CRIMINAL POLICY AND CRIMINOLOGICAL THEORY:
INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
(Master criminologie, 2023-2024)
Code live classes: 022060 op https://livestream.kuleuven.be
Criminal policy and criminological theory: international and comparative perspective (C08C7a), 1
prof. Paoli, 2023-2024
,1. Introduction: criminal policy, criminological theory (and research)
and policy analysis: what are they about and what are the links?
(26/09)
1.1. Course aims and contents
• Content map of course:
I. Policy analysis and policy plans
II. Criminal policy: empirical analyses and normative reflections
III. Criminological theory (and research) and their contribution to society
• Generic aim:
- Being able to reflect critically on what criminology is or should be, what you want to do with
your criminological expertise and what kind of criminal policy interventions you want to
contribute to
1.2. The key concepts of this course
• What is criminal policy?
- Strategy for dealing with crimes: preventing sexual harrassment on campus, …
- Also includes punishments for those crimes
- ≠ penal policy: pp is the criminal justice system (courts, prison sentences, …), criminal policy
is more than that, it is more than the punishing itself (bv Beccaria: straf als ultimum
remedium)
❖ Offender rehabilitation
❖ Prevention programs
❖ Restorative justice offers
❖ Victim assistance programs
❖ …
• What is criminal policy embedded in?
- In many countries, it is a part of safety and security policies
- Security policy is broader and more proactive: also prevention of natural disasters, subjective
security (making people feel more safe), …
o Public-private partnerships
o Interventions promoting objective and subjective safety
- These things are further embedded in governance of security: businesses, households etc.
are increasingly made responsible for their own safety:
o Companies’ preventive measures
o Households’ preventive measures
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,• Definition of criminal policy:
- “All the criminal and non-criminal measures to protect society against crime (1), to
determine the fate of offenders (2) and to guarantee the rights of victims (3)” – Council of
Europe, Report of Recommendation nr R(83)7 on participation of the public crime in policy,
1983
- Thus it encompasses penal policy but it has become much broader especially since 1950s
• Security policy and governance of security:
- No clear-cut distinction between security and government of security in many countries (but
in BE and NED distinct crime-related security policy)
- Security policy aims to guarantee both objective and subjective security:
o Bv protection from natural disasters and other non-military security threats + promotion
of security feelings
o Often part of broader national security policies
- Governance of security (zie groen): focus on measures taken by private sectors, primarily
businesses and households, sometimes in partnership with public agencies, to protect their
interests
• What are and should be the aims of criminal policy?
- Aims are often not clearly stated
- Crime reduction cannot be the ultimate aim … (as crime is a constructed category)
o Nor offenders’ rehabilitation
o Nor deterrence
o Nor victims’ assistance (because a lot of crimes are victimless)
o Nor procedural protection of human rights (bv fair trial)
• Which theories types are there in criminology?
- Looser understanding of theories in criminology and other social sciences: ‘a causes b’, using
experiments and research to prove the theory, …
1) Substantive theories:
o Etiological theories on crime (bio, psycho, socio and integrated) + related research
o Theories on criminal policies, specific interventions or their effects + related research
o + concepts and General Social Theories (GST)
2) Normative theories on criminal law/policy, punishment and alternative approaches
3) “Background” theories: ontology (philosophy reflecting on being and nature of human
condition), epistemology (philosophy of nature of knowing, knowledge) and metho-dology
(philosophy of scientific method)
• What is the relationship between criminological theory (and research) and criminal policy?
- Criminological theories have repeatedly influenced criminal policy (see examples):
o (Beccaria: adoption of modern criminal law codes in early 19th century)
o Lombroso + Nieuwe Richting: adaption offender-based criminal law in late
o Psychological criminology: focus on offender’s rehabilitation from 1950s onwards
o Labelling approach: reform of juvenile criminal laws from 1960s onwards
o RAT and rational choice theory: Situational Crime Prevention from 1980s onwards
o …. (Zie ppt voor meer voorbeelden)
- BUT limited research on criminal policy comparison and evaluation:
o Growing body of evaluative work on specific interventions (bv hot spots, bodycams)
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, o Rise of (comparative) penology only since 1990s (before criminal policy considered
automatic reactions to crime)
o Limited reflections on / evaluation of, criminal policy in academic circles …
▪ Debate especially in criminal law
▪ Normative reflections still considered unscientific by many mainstream
criminologists
o … and even less so in policy and public debate:
▪ Criminal policy seen as due/automatic reaction to crimes
▪ Many politicians afraid of looking ‘soft on crime’
Advances in criminal policy are only possible through identification of aims and
policy evaluation
1.3. What is policy analysis?
• Policy analysis can be the answer … but what is it?
- PA is applied social science discipline designed for improving policymaking (“in” and “about”
policymaking)
- It aims at creation, critical assessment, and communication of policy-relevant knowledge:
o Supporting evidence-based policy (evidence is casually relevant knowledge of relations
between (1) policies and (2) short-term, intermediate and long-term policy outcomes)
o Challenging arguments of others
- Eclectic, pragmatic and multidisciplinary, especially economics and political sciences but also
ethics
- Descriptive and normative: what the problem or policy is and what it ought to be (for both
aims and means)
• Problem structuring is essential:
- Is central guidance system of policy analysis: governs production and transformation of
knowledge produced by other methods
- Is metamethod to transform “problem situation” in “policy problem”: defining wrong
problem (Type II error) is fatal problem in policymaking and analysis!!
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, Different theories (may) play different roles in policy analysis / process:
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,2. The five steps of policy analysis and instructions for your policy
plans (03/10)
2.1. The five phases of policy analysis
1. PROBLEM STRUCTURING (probleem structureren)
• Key moment of policy analysis, metamethod:
- Central guidance system that affects following phases
- Can be chaotic, a bit of a mess because it is still very unclear
• Starting points are usually diffuse worries and signs of stress: “problem situation”:
- Transformed into “policy problems” through problem structuring
- Bv migration crisis: how can we solve such problems, how can the European Societies help
and what should they change?
• Characteristics of problems:
- Interdependency: “a mess”, hence holistic approach
- Subjectivity: partly subjective and partly objective
- Artificiality: socially constructed
- Instability: in constant flux, hence possible unanticipated consequences
• A variant: policy issues:
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,• Example:
- Bv should we as a country legalize cannabis? Should we ban prostitution in the city center?
- Often a lot of different parties and people that are involved and/or will be impacted by your
decisions
- Same problems can be dealt with in many different ways, from different perspectives, …
• Three types of problems:
• Phases of problem structuring:
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,2. FORECASTING (voorspellen)
• Meaning:
- Sets of procedures for creating information about future states of society, especially
expected policy outcomes (+ future values and desirability of future societal states)
- Three types:
- Best used in combination, sometimes limited accuracy, but still useful
o Accuracy is particularly limited for crime, both spikes and declines poorly
understood/hardly forecast
- Bv predicting the amount of coke that will enter the Port of Antwerp
• Approaches to forecasting:
3. PRESCRIBING (voorschrijven)
• Meaning:
- Transforming information about expected policy outcomes into information about preferred
policies (unavoidably normative: facts + values)
- Advocative claims:
o Actionable
o Prospective
o Value laden
o Ehtically complex: intrinsic + extrinsic values (bv security)
- Multiple advocacy, i.e. comparison of options, necessary to avoid “over-advocacy trap”
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,• Choice is reasoned rather than rational:
• Which decision criteria should be adopted?
• CBA is standard method for private sector:
- Mostly used in private policies, like the US
- Sometimes in Europe
• Other prescription methods: objective mapping:
- Dunn also proposes other prescription methods: mostly linked to CBA and too difficult for
your purposes
- But objective mapping is helpful and feasible: aims + objectives
- Try to identify your main goals (bv increasing security feelings), objectives are more the
specific targets (bv in 5 years we want 10% more positive security feelings)
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, - !! Paper: many student made switched up goals, objectives and interventions!! So make sure you make a clear
extinction between the different aspects
o Bv goal: more succesful rehabilitation
o Bv objective: 7% more succesful rehabilitations for your offenders out of prison in 2 years, really specific and
measurable, one goal often has more objectives
o Bv intervention: a program to use to improve (bv mental health checks)
4. MONITORING (controle)
• Meaning:
- Primarily concerned with establishing factual outcomes of public policies
- Bv how many meals are given in prison, how many officers are used in a protest
- Several functions in policy analysis: compliance + auditing + accounting + description and
explanation
- Data can come from existing sources or (combination of) questionnaires, interviews, field
observations, and use of agency records
- We need information that is relevant, reliable and valid: important to identify good
operational definitions and indicators
• Policy relevant causes and effects:
- Really try to understand and remember the different components for your paper!!
- Concepts are interconnected but they are often not linear! You never know what fully causes
crime, so you shouldn’t simply make up measures without taking broader social problems
into consideration (bv covid + spiking: doesn’t really seem connected but eventually they
were)
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