CEP International Conference on “Alternatives to detention”

Bucharest, Romania, Hotel Intercontinental, 6–7 October 2016

Have community sanctions and measures widened the

net of European criminal justice systems? Revisited

Marcelo F. AebiProfessor of Criminology at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Bucharest, 07/10/2016

Marcelo F. Aebi

Have community sanctions and measures widened the

net? Revisited

2

Ernesto Sabato

(1911-2011)

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Have community sanctions and measures widened the

net? Revisited

3

One and the Universe (1945)

Ernesto Sabato

(1911-2011)

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Marcelo F. Aebi

Have community sanctions and measures widened the

net? Revisited

4

One and the Universe (1945)

An ichthyologist throws his fishing

net to the sea and gets different

kinds of fish. He repeats the

operation several times, he

analizes, he classifies, and he

establishes the following laws :

1) There are no fish smaller than 5

centimeters long.

2) All fish have gills.

An observer remarks that the first

law is due to the size of the mesh of

the net.

Stanley Cohen

(1942-2013)

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Marcelo F. Aebi

Have community sanctions and measures widened the

net? Revisited

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The punitive city (Crime, Law and

Social Change, 1979)

“the major results of the new movements

towards ‘community’ and ‘diversion’ have

been to increase rather than decrease the

amount of intervention directed at many

groups of deviants in the system and,

probably, to increase rather than decrease

the total number who get into the system in

the first place. In other words: ‘alternatives’

become not alternatives at all but new

programs which supplement the existing

system or else expand it by attracting

new populations. I will refer to these two

overlapping possibilities as ‘thinning the

mesh’ and ‘widening the net’ respectively”

Net widening

• “the processes whereby attempts to prevent crime and

develop community-based corrections act to expand the

criminal justice system and draw more subjects into its

remit” (John Muncie, 2001).

Bucharest, 07/10/2016

Marcelo F. Aebi

Have community sanctions and measures widened the

net? Revisited

6

Front-end and Back-end Programs (Tonry and

Lynch, 1996)

• Front-end programs: sanction programs designed to avoid

sending an offender to prison

• Back-end programs: for offenders released early or diverted

to the program by corrections officials after serving a part of

their sentence in prison

Bucharest, 07/10/2016

Marcelo F. Aebi

Have community sanctions and measures widened the

net? Revisited

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Probation in Europe

• Probation “relates to the implementation in the community of

sanctions and measures, defined by law and imposed on an

offender. It includes a range of activities and interventions,

which involve supervision, guidance and assistance aiming

at the social inclusion of an offender, as well as at

contributing to community safety” (Council of Europe

Probation Rules, 2010).

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Have community sanctions and measures widened the

net? Revisited

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Probation in Europe

• Community sanctions and measures (CSM): “sanctions and

measures which maintain offenders in the community and

involve some restrictions on their liberty through the

imposition of conditions and/or obligations. The term

designates any sanction imposed by a judicial or

administrative authority, and any measure taken before or

instead of a decision on a sanction, as well as ways of

enforcing a sentence of imprisonment outside a prison

establishment” (Council of Europe Probation Rules, 2010).

Bucharest, 07/10/2016

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Have community sanctions and measures widened the

net? Revisited

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net? Revisited

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Probation and Prison Population Rate

• Probation population rate: Number of persons placed under

the supervision or care of probation agencies (or an

equivalent institution in countries that do not have such

agencies) per 100,000 inhabitants

– Probationers

• Prison population rate: Number of persons deprived of

freedom per 100,000 inhabitants

– Inmates

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Have community sanctions and measures widened the

net? Revisited

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Research question

Bucharest, 07/10/2016

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Have community sanctions and measures widened the

net? Revisited

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Example: Community service in Europe

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Marcelo F. Aebi

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net? Revisited

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International Comparisons Prison Statistics ¦

Aebi, Burkhardt, Chopin & Tiago14

• The percentage change between 2005 and 2014 for CoE Member States was -0.17%

136.4

140.3

139.7

144.1

146.5

149.6

156.8

151.7

139.0

136.2

120

130

140

150

160

170

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Ten-years evolution of the Prison Population Rates (2005-2014, n=39)

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net? Revisited

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net? Revisited

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Prison population rates

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net? Revisited

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net? Revisited

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Prison and probation

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net? Revisited

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Prison and probation

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net? Revisited

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net? Revisited

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Total populations

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Marcelo F. Aebi

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net? Revisited

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Main categories of sentenced prisoners by type of offence (median percentages in 2014)

International Comparisons Prison Statistics ¦

Aebi, Burkhardt, Chopin & Tiago23

Traditional theft is decreasing

Theft is no longer the main type of offence for which sentenced inmates are serving custody

The rise of e-crime is not reflected in the composition of prison populations

Most sentenced inmates are serving sentences for drug offences and violent offences

For drug and violent offences, inmates usually receive long sentences

* The median is less affected than the aver age by the ex t r eme values included in t he

dat aset . Ther efor e, t he medians ar e mor e r el iable than the aver age values and ar e pr ior i t ized in this ex ecut ive summar y.

!6

20.9 22.5 22.6 22.9 23.8 23.9 24.8 25.0 25.0 25.1 25.3

28.8 29.6 30.3

33.0 34.7

36.4 37.5

45.0

0 % 10 % 20 % 30 % 40 % 50 %

Ser bia

Switzer land

Russian Fed.

Luxembour g

Nor way

Spain ( total)

Spain (State Adm.)

Lithuania

Denmar k

Estonia

Cypr us

Azer bai jan

Montenegr o

Iceland

Gr eece

I taly

Andor r a

Geor gia

Malta

2014

Drug%offences%

proportion

median!rate

3. M ain character ist ics of custodial sentences

3.1. Type of offences in 2014 ( median values)

Figure!3

Figure!4

Thank you for your attention

Marcelo.Aebi@unil.c

h

Bucharest, 07/10/2016

Marcelo F. Aebi Have community sanctions and measures widened the net? Revisited

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mailto:Marcelo.Aebi@unil.ch,alindeg@uoc.edu