminologists. If ‘ordinary men’ commit such crimes, our theories and tools do not fit. If mass atrocities are part of deep-rooted conflicts, the institutions and instruments of justice might hardly or not work at all. Is deterrence of such crimes a useful concept? Criminological engagement with these crimes will not only make a valuable contribution to the field, but also cross-fertilise our own theories and concepts of violence, state crime and victimisation, or of criminal justice.

European criminology can draw on a wealth of historical and contemporary research on mass atrocities committed on its soil. European diversity therefore provides unique opportunities to contribute wide-ranging comparative perspectives to the global engagement with research on these crimes and transitional justice. European criminologists can rely on numerous in-depth case studies. Widely differing approaches to transitional justice offer unique insights as well as the possibility to contrast different practices.

The European Criminology Group on Atrocity Crimes and Transitional Justice will bring together criminologists who are engaged in the research on atrocity crimes and transitional justice in and on Europe. We hope to enhance the contribution of criminology and criminologists in this field, to stimulate research in and on Europe and to promote exchange between European and international researchers. The group will collaborate with other networks and research groups in the field. The Supranational Criminology Network is represented in the Group by its founder, Professor Alette Smeulers, Tilburg University, Netherlands. Renowned criminologists John Hagan and Joachim Savelsberg will join us as a Honorary Member.

Our specific interests and concerns include:

• • To organise thematic sessions at the annual ESC meetings as well as at other international meetings
  • To establish networks between established and young researchers, in particular doctoral students
  • To enhance interdisciplinary and international exchange through dedicated workshops and conferences
  • To develop collaborations with international criminal justice institutions, international bodies and NGOs those are active in the prevention of mass atrocities, in the provision of transitional justice, and in peace keeping

Steering  Group of the ECACTJ: 

Dr Andy Aydin-Aitchison, University of Edinburgh
Dr Barbola Hola, Free University Amsterdam, Netherlands
Dr. Nandor Knust, Max Planck Law, Germany
Dr Kjersti Lohne, University of Oslo
Professor Alette Smeulers, University of Groningen, Netherlands

Contact:

Nandor Knust, Max Planck Law, Germany, (nandor.knust @ gmail.com)

Co-Chairs

José Luis Díez-Ripollés  (ripolles @ uma.es)  and Jose Becerra ( josebecerra @ uma.es) University of Malaga, Spain

Aims

The Group aims to build a scientific debate forum in which cross-national experiences and information are gathered on how criminal legislative decisions are taken and how they could be improved.

Despite legislator’s legitimacy to pass criminal laws, studying the many phases through with drafts and decisions pass through, the actors involved, and the scientific information taken into consideration is crucial to be able to demand higher quality in law-making decisions.

In such endeavour, empirical research as well as theoretical development is highly needed. An inter-disciplinary approach which makes sure the cooperation among criminologists, legal experts, political scientists, psychologists, sociologists, public administration, and management experts, etc. seems unavoidable.

Fields of interest

Criminal lawmaking studies interests go far beyond the law itself. It is mandatory to take into account that a great amount of clues to understand Criminal Policy hide behind the complexity of political decision making in contemporary societies and that makes this field of knowledge socially useful and scientifically attractive.

List of topics:

1) Transverse matters:

1. 1. The discussion about the concept of legislative rationality and its description in Criminal Law.
   2. The content of the principles that lead to and set limits to Criminal Law and Criminal Policy.

2) International law-making policy:

1. 1. Compared analysis of political and legal systems of lawmaking.
   2. Criminal law making in international organizations.
   3. Role or influence of international organizations in national criminal reforms.

3) Pre-legislative, pre-parliamentary or governmental stage:

• • Regulatory analysis (applicable rules, protocols, or proceedings).
  • Actors analysis:

1. 1. Gouvernement.
   2. Political parties.
   3. Lobbies .
   4. Media.
   5. Public opinion.
   6. Experts.
   7.  Other formal or informal actors that participate in the stage.

4) Legislative or parliamentary phase:

• • Regulatory analysis (applicable rules, protocols, or proceedings).
  • Actors analysis:

1. 1. Legislative chambers and their bodies.
   2. Gouvernement.
   3. Political parties.
   4. Lobbies .
   5. Media.
   6. Public opinion.
   7. Experts.
   8.  Other formal or informal actors that participate in the stage.

5) Implementation stage:

1. 1. Resources issues (material or personal).
   2. Internal communication systems between actors.
   3. Implementation control tools.
   4. Partial, temporary, or pilot implementation cases.

6) Evaluation stages:

1. 1. Evaluation of design.
   2. Implementation evaluation.
   3. Results evaluation.
   4. Impact evaluation.
   5. Different perspectives in evaluation: economic, social, legal evaluation (or other).

It is worth of taking into account how the study of all these issues benefits from the comparative perspective, inherent to ESC Working Groups. The experience and information brought in by Criminal Law-Making Group members ensure the best possible scenario to engage in the development of scientifically founded recommendations for public authorities working in the criminal law-making process.

As has been said, the need of an interdisciplinary approach is urgent to go beyond the legal approach which, though needed, greatly benefits from other social sciences´ perspectives.

Current members

• • Ayling, Julie (Julie.ayling @ anu.edu.au)
  • Bárd, Petra (bard @ okri.hu)
  • Becerra, José (josebecerra @ uma.es)
  • Brandariz, Jose Angel (jabrandariz @ yahoo.de)
  • Cepas, Algimantas (algimantas.cepas @ vilias.lt, cepas.algimantas @ gmail.com)
  • Díez-Ripollés, José Luis (ripolles @ uma.es)
  • Dünkel, Frieder (duenkel @ uni-greifswald.de)
  • Faraldo-Cabana, Patricia (yrinas @ udc.es)
  • Gálvez-Bermudez, Carlos (cgalvez90 @ hotmail.com)
  • García-Ruiz, Ascensión (ascensiongarcia @ ucm.es)
  • Hack, Peter (hpeter @ ajk.elte.hu)
  • Hamilton, Claire (Claire.Hamilton @ mu.ie)
  • Király, Eszter (kiralyeszti @ gmail.com)
  • Lappi-Seppälä, Tapio (tapio.lappi-seppala @ helsinki.fi)
  • Larrauri Pijoan, Elena (elena.larrauri @ upf.edu)
  • Levay, Miklós (levaym @ ajk.elte.hu)
  • Marteache, Nerea (nmarte @ csusb.edu)
  • Martínez Francisco, Nieves (nievcaco @ gmail.com)
  • Osorio, Frank (director @ frankosorio.me)
  • Persak, Nina (nina.persak @ ugent.be)
  • Raduly, Zsuzsa (radulyzsuzsa @ freemail.hu)
  • Rando Casermeiro, Pablo (pablorando @ us.es)
  • Reyes-Reyes, Magda Stella (magtol @ gmail.com)
  • Róth, Erika (jogerika @ uni-miskolc.hu)
  • Sárik, Eszter (sarik @ okri.hu)
  • Sodini, Daniela (dsodini @ hotmail.com)
  • Tonry, Michael (tonry001 @ umn.edu)
  • Viveiros, Carlos Domenico (cdviveiros @ hotmail.com)
  • Vélez Rodriguez, Luis (lvelezr @ umanizales.edu.co)
  • Rossetto, Patricia (patirossetto @ gmail.com)
  • Corral Maraver, Noelia (noeliamaraver @ der.uned.es)
  • Goeckenjan, Igneke (Ingke.Goeckenjan @ ruhr-uni-bochum.de)
  • Zimmermann, Frank (frank.zimmermann @ uni-muenster.de )
  • Stavros, Demetriou (s.demetriou @ sussex.ac.uk)
  • Lampe, Dirk (dlampe @ uni-bremen.de)
  • Garcia Magna, Deborah (dgmagna @ uma.es)
  • Prado, Berta (bprado @ uma.es)
  • González Guarda, Claudio (cjgonzalezg @ gmail.com)
  • Sanz Mulas, Nieves (ixmucane @ usal.es)
  • Masiero, Clara (claramasiero @ mail.com)
  • Chiavelli Facenda, Falavigno (chiavelli.falavigno @ gmail.com )
  • Foffani, Luigi (luigi.foffani @ unimore.it)
  • Donini, Massimo (avv.massimo.donini @ gmail.com)
  • Fanega Guijarro, Manuel (manuelfanega @ uoc.edu)
  • Fernández Alvarez, Jacobo (jacobo.fernandez @ mjusticia.es)
  • Lankauskas, Mindaugas (mindaugas.lankauskas @ teise.org)
  • Gorjon Barranco, María Concepción (mcgb @ usal.es)
  • Cáceres, Emiro (emirocaceres17 @ gmail.com)
  • Paoli, Letizia (letizia.paoli @ kuleuven.be)
  • Visschers, Jonas (jonas.visschers @ kuleuven.be )
  • Gray, Emily (E.Gray @ derby.ac.uk)
  • Annison, Harry (H.Annison @ soton.ac.uk)
  • Iñigo Ortiz de Urbina Gimeno (inigo.ortizdeurbina @ upf.edu)
  • Jakub Drápal (drapalja @ prf.cuni.cz), CV https://sites.google.com/view/jakub-drapal
  • Lorenzo Pasculli (l.pasculli @ ucl.ac.uk), CV http://iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/browse/profile?upi=LPASC27

Latest collective publications:

Besides our individual member´s publications, here are the ones promoted by the Group:

• • Becerra Muñoz, J. (editor). Criminal Law-Making: Theory and Practice. Springer, 2021. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-71348-5
  • A special issue in the Brazilian Journal of Criminal Sciences.
  • Díez Ripollés, J L & Becerra Muñoz, J.“New ESC Working Group on Criminal Law Making Policy”. Newsletter of the European Society of Criminology. “Criminology in Europe”.http://www.escnewsletter.org/node/234
  • Díez Ripollés, J L & Becerra Muñoz, J.“Criminal Law Making Policy: when Lawyers need Criminologists (and vice versa?)”. Newsletter of the European Society of Criminology. “Criminology in Europe”. 2016. 2. Vol. 15.http://escnewsletter.org/newsletter/2016-2/criminal-law-making-policy-when-lawyers-need-criminologists-and-vice-versaf

Themed panel sessions:

The Group frequently organizes panel sessions in the conferences of our Society. We warmly invite all interested researchers to propose panel topics.

We also organize group meetings during the ESC Annual Conference to talk about new ideas and projects. Feel free to stop by!

Our past panel sessions:

Eurocrim2021 Online:

• • Driving forces influencing the criminal law-making Process
  • Punitive and Security Populism in Europe: Current Trends in Criminal Law-Making Policy

Eurocrim2019 Ghent:

• • Nexo Project: evidence and law decision-making.

Eurocrim2016 Münster:

• • Studying how Criminal Legislation is made. Approaches and Methodologies.

Eurocrim2015 Porto:

• • How open and transparent should criminal law-making processes be?
  • What should law makers think of first? Evaluating criminal policy making through standards.

Eurocrim2014 Prague:

• • Achieving a better understanding of criminal law-making processes.
  • Influences and rationality of criminality related legal reforms.

Eurocrim2013 Budapest: Our first meeting.

We are also working in Spanish!

Feel free to join us in our Spanish Criminal LawMaking Policy Working Group.

And find us in our Spanish Twitter account @GEPLP_ES.

Thinking about promoting your own national Law-Making Policy Working Group?

Contact us and we will give you a hand.

Inquiries, proposals, questions?

Do not hesitate to contact us through josebecerra@uma.es or politicalegislativapenal@uma.es

Co-chairs: Cristina Fernándes Bessa (c.fernandezb @ udc.es ),  Mieke Kox (M.H.kox @ uu.nl), Witold Klaus (witold.klaus @ gmail.com and Valeria Ferraris (valeria.ferraris @ unito.it)

Immigration and citizenship issues are addressed by a growing body of criminological research in Europe, and in a broader international context. Migrants are increasingly prominent subjects of contemporary public debates about deviance, social exclusion, victimhood, identity, security and criminalisation. This working group aims to discuss and examine the complex connections between migration, criminalisation, victimisation, and European criminal justice institutions. While these topics have long historic antecedents, on which the group will actively draw, it also aims to address novel developments brought on by the various ways in which European states attempt to control unwanted migration (take, for example, a look on the webpage www.crimmigrationcontrol.com on some of these topics). Moreover, issues such as criminalisation, human rights, citizenship and social exclusion are not only of central importance in criminological studies of migration, but also offer a productive starting point for comparative analysis and academic cooperation.

The working group aims to facilitate the co-operation among scholars and students working on topics such as:

• • Immigration control and human rights;
  • Borders and border security;
  • Human trafficking and smuggling of migrants;
  • Migration and gender;
  • Politics of immigration, crime and deviance;
  • Prostitution and migration;
  • Migration and victimisation;
  • The intersection of immigration law and criminal law (‘Crimmigration’);
  • Imprisonment and immigration detention;
  • Citizenship and criminal justice;
  • Crime and juvenile migration issues;
  • Criminal organizations and transnational crime;
  • Terrorism and securitisation.

Aims of the working group

This group aims to connect and integrate researchers working in the above mentioned and the related fields. The group aims to serve as a platform for academic discussions, the organisation of conference sessions, comparative research projects, funding applications, student exchanges, workshops and joint publications on immigration, crime and citizenship and the related subtopics. The relationship between immigration, crime and citizenship is a growing and highly topical field of research, and the working group will facilitate critical discussions on theory development, methodological innovation and policy implications in this field.

Membership

We are open to established and emerging scholars from diverse backgrounds and with diverse methodological and theoretical perspectives.

Members

• • • • Maria João Guia – Portugal
      • May-Len Skilbrei – Norway
      • José Ángel Brandariz Garcia – Spain
      • Chris Eskridge – USA
      • Michael Platzer – Austria
      • Sílvia Gomes – Portugal
      • Valeria Ferraris – Italy
      • Jonathan Davies – UK
      • Synnøve Jahnsen – Norway
      • Jorn van Rij – the Netherlands
      • Daniel Quinteros – Chile
      • Rosemary Broad – UK
      • Christian Walburg – Germany
      • Masja van Meeteren – the Netherlands
      • Elisa Garcia-España – Spain
      • Minna Viuhko – Finland
      • Lars Breuls – Belgium
      • Monika Szulecka – Poland
      • Martina Althoff – the Netherlands
      • Arjen Leerkes – the Netherlands
      • Dina Siegel – the Netherlands
      • Veronika Nagy – the Netherlands

If you would like to join, please send your name, position, affiliation to: Cristina Fernándes Bessa (c.fernandezb @ udc.es ),  Mieke Kox (M.H.kox @ uu.nl), Witold Klaus (witold.klaus @ gmail.com and Valeria Ferraris (valeria.ferraris @ unito.it)

Chair: Alex Stevens (a.w.stevens @ kent.ac.uk)

Plans for 2014/15

Aim

To develop the field of drug policy research, with a particular focus on research on the creation and effect of supra-national, national and local policies in Europe.

Membership

Any member of both the International Society of the Study or Drug Policy and the European Society of Criminology who wishes to participate.

People who are members of only one or neither of these Societies would be welcome to participate in some of the activities of the group (e.g. meetings at conferences), but could not be a formal member of the group.

Potential working methods (for discussion)

• • Dissemination of research findings at ISSDP and ESC conferences, through panel sessions and workshops.
  • Joint publications by members. These could include:
    1. Special issues of journals (e.g. European Journal of Criminology, International Journal of Drug Policy.)
    2. Edited collections.
    3. Jointly authored reports and books.
  • Development of new studies and research projects, through:
    1. Sharing data and methods
    2. New research funding proposals (including to the European Commission).

First steps

Setting up a panel each of the conferences of the ESC and ISSDP in 2014.

• • A panel on ‘problems and advances in international, comparative drug policy research’ was held at the ISSDP conference in March 2014.
  • ESC is hosting plenary session on drug policy at the 2014 conference.
  • A join ESC/ISDP, ‘Beyond the Criminalisation of Drug Use’, is being held at the ESC conference in September 2015.
  • We will host an ESC/ISSDP panel on European drug policy at the 2015 conference of the ISSDO in 2015 (Ghent, 20-22 May 2015).
  • Future activities to be discussed at the ESC and ISSSP in 2014/15.

For more information:

Alex Stevens, University of Kent: a.w.stevens @ kent.ac.uk

Co-chairs: Jennifer Fleetwood (j.fleetwood @ gold.ac.uk), Sveinung Sandberg (sveinung.sandberg @ jus.uio.no) and Alfredo Verde (a.verde @ unige.it)

First person accounts from offenders have a special status in Criminology, yet they are often understood simply as records of events. Narrative Criminology instead understands first person account differently – as part and parcel of the motivations for, and undertaking of criminal and harmful behaviours. Drawing on theory from a wide variety of disciplines (Psychology, Humanities, Ethnomethodology, Feminism And Cultural Studies), Narrative Criminology seeks to understand and explain harmful and criminal behaviours. Interviews are a mainstay of Narrative Criminology, but researchers also draw on criminal manifestos, analysis of historical documents, ethnography, as well as on literary fiction and its interaction with reality.

The Working Group will offer a Europe-wide platform for the development of Narrative Criminology.

Aim

To stimulate research and share knowledge in the field of Narrative Criminology.

Objectives

Following from this aim, the Narrative Criminology Working Group has the following objectives:

• • To promote the development of Narrative Criminology as a distinctive theoretical and empirical approach in Criminology.
  • To identify and develop potential overlaps and mutual interests with related Study and Working Groups (for example, Cultural Criminology; Gender, Crime and Justice; Historical Criminology).
  • To stimulate the development of theory, and methodological innovations in Narrative Criminology.
  • To foster international research collaborations, including funding bids.

Activities

• • The first Working Group meeting at the ESC Conference in 2016, and subsequent annual meetings.
  • Co-ordination of panels on Narrative Criminology at other national and international Conferences, such as British Society of Criminology, and the American Society of Criminology Annual Conferences.
  • Promote collaborations between Working Group members. This will include organising edited book collections, special edition of journals, applications for research funding etc.
  • Run the Narrative Criminology Research Network website: https://www.jus.uio.no/ikrs/english/research/areas/narrative-criminology/

Membership

ESC-members interested in Narrative Criminology are welcome to join this Working Group.

To join the Working Group and to receive further information, you can contact Jennifer Fleetwood (j.fleetwood @ gold.ac.uk).

Chair: Wouter Steenbeek (wsteenbeek @ nscr.nl)

Vice-chair: Christophe Vandeviver (Christophe.Vandeviver @ UGent.be)

Description

The European Working Group on Space, Place and Crime aims to bring together members of the European Society of Criminology who are interested in the spatial and situational aspect of crime. We have a broad scope: some members investigate neighborhood differences in crime rates (in the traditions of ‘social disorganization’ or ‘collective efficacy’), while others are interested in how micro-situations of crime events unfold. Some researchers use quantitative methods, while others use qualitative methods.

Because of the diversity of our members, we seek to encourage innovative collaborations across research domains, for example leading to new collaborations integrating macro (societal), meso (neighborhood) and micro (individual) aspects of the crime event, or using multi-method research (combining quantitative and qualitative approaches).

Aims of the group

• • To advance knowledge and research of the situational and spatial aspects of criminology across Europe (both substantive and methodological)
  • To create a network for information exchange between senior and junior scholars

Activities

These aims will be achieved by the following objectives:

• • Organize regular meetings between core members of the Working Group
  • Organize special sessions on ‘Space, Place and Crime’ at the annual meetings of the European Society of Criminology (i.e., ‘Space, Place and Crime’ sessions)
  • Establish cross-national research ties and promote international collaboration
  • Organize European conferences on ‘Space, Place and Crime’
  • Disseminate research results through scholarly publications

Website

For further information, www.space-place-crime.eu.

Membership

All members of the European Society of Criminology interested in the WG-PLACE aims and activities are welcome to join. Any personal and professional details will go to Wouter Steenbeek via wsteenbeek @ nscr.nl.

Contact

• • Wouter Steenbeek. Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), Amsterdam. wsteenbeek @ nscr.nl
  • Christophe Vandeviver. Faculty of Law, Ghent University, Belgium. Christophe.Vandeviver @ UGent.be

Chair: Rutger Leukfeldt (rleukfeldt @ nscr.nl) –  Tamar Berenblum (tamar.berenblum @ mail.huji.ac.il)

Description

The European Society of Criminology Working Group on Cybercrime is geared to the various aspects of cybercrime, including but not limited to: different forms that cybercrime can take (e.g., hacking, fraud, malicious software infections, sexting, cyber terrorism, etc.), its causes and offenders, impact on victims, and our response to it at the individual, corporate, and governmental levels

Origins

At the 2016 annual meetings of the European Society of Criminology in Muenster, Germany, there were at least twenty-six (26) presentations examining topics that all fell under the term “cyber” (the word cyber appeared somewhere in the title or abstract), including but not limited to computer hacking, phishing, online fraud, cyber war, organized cybercrime, cyber espionage, cyber bullying, sexting, online sexual abuse the overlap between cyber and traditional offending, and UK constables’ perceptions of cybercrime. There were likely other presentations involving the impact of ICT on either offending, victimization, or public policy, though they did not use that key term in the title or abstract. There also appeared to be twenty-six (26) presentations that contained the term ‘cyber’ in their title or abstract at the 2015 ESC meetings held in Porto, Portugal. These trends in presentations demonstrate the strong interest in cyber within the field of criminology, and suggest that the number of cyber presentations will continue to grow as our reliance on technology grows. Similar trends can be observed in other academic conferences such as the American Society of Criminology, as well as the increasing number of unique conferences focusing solely on cybercrime around the world.

Aims and objectives

The primary goals of the European Society of Criminology Working Group on Cybercrime are:

• • Advancing knowledge and research on cybercrime and cybersecurity across Europe (both substantively and methodologically) and other parts of the world, including the United States, the Middle East, and Asia, with plans to expand to other parts of the world.
  • Creating a network for information exchange and international collaboration between leading scholars, starting scholars, graduate students, government agencies, and private organizations involved in cybercrime research.

These goals are reached through the following tasks:

• • Holding regular meetings of core members
  • Coordinating “Cybercrime” sessions at ESC annual meetings
  • Initiating and coordinating special issues on cybercrime in the European Journal of Criminology
  • Establishing cross-national research ties and promote international collaboration
  • Organizing European conferences on cybercrime
  • Dissemination of scholarly publications

We recognize and fully support the diversity of interests within the field of cybercrime and cybersecurity. The working group will encourage all scholars interested in cybercrime to join, regardless of their focus on the causes of cybercrime criminality, the impact of victimization, or the regulations and enforcement to address it. In addition, the working group is interested in bringing scholars together who have different interdisciplinary backgrounds, including but not limited to: criminal justice and criminology, law, sociology, political science, economics, information technology, and computer science. We will not restrict the working group to any specific methodology as scholars study cybercrime through both qualitative and quantitative means and in fact we hope that our working group will encourage the advancement of innovative data collection and analytic techniques in our field. As our field grows, it is our hope that the working group will help international collaborations integrate our knowledge that derives from different methodologies rather than qualitative and quantitative scholars traveling down separate paths.

In addition to academic scholars, the working group will also recruit government agencies, particularly law enforcement agencies and government research offices, to join the working group in order to increase data collection, expertise to the working group, and dissemination possibilities (i.e. getting our research into the hands of policy makers and legislative bodies). Over the last several years, scholars have engaged in direct productive partnerships with, among others, the UK Home Office, the Scientific Research and Documentation Centre (WODC) of the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice, and the High Tech Crime Units of the Dutch police and prosecutors office.

Chair

Rutger Leukfeldt, Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law, the Netherlands (chair) rleukfeldt @ nscr.nl

Tamar Berenblum, The Hebrew University, Israel (co-chair), tamar.berenblum @ mail.huji.ac.il

Board

Marleen Weulen Kranenbarg, Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law, the Netherlands

Michael Levi, Cardiff University, UK

Michael McGuire, University of Surrey, UK

Fernando Miro Llinares, Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche, Crimina, Spain

Thomas Holt, Michigan State University, US

Becoming a member

If you are a member of the Working Group on Cybercrime, we invite you to join our working group. In order to join, please send your name, position, affiliation, and a short description of the research project you are working on to tamar.berenblum @ mail.huji.ac.il

Chair: Anna-Maria Getoš Kalac (anna.kalac @ violence-lab.eu) and Reana Bezić (reana.bezic @ violence-lab.eu)

The ESC Working Group “European Violence Monitor” is a joint initiative of the ESC members with a goal to gather experts in the field of criminology, law, psychology, pedagogy etc., who will actively work on studying violence, its phenomenology, etiology and prosecution in Europe with a multidisciplinary approach.

Aim

The Working Group aims to create a forum of experts in the field of criminology and criminal justice focused on violence and violent crime in the framework of the ESC. The main idea of the working group is to analyse violence itself (not the perpetrator or the victim or the act) in order to see it as what it is: a criminological reality, rather to deal with its normative and therefore social conceptualization. Based on looking at the violence itself the thesis is that we can come up with a «genuine violence classification system», in contrast to the classification systems used in mainstream violence research that commonly relay on normative classifications (focusing either on motivation, victim, or offender-victim relationship, or all kind of other factors besides the violence itself). So, the main aim of this working group will be to develop and test a “genuine violence classification system” in Europe with the potential to reshape our perception and comprehension of violence, which has so far almost solemnly relied on the normative definition of violence and its consequent normative classification that disguises more of the actual violence than it might ever reveal.

Research Focuses

Since there is no commonly accepted definition of violence, EViMo working group will study ‘core business’ of violence – physical violence, defined as intentional physical harming/killing another person.

Our aim is to take a holistic approach towards violence and to study this phenomenon in its criminological reality, not necessarily sticking to its normative framework. The reason for that approach lies in the fact that homicide research and its findings often serve as an indicator or even proxy for violent crime in general. The methodological pitfall here is quite obvious, whereas basic conceptual premises seem to be simply wrong, since e.g. the homicide rate measures the number of homicides in relation to population, but not the violence itself, at least not outside the framework of the normative disguise of the violence that remains well hidden behind its’ normative conceptualisation. One count of murder perfectly measures the fact that one act of lethal violence has taken place. But what it does not measure is the quantity and quality or the essence of the actual violence applied by the perpetrator and suffered by the victim, which may vary tremendously when comparing two different cases of murder. Through this working group this should all be taken into account and will therefore focus on the ‘core business’ of violence through analysing its criminological reality (testing a “genuine violence classification system”) instead of sticking to its normative framework.

This working group would provide a platform of exchanging knowledge in the field of criminology in order to internationally test “genuine violence classification system”. Measuring violence outside its normative framework would also provide a possible innovative tool for future violence research.

Membership

Membership is open to anyone with a scholarly interest in European aspects of violence, meaning not only active members of academic society interested in this phenomenon, but also criminal justice practitioners at any stage involved in prosecution of delinquent violence (judges, state attorneys, police etc.).  Since this working group will take a holistic, multidisciplinary approach towards violence, we warmly welcome not only criminologists but also lawyers, psychologists, forensics, psychiatrists, anthropologists to join our working group and create a multidisciplinary platform for exchanging knowledge on (delinquent) violence.

For further details please see: https://www.violence-lab.eu/evimo/?preview=true

If you are interested in joining the WG please contact the WG Chair:

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Anna-Maria Getoš Kalac                                              

University of Zagreb, Faculty of Law

Trg Republike Hrvatske 14; 10000 Zagreb, Croatia

E-mail:  anna.kalac @ violence-lab.eu

Reana Bezić, mag. iur.

University of Zagreb, Faculty of Law

Trg Republike Hrvatske 14; 10000 Zagreb, Croatia

E-mail:  reana.bezic @ violence-lab.eu

Chair: Elina van ’t Zand-Kurtovic  (e.g.van.t.zand @ law.leidenuniv.nl) &  Alessandro Corda (A.Corda @ qub.ac.uk)

Theme

After punishment has been served in full, individuals re-entering society encounter additional legal and social barriers and disabilities that exist because of their conviction. Significant hurdles are often faced also by people who have never been found guilty of a criminal offence: Arrest records and even acquittals can indeed prove highly consequential for persons who have interacted with the criminal justice system. Such ramifications have come to be known as collateral consequences of a criminal record. The extent and reach of Collateral Consequences of Criminal Records (CCCR) is a topic that is increasingly beginning to be studied among criminologists and criminal justice scholars across Europe. Collateral consequences can be defined as restrictions that limit ex-offenders in exercising their full rights as members of the community, re-joining the work force and taking full advantage of economic benefits and other opportunities.

As mentioned, collateral consequences can follow upon release from prison, discharge from parole or probation, or for the mere fact of having a non-conviction criminal history record on file. These consequences are often referred to as ‘invisible’ or ‘hidden’ punishment since, although not part of the sentencing decision (and therefore historically significantly overlooked by criminological research in Europe), they follow upon the creation of the record and its accessibility and disclosure at different levels and across different platforms. Collateral consequences can be either formal (or de jure) ― i.e., measures provided for by law ― and informal (or de facto) ― especially social stigma and various forms of discrimination imposed discretionarily by private actors such as landlords or employers.

Restrictions arising from having a criminal record apply to the whole realm of social life, including:

• • Employment
  • Professional and occupational licensing
  • Immigrant status
  • Access to education
  • Access to housing
  • Parental rights
  • Voting rights
  • Eligibility to receive welfare benefits, grants and loans
  • Ability to run for office
  • Ability to volunteer
  • Ability to obtain a firearm license
  • Everyday social interactions in informal settings

Research on the prevalence and effects of CCCR is still largely absent in the context of European criminological research, especially with regard to non-conviction records. With specific reference to conviction records, it is often assumed that excluding individuals with a criminal history from exercising their full rights and accessing employment and other opportunities increases public safety. However, there is growing evidence suggesting that public safety is best served by imposing as few obstacles as possible to ex-offenders’ re-entry process into society.

The topic of CCCR provides a very interesting arena for comparative and cross-national research. To start with, it should be analysed how the supranational European dimension – i.e., the European Union and the Council of Europe – permeates the area of collateral consequences. Next, since the consequences of having a criminal record largely differ between common law and civil law countries, as well as across continental European jurisdictions, it is of great importance to study and compare the different regimes with regard to both their impact on individuals and their effectiveness in pursuing state goals and functions.

The aim of the Working Group is to bring together researchers from different jurisdictions and increase research on and knowledge of the collateral consequences of criminal records within the European context and beyond. Researchers interested in exploring this under-researched field are warmly invited to join the Working Group, share their expertise and help develop a research network in this fascinating and important subject area.

Aim

To stimulate research and share of knowledge in the field of Collateral Consequences of Criminal Records.

Objectives

Stemming from this overarching aim, the Working Group on Collateral Consequences of Criminal Records has the following objectives:

• • To promote critical and comparative work on collateral consequences in European jurisdictions and beyond;
  • To promote and facilitate national and international collaboration among researchers in the field, including funding bids;
  • To foster discussion and develop new theoretical and empirical research on collateral consequences;
  • To encourage networking between researchers interested in this topic;
  • To promote the international dissemination of research outcomes;
  • To identify mutual interests and develop collaborations with other ESC Working Groups (for example, Sentencing & Penal Decision-Making and Community Sanctions).

Activities

• • Organisation and co-ordination of thematic panels at the ESC annual meetings;
  • Organisation of Working Group meetings at the annual ESC meetings;
  • Organisation of an ongoing Works-in-Progress seminar series to provide feedback on current research projects and draft papers of WG members;
  • Promotion of research collaborations between Working Group members.

Membership

The working group’s activities are coordinated by Elina van ‘t Zand-Kurtovic and Alessandro Corda. All ESC-members interested in this research field are invited to join the group. To do so, please send your name, position, affiliation, and a brief description of the research projects you are working on to e.g.van.t.zand @ law.leidenuniv.nl.

Members

1. 1. Harry Annison – University of Southampton, United Kingdom, Annison @ soton.ac.uk
   2. Caroline Bald – University of Essex, bald @ essex.ac.uk
   3. Miranda Boone – Leiden University, the Netherlands, m.boone @ law.leidenuniv.nl
   4. Charlotte Brooks – University of Nottingham, United Kingdom lqxcb7 @ nottingham.ac.uk
   5. Nicola Carr – University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, Carr @ nottingham.ac.uk
   6. Nicola Collett – De Montfort University, United Kingdom, collett @ dmu.ac.uk
   7. Mary Corcoran – Keele University, United Kingdom, corcoran @ keele.ac.uk
   8. Alessandro Corda – Queen’s University Belfast, United Kingdom, Corda @ qub.ac.uk
   9. Stavros Demetriou – University of Sussex, United Kingdom, Demetriou @ sussex.ac.uk
   10. Allen George – University of Sydney, Australia, george @ sydney.edu.au
   11. Paul Hamilton – Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom, hamilton @ ntu.ac.uk
   12. Andrew Henley – University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, Henley @ nottingham.ac.uk
   13. Katerina Hadjimatheou – University of Sussex, United Kingdom, hadjimatheou @ essex.ac.uk
   14. Theresia Höynck – Universität Kassel, Germany, hoeynck @ uni-kassel.de
   15. Elena Larrauri – Pompeu Fabra University, Spain, larrauri @ upf.edu
   16. Ailbhe O’Loughlin – University of York, United Kingdom, oloughlin @ york.ac.uk
   17. Sonja Meijer – Free University Amsterdam, the Netherlands, meijer @ vu.nl
   18. Marti Rovira – University of Oxford, United Kingdom, rovira @ sociology.ox.ac.uk
   19. Alejandro Rubio Arnal – University of Glasgow, United Kingdom, rubio.arnal @ gmail.com
   20. Kirsty Teague – Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom, teague @ ntu.ac.uk
   21. Milena Tripkovic – University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom, tripkovic @ ed.ac.uk
   22. David Vig – Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) & Amnesty International Hungary, vigdavid @ gmail.com
   23. Elina van ‘t Zand-Kurtovic – Leiden University, the Netherlands, g.van.t.zand @ law.leidenuniv.nl
   24. Anne-Marie Day – University of Keele, United Kingdom, a.day @ keele.ac.uk
   25. Katharina Swirak – University College Cork, Ireland,k.swirak @ ucc.ie
   26. Gustavo A. Beade – Universidad Austral de Chile, Chile, gustavo.beade @ uach.cl
   27. Alice Mills – University of Auckland, New Zealand, a.mills @ auckland.ac.nz

Follow us on Twitter:   @CCCR_WG

Contact information

Dr. Elina van ‘t Zand-Kurtovic, Assistant Professor, Leiden University, Department of Criminology, Steenschuur 25 2311 ES Leiden, the Netherlands, E-mail: e.g.van.t.zand @ law.leidenuniv.nl

Dr. Alessandro Corda, Senior Lecturer in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice; Director, Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Queen’s University Belfast School of Law, Belfast, BT7 1NN, United Kingdom, E-mail: A.Corda @ qub.ac.uk

Chair: Veroni Eichelsheim (veichelsheim @ nscr.nl) and Steve van de Weijer (SvandeWeijer @ nscr.nl)

ESC members who are specifically interested in studying intergenerational continuity and discontinuity of crime, (domestic) violence and related phenomena (e.g. parenting, parent-child relationships, economic hardship) are invited to join the new European Working Group on Intergenerational Criminology (EWGIC).

The idea of setting up this working group emerged when two of its steering group members brought together many international “intergenerational” researchers to work on an edited volume. This volume, published in the summer of 2018, brings together almost all intergenerational datasets on crime and offending from over the world (“Intergenerational Continuity of Criminal and Antisocial Behaviour: An international overview of Studies”; Eichelsheim & Van de Weijer, 2018, Routledge). The workshops that were organized as a to this book were so inspiring that it formed the basis for a more formal “Working Group” under the European Society of Criminology (ESC).

The basic idea of this Working Group is to facilitate exchange and cooperation among its members focusing on the study of intergenerational processes of criminal and related behaviour or phenomena from a variety of disciplines, using different sources of intergenerational data and by means of a diverse set of research methods. Together we will organize annual meetings, organize events and preferable also work together on grant proposals, books, or special issues.

Membership may remain informal; however, active participation would be encouraged. The steering group will try to plan an annual recurring pre-conference meeting and is open to organizing any other type of events in the meantime.

Members

• • David Farrington, Institute of Criminology, Cambridge University
  • Catrien Bijleveld, VU School of Criminology, Faculty of Law, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands & Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), Amsterdam, the Netherlands
  • Edward Kleemans, VU School of Criminology, Faculty of Law, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands
  • Janine Janssen, National Centre on Honour –based violence of the Dutch National Police & Avans University of Applied Sciences
  • Mirza Buljubasic, University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Majone Steketee, Verwey-Jonker Instituut, Utrecht, Netherlands & Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Contact information: Dr. Veroni Eichelsheim & Dr. Steve van de Weijer, Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (veichelsheim @ nscr.nl)

Chair: Kerry Clamp and Estelle Zinsstag

Origins

Restorative justice is a burgeoning field of study and practice. The field of restorative justice, given its applied character, is interdisciplinary and brings together people from different professional backgrounds, be it as researchers, practitioners or policy-makers. Restorative justice is consequently increasingly discussed during the ESC conference on a variety of topic areas. However, we feel that it does not have enough visibility and therefore lacks recognition at a European level as a field of study in its own right. Indeed, we feel that researchers interested in RJ lack a collective forum to discuss their research with their peers and their voices remain weak among the totality of the scholars because they are dispersed. It is for this reason that we have established this working group and we would like to invite ESC members involved or interested in research on restorative justice to join the working group to foster dissemination and collaboration. $

Aim

The aims of the working group are to:

• Bring together researchers working on restorative justice and creating an international and intergenerational network; and

• Facilitate research agendas and collaboration on restorative justice projects (such as seminars, summer schools, publications and funded research projects) and maximising the international dissemination of research results.

Objectives

A number of specific objectives to realise these aims include:

• Promoting communication between restorative justice researchers;

• Organising thematic restorative justice sessions at the annual ESC meetings;

• Establishing cross-national research networks and promote international collaboration on restorative justice research; and

• Offering a ‘best European paper’ award for outstanding research in the restorative justice field.

Membership

The working group is chaired and its activities coordinated by Kerry Clamp and Estelle Zinsstag.

All ESC-members involved or interested in RJ related research are invited to join. Therefore, if you are a member of the ESC and would like to join, please send an email stating your name, position, affiliation, and a short introduction to your work to both of us at Kerry.Clamp @ nottingham.ac.uk and estelle.zinsstag @ kuleuven.be

Contact address

Dr Kerry Clamp
University of Nottingham
School of Sociology and Social Policy
Law and Social Sciences Building
University Park
Nottingham NG7 2RD
Kerry.Clamp @ nottingham.ac.uk

Dr Estelle Zinsstag
Leuven Institute of Criminology
University of Leuven (KU Leuven)
Herbert Hooverplein 10
3000 Leuven, Belgium
estelle.zinsstag @ kuleuven.be

Chair: Miikka Vuorela (miikka.vuorela @ uef.fi)

Origin                  

Crime and punishment have been central themes for human communities since the dawn of mankind. Understanding how societies throughout history have attempted to react to and solve crime problems, employ punishments to control individual behavior, and affirm and impose social norms helps inform contemporary approaches. There are still many valuable lessons to learn and much to be uncovered from the failures and successes of the past. Therefore, the study of historical criminology is vital for the ambition to improve contemporary society’s strife for more effective criminal policy.

Historical criminology consists of a wide variety of research focuses. The common factor in these outlooks is the goal to describe and explain historical practices and developments, to better understand the past in the context of crime, punishment and social control.  Methodologically research projects comprise empirical, quantitative, qualitative, and theoretical approaches. Thematically, historical criminologists can study anything from the ancient Mesopotamian prisons to the crime rates during the Second World War and the developments in control policy in the early 21^st century.

Aims

The main ambitions of the working group are to bring together researchers from around the world to share knowledge, ideas and experiences and to promote collegial communication and collaboration between participants. In addition to informal functions, the group will organize a thematic panel at each annual meeting of the society.

Membership

The working group is open for all members of the society who are interested in the historical study of crime, punishment and social control. If you would like participate in the group, please send a message to the chair: miikka.vuorela @ uef.fi

Contact details

Miikka Vuorela

Law School

University of Eastern Finland

miikka.vuorela @ uef.fi

P.O. Box 111 (Yliopistokatu 2)

FI-80101 Joensuu, FINLAND

About the Working Group 

This annual conference provides a perfect opportunity to the members of the Research Group “Social Prerequisites for the Effective Fight Against Bias-Motivated Crimes Through Criminal Law and Minority Rights Protection” (SPECTRA)  to establish a specific ESC Working Group dealing specifically with hate crimes.

The ESC Working Group on Hate Crimes

• • explores the different state responses to hate crimes in the various jurisdictions represented in the Working Group enabling a comparative analysis;

• • explore the case-law with regard to hate crimes, and the difficulties that arise when enforcing hate crime legislation;
  • try to explore the reasons behind the discrepancy between official statistical data related to hate crimes and victimization data from surveys conducted amongst potential victims in various countries;
  • search for good practices in drafting hate crime laws and also in applying the respective legal provisions.Activities 
  • Continuous information and knowledge sharing among the members of the Working Group on the most important developments in relation to hate crimes, whether it be relevant legislation, judicial decisions, academic publications or research reports, data and statistics, or any other relevant on-line or off-line materials

• • Facilitating communication between European researchers on hate crimes
  • Stimulating permanent discussion on hate crimes in order to keep the issue on the agenda, influencing the decisions of stakeholders via professional publications, credible and reliable scientific research and professional contribution to the European and national decision-making processes
  • Exchanging experience with empirical research in the field of hate crimes; determining potential future research projects and research directions, developing collaborative opportunities to establish research teams and working closely with the members to better use of existing synergies
  • Continuous publication and dissemination activity
  • Organizing thematic workshops and sessions during the annual ESC conferences and beyond

More information: here

Eötvös Loránd University / Faculty of Law / Department of Criminology
H-1053 Budapest, Egyetem tér 1- 3., Hungary / +36 1 411 6521 ext. 2748

lendulet.hatecrimes @ gmail.com

Origins:

Rural criminology is an exciting and expanding research area in criminology. With over 40 per cent of the world’s population living in rural settings, it offers challenges and problems which in their nature are distinct from the issues faced by urban dwellers.

While the common perception of the countryside could be summarised as a rural idyll in fact members of rural services are facing many problems, often invisible for people coming from urban areas. Problems such as rural isolation, lack of services or spatial injustice are often an everyday reality of living in rural communities. Despite officially recorded crimes remaining low in the countryside, there is an issue to what extent those figures are representative due to lower levels of crime reporting. In addition, rural dwellers experience fear of crime levels similar to urban counterparts.

These, among other issues, make rural criminology research an important and relevant contribution to general criminological knowledge. Researchers working in that area should have an impact on the policy and be informative for the policymakers. This shall help to make the most beneficial decision for rural dwellers especially in terms of crime prevention or security.

In order to stimulate rural research in Europe and to promote contact between the various European researchers working in the area of rural criminology, we have established the European Rural Criminology [ERC] working group. Hence, we would like to invite all the ESC members interested and involved in any research having a focus on rural dwellers, crime or security issues in the countryside to combine their expertise and to join this working group.

Aim: To facilitate research in the area of rural criminology in Europe and maximize international dissemination of findings coming from the research of crime in the countryside.

Objectives:

• • unite European scholars interested in rural criminology
  • promote communication between European researchers working in the area of rural criminology
  • organise thematic rural sessions at the annual ESC meetings
  • allow for the sharing of cutting-edge research
  • establish cross-national research ties and promote international collaboration on rural criminology

Membership:

The working group is chaired by and its activities are coordinated by Kreseda Smith and Artur Pytlarz. All ESC-members interested and working in the area of rural criminology or crime in the countryside issues, in general, are invited to join. If you would like to join please send your contact details to Kreseda Smith (kresedasmith @ harper-adams.ac.uk) or Artur Pytlarz (artur.pytlarz @ gmail.com).

Chair: Ineke Haen Marshall (i.marshall @ northeastern.edu)

Background

The International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD) is a large, international, collaborative study of victimization and delinquency among adolescents. Pioneered by Dutch criminologist Josine Junger-Tas, the project is built on three strengths. First, it uses the self-report survey method, which has long been considered a more valid and reliable measure of offending and victimization than official data, and one which also enables the exploration of theoretically relevant variables.  Second, it uses a standardized survey instrument and sampling frame in a multinational data collection exercise that allows the study of similarities and differences between countries, and tests of theories in varied social, economic, political and cultural settings. Third, the ISRD is an ongoing project, currently beginning its fourth sweep (ISRD4 2020-2022), allowing patterns of offending and victimization to be tracked over time.  Earlier sweeps were conducted in 1991-1992 (ISRD1), 2006-2008 (ISRD2), and 2012-2019 (ISRD3).

Membership

The ISRD project consists of researchers (PI’s and their national teams) from different nations based in universities, research centers, government or other institutions.   Membership is open to institutions and individual researchers in all countries, on application to and acceptance by the Steering Committee (SC).  The ISRD project is governed through a Steering Committee:

Ineke Haen Marshall

Christopher Birkbeck

Dirk Enzmann

Janne Kivivuori

Anna Markina

Majone Steketee

Aim   To facilitate cross-national research on adolescent victimization and offending and maximize international dissemination of ISRD research results.

Objectives   A number of objectives in support of this aim have been established:

• • Organize thematic sessions at the annual ESC meeting
  • Organize annual pre-ESC conference ISRD workshop
  • Promote communication and collaboration between members of the ISRD network
  • Strengthen cross-national research ties between European researchers and researchers from outside Europe

Information available on the ISRD website   www.northeastern.edu/isrd

Chairs: Dr Elanie Rodermond and Dr Mark Littler

Origins and aims

Recent acts of terrorism and their direct and indirect impact on victims and societies have made the prevention of terrorism and violent extremism a priority in many European countries. The threat posed by Jihadi Islamist groups has combined with the threat posed by ongoing nationalist conflicts and the renewed strength of far-right groups to create a risk profile that is both highly complex and rapidly evolving. Policy makers and practitioners within our criminal justice systems have been forced to wrestle with the complexities of terrorist identification, punishment, and rehabilitation, while our judicial systems have struggled to balance the public’s right to protection from political violence with established norms surrounding social and political rights.

Against this backdrop, there is a need for scholarship that addresses these topics using criminological theories and research methods. To this end, this working group has been constituted with the following aims:

• • To promote communication between European scholars studying radicalization, extremism and terrorism;
  • To organize thematic sessions during the annual meeting of the European Society of Criminology;
  • To arrange regular meetings between core members of the working group;
  • To establish a cross-national research network;
  • Wherever possible, to foster collaborative work on European grant proposals, edited volumes and special issues.

Membership

Membership is open to all ESC members with an interest in radicalization, extremism, terrorism, and/or political violence.

Chairs

The activities of the group are coordinated by its co-chairs, Dr Elanie Rodermond and Dr Mark Littler.

e.rodermond @ vu.nl

m.littler @ hud.ac.uk

Chairs: Stefano Caneppele, Christine Burkhardt & Gian Maria Campedelli

Origins 

Since the beginning of 2020, the world is confronted to the spread of COVID-19. The repercussions from the health crisis itself and from the implementation of emergency measures are many and diverse. Health and safety challenges, as well as changes in lifestyle have affected different aspects of crime and the criminal justice system (e.g. police, courts, prisons, probation).

This exceptional historical period has prompted many researchers to analyze the evolution of the crisis originated by the pandemic and its consequences from different perspectives. At the latest ESC conference in September 2020, several researchers already presented papers related to the COVID-19 pandemic, which raised the idea of creating a forum of discussion on that topic for criminologists.

Aim and objectives 

The aim of this working group is to facilitate research and dissemination of findings, and encourage collaborations across Europe.

Specific objectives

– Examining to what extent crime and the criminal justice systems have been affected by the COVID-19 crisis

– Promoting knowledge and research on this topic among European researchers

– Establishing comparative research across Europe

– Creating a network for information exchange, findings dissemination and international collaboration

– Organizing regular meeting between the working group members as well as a specific panel at the ESC annual conference

Membership 

The working group is open to all ESC-members who are involved or interested in research projects related to crime, criminal justice and COVID-19 pandemic. If you like to join the working group, please send an email stating your name, affiliation, and a brief description of the research project you are working on to Stefano.caneppele @ unil.ch and christine.burkhardt @ unil.ch.

Please include WG CCJC in the subject field of your email message.

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