While research has increasingly focused on the role of digitalisation in prisoners’ detention experiences, the impact of the digitalisation of the prison regime on the discretionary power of prison officers has been understudied. By using an ethnographic approach in one digital Belgian prison, qualitative interview data are used to investigate the prison officer’s coping strategies in response to the digitalisation of prison life. It is found that the gatekeeping role of prison officer’s has been partly stripped away but also that the impact of digitalisation on the prison officer’s discretionary power depends on how digital technologies are implemented. Moreover, the study reveals that not all official goals regarding the digitalisation are met and highlights the need of supporting prison officers when implementing new technologies in prison.

In this article, the questions why scientific misconduct has become a subject of criminological research and how scientific misconduct relates to a production-oriented academic culture are examined. It is argued that the current academic career path produces an anomic academic culture. The authors further examine the slippery notion of the term ‘scientific misconduct’ and conclude that questions about the prevalence or increase of scientific misconduct are hardly answerable. They also point at a number of undesirable side-effects of the emerging culture of distrust and control in academia, amongst which socially disengaged, highly predictable and little innovative research. They end with a plea to recapture a truly academic culture.

Prison policy in Belgium and the Netherlands is changing rapidly. While Belgium struggles with a persisting prison overcrowding, the Netherlands strongly cuts back on the prison system and is closing an increasing number of prisons. This introductory article to a special issue on detention starts with a short outline of recent changes in Dutch and Belgian prison policy, focusing on developments in detention capacity and prison population. Subsequently we present an overview of empirical criminological research in the Netherlands and Belgium, situated within the international literature, with a specific focus on studies regarding life in detention and effects of detention on prisoners' lives and on their social environment. Finally, we reflect upon existing detention research in both countries, e.g. in terms of gaps in research topics and methodology, and discuss some future developments.

The detention experiences of male criminal foreign national prisoners without legal residence receive little attention in penological literature. A qualitative study amongst 30 prisoners with and 16 prisoners without legal residence in the penitentiary institution Tilburg shows that contacts with the social network and the preparation of the reintegration in society are (more) complicated for foreign national prisoners without legal residence. Besides, communication with the staff is more difficult for this group. These factors have negative impact on their detention experiences. The results show that both deprivation and importation theory apply to foreign national prisoners without legal residence. However, importation aspects – especially the lack of legal residence – may substantially and systematically increase the deprivation and result in additional exclusion and isolation mechanisms for this particular group.

Since the last years there is extensive ongoing debate in Belgium about jury trials at the Assize Court. These trials are an example of direct participation of citizens in the criminal justice system. Hence this jury has obtained a special position in the Belgian administration of justice. Jury deliberations behind closed doors and the isolation of jury members from the outside world contribute to the fascination for this legal phenomenon. The element of secrecy also explains why there is so little empirical research on the jury’s functioning and the jurors’ experiences during the process. By means of interviews with former jury members, we studied the influence of lay participation in a jury trial on their views and confidence in jury decision making. We found that a positive evaluation of participation in a jury may strengthen their involvement with and trust in jury decision making. However, our research also reveals that jury trials may lead to some unacceptable deficits in the proceedings and outcome of the process. These results are contextualised in the broader debate about the jury and the demand for reform of the assize court proceedings.

Rechters leggen straffen op. Maar in België worden gevangenisstraffen tot zes maanden vaak niet uitgevoerd. In de andere gevallen komt het gros van de veroordeelden voor strafeinde vrij. In welke mate hebben ze kennis van de strafuitvoering? En hoe gaan rechters hier mee om? Beïnvloedt een mogelijke vervroegde invrijheidstelling of niet-uitvoering van de straf hun strafbepaling? Gaan ze met andere woorden langere straffen opleggen om te compenseren voor deze niet – of gedeeltelijke uitvoering van de gevangenisstraf?Om deze vragen te beantwoorden lichten de auteurs eerst het (complexe) Belgische invrijheidsstellingsbeleid toe en wordt er stil gestaan bij de in 2007 opgerichte strafuitvoeringsrechtbanken. Vervolgens wordt op basis van survey-onderzoek, individuele en groepsinterviews met Belgische rechters hun visie op de strafuitvoering in kaart gebracht en de argumentaties met betrekking tot al dan niet compensatorisch gedrag besproken. Het gebruik van verschillende bevragingstechnieken zet de auteurs ook aan tot enkele methodologische reflecties omtrent de onderzoekbaarheid van dit vraagstuk.

Research on magistrates’ penal attitudes has long been a blank spot in both the Netherlands and in Belgium. In the Netherlands, a theoretically integrated measurement instrument has been developed revealing the general structure of penal attitudes held by Dutch judges. It showed that the complex of penal attitudes is dominated by two independent perspectives: harsh treatment and social constructiveness. The latter perspective encompasses rehabilitation and restorative justice. Replicating the Dutch measurement instrument, penal attitudes of Belgian magistrates were recently examined. This article reports the results and compares them to earlier findings in the Netherlands. It is shown that, in contrast to Dutch magistrates’ penal attitudes, the structure of Belgian magistrates’ attitudes reveals an autonomous role for restorative justice. This finding and possible explanations are elaborated upon.