Criminology in Europe

In my previous presidential messages, I have argued for an open and interdisciplinary criminology and for a Society that promotes such an interpretation of criminology. First of all, this was about how I myself view criminology and what I have tried to carry out and apply as president this year.

In 2018, the European Society of Criminology (ESC) had 1,198 members, of which 22% were students. The 18th Annual Meeting of the Society took place in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, from 29 August to 1 September 2018 and attracted 1,203 participants, of which 74% were ESC members.

On 31 March 2019, Ron Huff passed away—only a few years after his retirement as the Dean of the School of Social Ecology at the University of California at Irvine—defeated by pancreatic cancer that he had battled with for more than a year. Ron played a decisive role in the establishment of the European Society of Criminology during the years 1999-2001.

It has become a tradition that conference organisers are asked to briefly summarise the state of the art of criminology in their country. Although Belgium is a rather small and relatively young nation, it has a long and rich historical tradition of criminological research. In fact, research topics which today would fall under the wide umbrella of criminological research were imported from Belgium’s neighbouring countries as soon as the Belgian nation-state emerged.

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. People who have never being found guilty of a crime often face significant hurdles too, as arrest records and even acquittals can prove highly consequential.

The new ESC Working Group, ‘European Violence Monitor’ (EViMo), established in December 2018, will gather engaging scientists in order to discuss and study violence by using a truly innovative and comparative approach.

The WG-QRME was launched during the 2017 ESC annual conference in Cardiff and, so far, has close to 80 registered members from a variety of universities and interested in a multitude of research topics. The WG-QRME aims to connect with the rest of the ESC working groups, thus providing the chance to focus on both topics and methodologies.

Dr. Aleksandras Dobryninas is Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of Criminology at the Institute of Sociology and Social Work, Faculty of Philosophy, Vilnius University. Graduating from Vilnius University as a mathematician (1977), he holds doctoral degrees in Philosophy (1985) and Sociology (habilitation procedure, 2005).

My name is Tom Daems and I am currently an associate professor (hoofddocent) at the Leuven Institute of Criminology (LINC), KU Leuven. Before taking up this position in Leuven I was an assistant professor in criminology and sociology of law at Ghent University.

My name is Bitna Kim. It is always an honor and a privilege to serve the European Society of Criminology (ESC) in any capacity, but I am humbled to be nominated as a candidate for the At-Large Representative of the Society.

I am a postdoctoral researcher (funded by a grant from the Research Foundation – Flanders) and lecturer at Ghent University and Vrije Universiteit Brussel. My expertise is situated at the intersection of several domains: migration and ethnicity, youth crime and youth justice, institutional discourses, the (in)sensitivity to diversity of judicial institutions, and (countering) discriminatory practices.

My name is Peter Stiernstedt, I was born on Sri Lanka, raised in Sweden and educated in the United Kingdom. As a person I am very much the embodiment of a stereotypical Swede. I am always on time (or a few minutes early), quite meticulous and have good attention to detail.

I am honoured to have been nominated for the role of At-Large Board Member for the European Society of Criminology. I have been a member of the ESC from the time I was a graduate student and have found it a welcoming, innovative and inspiring community fostering unique, cutting edge criminological research.