Traumatization and mental distress in long-term prisoners in Europe

This article investigates the prevalence of traumatization and mental distress in a sample of 1055 male European long-term prisoners as part of a wider study of the living conditions of prisoners serving sentences of at least five years in Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Spain and Sweden. Data were collected in a written survey using the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS), the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) as well as questions on attempted suicide and auto-aggressive behaviour. Participants experienced a mean of three traumatic events, with 14 per cent developing a Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) subsequently. In each national sample, more than 50 per cent of the participants were in need of treatment because of psychological symptoms and nearly one-third had attempted suicide

Las penas de larga duración y los derechos humanos –conclusiones de un estudio internacional–

This article shows a selection of findings obtained from the research project entitled "Long term sentences and the human rights situation in countries that are members of the European countries". The research sought to examine the observance of human rights standards in relation to persons sentenced to long-term criminal sanctions (five years or more) in eleven countries that are members of the European Union. The research also includes the study of the living conditions in prison for inmates, their training and leisure time, their contact with the outside world and their organizational culture as well.El presente artículo da cuenta de una selección de conclusiones extraídas a propósito del proyecto de investigación denominado “Las penas de larga duración y la cuestión de los derechos humanos en los países miembros de la Unión Europea”. Dicho proyecto tuvo por objeto estudiar el nivel de cumplimento de los estándares europeos de derechos humanos en los condenados a penas de larga duración (penas de cinco años o más)en once países miembros de la Unión Europea. Asimismo, el trabajo de investigación consideró dentro de su ámbito de estudio las condiciones de vida en prisión, formación, tiempo libre y contacto con el mundo exterior de los condenados a penas de larga duración, así como la cultura institucional

Chapter 3: Criminal Justice in Numbers

International audienceThis chapter provides key figures on the French and German criminal justice system in a comparative and longitudinal perspective. It also gives a quick overview of the vast body of German and French research on the development of domestic criminal justice statistics. These statistics on the input (police), output (convictions) and backend (prisons) of French and German criminal justice also give a hint on whether the intentions of the law (Ch

Impending Challenges to Penal Moderation in France and Germany: A Strained Restraint

International audienceThis book investigates the penal culture in France and Germany – how it is shaped in politics, media, and public opinion. Although compared with the US or the UK, France and Germany seem to place a strong emphasis on the ideal of rehabilitation that would block excessive punishment and other outcomes of punitive developments in society, there is a steady increase in punitiveness over time for which the term “strained restraint” is proposed. The book shows that the idea of penal moderation is deeply rooted in public opinion, politics, and the media and that it is renegotiated every day in a dynamic interplay between these spheres.Punishment and society research has traditionally focused on the US and the UK. In comparative research, both are considered extreme in punitive developments with high rates of imprisonment and large groups of the population under penal control. The other extreme in comparative research would be Scandinavia with the famous Nordic Exceptionalism marked by low prison population rates. Germany and France are often considered to be “the same” when compared with each other, and “the other” with reference to both of these extremes. However, this book shows that France and Germany are far from being the same when it comes to state organization (centralistic vs. federal), criminal justice and the criminal law, political traditions, and the media. Also, research from both countries has looked at whether developments such as the “punitive turn” have occurred in Germany and France. Research focused on the domestic situation concludes that punitiveness is on the rise, and that both countries are indeed experiencing their own punitive turn.How do we reconcile these contradictory findings? Why do these two seem to follow the path of penal moderation in the overall outcome of punishment in society when we look at comparative research? And how is it that from a domestic perspective, punitive attitudes and desires are leading to more punitiveness? By focusing on the meso level, with a comparative perspective on the two countries and a dynamic analytical approach, this book reconciles the fluidity of individual attitudes and opinions with the relative stability of societal discourse. The authors posit that penal moderation comes at a price: overall and in an internationally comparative perspective, there is penal moderation, but a closer look at the domestic situation and development reveals that it is nonetheless challenged by a slowly rising tide of punitiveness.Going beyond the main tenets of punishment and society research with a dynamic analysis of two large societies in Europe, this book is ideal reading for scholars and students of penology, criminal justice, and European studies

A Strained Restraint: The Ambivalences of Penal Moderation in Germany and France

International audienceIn this chapter, the findings of this book are summarized with a view to penal moderation and how it is challenged and then analysed to find out how the public, politicians and the media interact in the production of penal moderation. What we see is a dynamic between these three spheres of a constant renegotiation of rational restraint and passionate outburstsa strained restraint. While these outbursts as well as assumptions about attitudes in the population in particular contribute to an increase in punitiveness foremost in penal legislation, these reactions are themselves moderate in their outcome. The chapter concludes with reflections on role of deliberation processes in a democratic society for penal culture

Chapter 1: Testing the Continental Restraint Hypothesis in France and Germany

International audienceThis chapter situates our project on Penal Cultures on the Continent within the international debate, explains key concepts for our research and gives an outline of the book. For many of the classical texts with a focus on the U.S./UK perspective, there has been a debate in Continental European countries about whether these narratives also hold true for one's own country. In some texts, the U.S. have been contrasted with Continental European countries directly or categories of countries have been developed according to political regime indicators such as the model of the welfare state or of democracy in which the U.S. usually sticks out. France and Germany are sometimes placed in the same, sometimes in different categories. In a more recent strand of European research, the concept of penal moderation has been developed, which we are going to explore further in this book. As the following chapters will show, the situation in France and Germany follows this path of penal moderation, although this does not mean that punitive attitudes and desires are completely suppressed