Straus Fellow
Academic Year 2010-2011
Sonja Snacken
Sonja Snacken is Professor of Criminology, Penology and Sociology of Law at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium), where she now holds a five year ‘Research Fellowship’ (2006-2011). Her research focuses on sentencing and the implementation of custodial and non-custodial sentences in Belgium and Europe. She participates in several international scientific networks, both English- and French-speaking, is a member of the Editorial Board of high standing international journals (Punishment and Society, Déviance et Société), was elected president of the European Society of Criminology (2004-2005), acts as an expert for the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (since 1994) and is a member (since 2001) and President (since 2006) of the Council for Penological Cooperation of the Council of Europe. At national level, she was a member of the drafting committee for the first Prison Act in Belgium (2005) and president of the drafting committee for the Act on the External Legal Position of Prisoners (2006).
Research Project
Resisting Punitiveness in Europe?
Welfare, Democracy and Human Rights
The objective of the proposed research is to analyse the body of law and policy on non-custodial punishment that has emerged at the European level, and to develop it further in the light of the general human rights principles and penological insights that underpin European thinking in this area. The intention is to complement our earlier book with D. van Zyl Smit on Principles of European Prison Law and Policy (2009) in order to give as complete an overview as possible of the key elements of the European approach to punishment. Like its predecessor, this book proceeds from the position that penal law and policy cannot be understood or developed rationally without a wider understanding of the social reality of punishment in Europe. It also aims to develop further the arguments about a radical reduction in the use of imprisonment, which were introduced in the earlier book, by considering non-custodial punishments not only in their own right but also specifically as alternatives to imprisonment.
