Aims

Objectives (in termes of skills)
The objective of the course is to train students in what Ancel termed "the basic method" of Crime policy research, a method "which adopts a comparative approach to the study of the development, current state and future" of mechanisms used in the "fight against crime" and in the "redistribution of the social costs of crime". Emphasis is laid initially on developing students' theoretical skills, introducing them to the way in which Crime Policy is viewed in traditional doctrine, within traditional and new social defense theories and in the abolitionist perspective. The course also focuses on the analysis of mechanisms and specific practices in the fight against crime and the redistribution of the social costs of crime. Care is taken to select those mechanisms and practices which will give students an insight into the various actors, both in Belgium and in Europe, who are involved in defining crime policies.

Main themes

The course is divided into three parts, preceded by an introduction:
1. The introduction defines and discusses the concept of "criminal policy"; it describes, in a summary way, the object and the methods of the search for criminal policy and examines its relationship with legal research and criminological research.
2. The first theoretical part, examines, from the point of view of Foucauld, the doctrines of criminal policy worked out by J Bentham, A. Prins, F Gramatica and L Hulsman. It introduces the students being studied of the penal or social rationality which crosses right through the devices of prevention or repression that these authors imagine, and sticks to highlight "the essential parts of them" (P. Pasquino) as well as the anthropology which is subjacent for them. The study of the four quoted doctrines is reported to contemporary debates; the teacher is attentive to locate the indices of contemporary transformations of penal rationality.
3. The second part develop the knowledge of specific tools of the search for crime policy.
4. The third part applies the theoretical and technical assets of first and second parts to the study of devices and specific practices of fight against the crime.

Content and teaching methods

The introduction, as well as the first and the second parts of the course are exempted ex will cathedra; the interaction between teacher and students is developed by the teacher.
According to years', the third part takes the form of presentations of research, carried out by the teacher or under his direction or the form of seminars relating to specific devices of fight against the crime or redistribution of the social costs of the crime.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Evaluation : written exam.

Other credits in programs