Conference Report

European criminology went East – and finally it did so! This year’s conference in Bucharest, Romania, not only marked the eastern most geographical reach in Europe for the ESC annual conference, but it was also the most postponed conference in our society’s history, as Andra-Roxana Trandafir – the local organiser – reminded us during her plenary speech(3).

But let’s proceed in order.

The city of Bucharest. A remarkable city with a post- communist vibe, Bucharest struck me for its vitality, complexity, and its mixture of communist-style buildings, ancient churches, scaffolded buildings, and more ‘modern’ (including tourist-oriented) venues, especially in the Old Town. I think it can be easily described as a layered city, where multiple historical and aesthetic layers coexist, collide, and merge, making the city extremely interesting and perhaps even charming, in its own peculiar way.

The conference. The conference was very pink! I am sure delegates of this year’s Eurocrim clearly remember the 150 pink-T-shirt-wearing students who dotted the Law Faculty’s entrance hall as well as the floors where the conference panels were held. As Andra noted in her speech, many of these students had not even started their first year at the Law Faculty, yet they showed up for 4 consecutive days, from dawn to dusk, to help out, ensure that the registration would go smoothly, and escort helpless delegates who, like me, would keep losing their bearings and never find the right room. A big ‘thank you’ to these tireless and polite students!

The conference kick-started on Wednesday – after a multitude of pre-conference meetings – with the opening plenary, the lovely concert, and the reception conveniently hosted in the courtyard right outside the imposing faculty building.

The opening plenary started with the welcome by R°zvan Dinc° and Marian Preda, the Dean of
the Faculty of Law and Rector of the University of Bucharest respectively, and with the presentations by Josep Maria Tamarit Sumalla, the now past-president, and Andra-Roxana Trandafir, the local organiser. From Josep’s plenary talk, we learnt that over the past 21 years of EUROCRIM annual conferences, some topics have featured more than others, and some have remained constant in the conferences’ programmes. For example, interest in criminal justice, sanctions, security and policing in public spaces have roughly remained unaltered, suggesting them as core criminological issues. By contrast, topics such as the prevention of organised crime and youth delinquency have featured less in the conferences’ programmes over time. Interestingly, among the topics which have increased in prevalence, there are those centred around victims and abuse, and restorative justice.

The second plenary talk by Andra shed light on the history of criminology in Romania. From Andra’s
talk we learnt that criminology was outright absent in the 20th century and was even prohibited during communism. In the early 2000s, the National Institute of Criminology was established, only to be dismantled, re-established and then dismantled again some years later. The Institute’s demise, however, did not mark the end of criminological research in the country, which today is very much alive and thriving. Andra also reminded us of the importance of holding our annual conferences in ‘not-the-usual-places’ but also in countries where EUROCRIM has never been hosted – to reach out and be accessible to everyone in Europe. As she suggested during her presentation, the number of Romanian delegates at the ESC annual conferences rose from only 3 in 2013 and around 15 in both 2020 and 2022 to 46 at this year’s event. Hopefully, these numbers will increase even further in the future.

The following days of the conference were buzzing, with a total of 1577 delegates, 1242 papers presented in prearranged and regular panels, 32 roundtables, 13 author-meets-critics sessions and 114 posters exhibited during a lovely Ice Cream Social.

On Thursday we had our first plenary, with inspiring presentations from Anna-Maria GetoÊ Kalac
and Thomas Ugelvik. Presenting the findings of a homicide study in six countries in the Balkans, Anna-Maria challenged the myth of the Balkans as being violence-ridden. Such myths, however, shape people’s perceptions both in and outside the region, also arguably making these countries more subject to penal populism. The second talk of Thursday’s plenary by Thomas expanded prison and desistance research by suggesting that the body, embodiment, and pain can be thought about in different and more positive ways than previously envisaged. The body of individuals in prison does not only become weaker, for example, because of sedentary prison life; it can also become stronger while experiencing pain as in the case of running – an activity that can help former offenders to learn how to manage pain and ultimately support their desistance processes.

The last two plenaries on Friday and Saturday featured presentations on corporate crime and violence against women, respectively. In the first plenary talk on Friday, Sally Simpson outlined some new research areas for corporate crime research, inviting this scholarship and the wider discipline of criminology to collaborate more prominently in the future. In the following plenary talk, Nicholas Lord – interestingly starting from personal experiences working in business – presented his conceptual framework centred around the organisation, which helps understand and explain white collar and corporate crime.

The final plenary on Saturday focused on women either as victims or former offenders. Marieke Liem presented findings from a comparative project on feminicide involving six European countries where female homicide victimisation rates were also compared to male victimisation, resulting in the identification of some specificities as well as overlaps between them. Last but not least, Ioan Durnescu presented compelling findings on the post-prison trajectories of Roma women in Romania, which he analysed through an intersectional lens.

A report on this year’s conference cannot end without a mention to the farewell dinner, which was held in Caru’ cu Bere – a historical, beautiful restaurant in the Old Town serving traditional Romanian food while showcasing traditional dancing interludes. I had an early night because of conference-related commitments the next morning but couldn’t help observing the many colleagues who enthusiastically joined in the dances, and the very tired (yet delighted) faces of many others who slept very little that night (probably, because of the many cocktails they had at the cocktail party!). In short, it was a blast!

Bucharest, Romania, multumesc – thank you – hopefully, we shall see you again very soon.