Criminology in Europe

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. Hence, EViMo will serve as a platform for discussion and powerful talks on violence phenomena, while at the same time avoiding a fragmentary approach by taking a comprehensive look into violence itself. Violence, as a global phenomenon, deserves a holistic and interdisciplinary approach to its phenomenology and aetiology.

This group will strive to encourage networking and stimulate empirical research on violence by looking at the criminological reality of violence. Rather than deal with its normative and therefore social conceptualisation, EViMo will foster a discussion on violence itself in order to see it as it is: a criminological reality, a social appearance, and a real-life event. This ‘appearance focused’ path in criminological discussions on violence should consequently reveal violence hidden behind the criminal law framework, abstract concepts and subjective categories. To put it simply, EViMo will discuss violence, not focusing only on homicides, minor offenders, domestic violence or other mainstream categories of violence which usually leads towards fragmentary and blurred results. Furthermore, by taking a step back from normative labels and providing different methodological and empirical aspects of criminological violence research, EViMo will undertake general ‘brainstorming’ on violence research. So far, our working group consists of members from different scientific fields coming from all around Europe. Even though the EViMo working group has just started, some of the group members already collaborate on a project ‘Violence Research Lab, under the leadership of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Anna-Maria Getoš Kalac.

This group is particularly looking forward to meeting its members at the following ESC Conference in Ghent, Belgium (2019). A total of eight members of this group will give presentations on two panels: CRIMINOLOGICAL VIOLENCE RESEARCH - Session 1: Concepts & Normative Aspects and CRIMINOLOGICAL VIOLENCE RESEARCH - Session 2: Methodology & Empirical Aspects.

We encourage everyone to join our panel sessions and contribute to a critical and inclusive discussion on violence.

Our activities will include the organisation of panels at the ESC Annual Conferences, subsequent annual group meetings, promotion of group members’ collaboration, encouraging of joint publications and project cooperation.

Finally, we always welcome new members. All ESC members with an interest in violence-related issues are welcome to join us. If you are interested, please contact chair of the group Assoc. Prof. Dr. Anna-Maria Getoš Kalac (anna.kalac [at] violence-lab.eu) or Reana Bezić (reana.bezic [at] violence-lab.eu).

More information on the working group and its members can be found on the working group’s website. Please visit: https://www.violence-lab.eu/evimo/.

Petra Šprem is project assistant and a doctoral student at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Law