Exit gevangenis? De werking van de strafuitvoeringsrechtbanken en de wet op de externe rechtspositie van veroordeelden tot een vrijheidsstraf

Sinds de zaak-Dutroux in 1996 is de vervroegde invrijheidstelling van gedetineerden regelmatig voorwerp van emotionele discussies in de media, waarbij de belangen van slachtoffers en gedetineerden vaak tegen elkaar worden uitgespeeld. De zaak-Dutroux heeft de hervorming van het invrijheidstellingstraject van gedetineerden echter in een stroomversnelling gebracht. Het resultaat is een compleet vernieuwde regelgeving, beslissingsprocedure en -praktijk, met als kers op de taart de oprichting van multidisciplinaire strafuitvoeringsrechtbanken. In dit boek blikken criminologen en juristen terug op dit belangrijke hervormingsproces, dat wordt gesitueerd in zijn historische, maatschappelijke, juridische en beleidsmatige context. Het boek presenteert verder resultaten van de belangrijkste empirische onderzoeken over de toepassing van de nieuwe regelgeving en de aanpassing hieraan door het werkveld. Er wordt afgesloten met een kritische beschouwing van de recente ontwikkelingen, tegen het licht van de oorspronkelijke hervormingsvoorstellen van de zogenaamde commissie Holsters

Comparing electronic monitoring regimes: Length, breadth, depth and weight equals tightness

This paper compares the use of electronic monitoring in three European jurisdictions – Belgium, England and Wales and the Netherlands. It suggests that rates of use, the accepted method of comparison in relation to imprisonment and a proxy measure of ‘punitiveness’ provide a misleading picture when applied to electronic monitoring. This paper transforms Crewe's concept of ‘tightness’ from a dimension of weight to encompass the overlapping elements of length, breadth, depth and weight to provide a framework for analysing how electronic monitoring regimes are designed to disrupt the lives of monitored individuals. Electronic monitoring regimes are diverse and ‘tightness’ varied as much, if not more, within as between jurisdictions. Comparisons of ‘tightness’ also inverted the scale of ‘punitiveness’ produced using rates of use

Testate amoebae as proxy for water level changes in a brackish tidal marsh

Few studies have examined testate amoebae assemblages of estuarine tidal marshes. This study investigates the possibility of using soil testate amoebae assemblages of a brackish tidal marsh (Scheldt estuary, Belgium) as a proxy for water level changes. On the marsh surface an elevation gradient is sampled to be analyzed for testate amoebae assemblages and sediment characteristics. Further, vegetation, flooding frequency and soil conductivity have been taken into account to explain the testate amoebae species variation. The data reveal that testate amoebae are not able to establish assemblages at the brackish tidal marsh part with flooding frequencies equal to or higher than 36.5%. Further, two separate testate amoebae zones are distinguished based on cluster analysis. The lower zone’s testate amoebae species composition is influenced by the flooding frequency (~ elevation) and particle size, while the species variability in the higher zone is related to the organic content of the soil and particle size. These observations suggest that the ecological meaning of elevation shifts over its range on the brackish tidal marsh. Testate amoeba assemblages in such a brackish habitat show thus a vertical zonation (RMSEP: 0.19 m) that is comparable to the vertical zonation of testate amoebae and other protists on freshwater tidal marshes and salt marshes

Understanding the relationship between mothers’ attitudes toward television and children’s television exposure: A longitudinal study of reciprocal patterns and the moderating role of maternal stress

This two-wave panel study among mothers (N = 508) of children between ages six months and six years investigated a) the possibility of a reciprocal relationship between mothers’ attitudes toward television and children’s television viewing, and b) the conditional probability of this reciprocal relationship. Two-wave multigroup cross-lagged analyses provided evidence for reciprocal patterns that depend on the level of maternal stress. The findings indicated that mothers’ attitudes toward television predicted children’s subsequent television viewing among non-stressed mothers, but not among stressed mothers. Children’s television viewing predicted mothers’ subsequent negative attitudes toward television among stressed mothers, but not among non-stressed mothers. Implications for the role of parents’ attitudes regarding children’s television viewing are discussed