Archives of Criminology
type: channel
description: “Archiwum Kryminologii” (“Archives of Criminology”) is the oldest and the most prestigious Polish criminological journal, published since 1960 by the Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The founder and the editor-in-chief was Professor Stanisław Batawia. Currently, Professor Witold Klaus serves as the editor-in-chief. The journal is published biannually, and it is bilingual (papers in Polish and English are accepted). The Editorial Committee of the journal consists of eminent European criminologists, and the reviewers are recruited from among experts in the field. The aim of the journal is to promote the outcomes of well-designed empirical research, as well as methodological and theoretical studies. Papers published in “Archiwum Kryminologii” (“Archives of Criminology”) focus on various topics: criminality and criminalisation, criminal and penal policy, the practices of criminal justice systems, victimisation and victims’ rights, crime prevention, juvenile delinquency, criminological theories etc. The journal constitutes a platform for scientific communication among academics especially (but not exclusively) from Poland and other Central and Eastern European countries. The Journal publishes original articles that utilize a broad range of methodologies and perspectives when examining crime, law, and criminal justice processing. All submitted manuscripts undergo a double blind peer review process before publication via an online-first model in Open Access.
publisher: Instytut Nauk Prawnych Polskiej Akademii Nauk
language: en
publication name: Archives of Criminology
issn: 0066-6890
copyright: All articles published in "Archiwum Kryminologii / Archives og Criminology" are published under the CC-BY open license. By submitting a publishing proposal, the authors agree to grant a free, non-exclusive and territorially unlimited CC-BY 4.0 PL license, if the article will be accepted for publication in the biannual journal. The license is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.
items: Exploring sentencing: Sentencing theory and practice in contemporary criminal justice. Introduction
items: Urban land conflicts and community responses in Africa: Violence, justice and everyday resistance
items: The democratic function of victim surveys
items: Risky places in the centre of Kalisz
items: Criminalisation and penalisation of homelessness in the Polish legal system and social practice
items: Disentangling sentencing for sexual offences: An analysis of Slovenian court decisions
items: Crimes and violence against women in Kyrgyzstan and their aetiology
items: Justice in the fast lane: The implications of penal orders in Czech criminal proceedings
items: Estimating the extent of unreported crime: Results of the Second National Victimisation Survey in the light of new challenges
items: Assistance for crime victims: Evaluation of the pilot programme
items: Toughening of criminal law and its influence on sentencing
items: The normative weight of individual sensitivity to punishment
items: Prosecutors as sentencers? Prosecutorial sentencing discretion re-imagined
items: The Expectations and Needs of Victims towards the Justice System
items: Ensuring the rights of women who are victims of intimate partner violence in Lithuania: A literature review
items: “No education, no job, no plan”: An analysis of the relationship between social prognosis, nationality, race and sentencing in Germany
items: Collateral consequences of conviction – a hidden punishment?
items: Making sense of statutory penalty ranges: Proportionality and penalty value in Sweden
items: Sentencing practice and specific deterrence: Unveiling relevant factors in decision-making behaviour in Austrian criminal proceedings
items: Challenges for the police investigating border crime in Bangladesh: An exploratory study on the Bangladesh Police
items: Sexual violence in a relationship – the scale and characteristics of the phenomenon
items: A lone voice in the wilderness? Persistent problems with victim support in Czechia
items: Comparison of Albert K. Cohenʼs theory of delinquent subculture with selected psychological theories
items: Enhancing the criminology of mobility: A need for interdisciplinary and multi-sited research approaches. Introduction
items: Dark personality traits and cyber-dating abuse: The moderating role of empathy
items: Life imprisonment without parole: Results of a longitudinal study in Hungary
items: Asylum procedure as a means of transferring victims of human trafficking to Poland
items: Human smugglers or smuggled persons? An approach to the situation of youths accused of human smuggling in southern Spain
items: Social sorting in Europe: Self-censorship in a digital asylum
items: The reform of administrative detention in Italy: A “declaration of war” to irregular migrants and asylum seekers

Exploring sentencing: Sentencing theory and practice in contemporary criminal justice. Introduction
type: item
description: Sentencing, imposition of punishment and possibly other measures as a consequence of committing a crime is the fundamental goal of criminal law and the process of doing justice. This formulation, while essentially self-evident in practice, is linked to a vast number of problems that have preoccupied the theory and practice of criminal law for centuries. Problems that were never satisfactorily resolved. From that point of view it is paradoxical, that both, in the theory and practice of criminal law, much more attention is paid to the rules of criminal liability than to the rules of sentencing. It is also noteworthy that justifications for court judgments regarding guilt are usually detailed and elaborate, while justifications of sentences imposed are in most cases brief and schematic. This is particularly important in Europe, where detailed sentencing guidelines are unknown, and judges have significant discretionary powers when it comes to sentencing. This is true even though the theoretical discussion on the purposes and functions of punishment was much richer over the centuries, as evidenced by the perennial dispute between retributive and consequentialist (utilitarian) rationalizations of punishment. However, these disputes are often conducted at a relatively high level of abstraction, and not always easily translated into the language of judicial practice. This issue of the “Archiwum Kryminologii” presents studies on the normative and empirical issues of sentencing in several European countries. They do not concern directly theoretical concepts of punishment, but more down-to-earth problems and challenges that the contemporary criminal justice systems in various countries have to deal with. This does not mean that they are devoid of theoretical context.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: sentencing
  topic: keywords
subject: punishment
  topic: keywords
subject: criminal law
  topic: keywords
subject: normative judgment
  topic: keywords
subject: judicial practice
  topic: keywords
subject: institutional architecture
  topic: keywords
creator: Krzysztof Krajewski
creator: Mojca Plesničar
creator: Jakub Drápal
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Krzysztof Krajewski, Mojca Plesničar, Jakub Drápal https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-04-27
publication date: 2026-04-27
starting page: 17 pp.
ending page: 17 pp.
doi: 10.7420/ak%y.%x

Urban land conflicts and community responses in Africa: Violence, justice and everyday resistance
type: item
description: Urban land conflicts in African cities are shaped not only by rapid urbanisation and sociopolitical inequality, but also by organised and everyday forms of violence, including evictions, land grabs and coercive interventions by state and non-state actors. While much scholarship has examined formal policies, tenure insecurity and informal urban expansion, less attention has been given to community-led strategies for navigating these conflicts. Drawing on documented cases, secondary sources and existing scholarship, this paper examines how urban communities – often marginalised along lines of class, race and gender – respond to land contestation through collective action, local arbitration and everyday placemaking. Using critical and decolonial perspectives, I analyse how historical processes of dispossession, neoliberal land reforms and state disinvestment produce layered forms of urban land precarity. By focussing on documented grassroots responses, the study highlights both the creative, context-specific knowledge that communities contribute to conflict resolution and the forms of violence they face, linking urban land disputes to broader debates on criminality, victimisation and social control. This approach contributes to comparative criminology by situating African urban experiences within global discussions of urban governance, grassroots resilience and transformative justice.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: urban
  topic: keywords
subject: land conflict
  topic: keywords
subject: Africa
  topic: keywords
subject: urbanization
  topic: keywords
subject: class
  topic: keywords
subject: race
  topic: keywords
subject: gender
  topic: keywords
subject: cities
  topic: keywords
creator: Seun Bamidele
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Seun Bamidele https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-05-07
publication date: 2026-05-07
starting page: 22 pp.
ending page: 22 pp.
doi: 10.7420/AK2026.02

The democratic function of victim surveys
type: item
description: Police-recorded crime statistics have been discredited among academic criminological circles for decades. Within the British public discourse, they gradually lost ground to victimisation surveys, most prominently “The Crime Survey for England and Wales.” In Poland, by contrast, official crime rates still enjoy uncontested dominance, and alternatives such as victim-recorded statistics are sidelined by the police, who prefer to remain in control of crime data. Using a public criminology framework, this article shows that victim statistics have an important democratic function that goes well beyond their epistemic value. I argue that by providing victimisation data, criminology can act as a democratic under-labourer: it can be a counterweight to the official narrative, keep the police in check and calm heated debates.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: UK
  topic: keywords
subject: Poland
  topic: keywords
subject: crime statistics
  topic: keywords
subject: public criminology
  topic: keywords
subject: victim surveys
  topic: keywords
creator: Greg Los
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Greg Los https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-04-15
publication date: 2026-04-15
starting page: 19 pp.
ending page: 19 pp.
doi: 10.7420/AK2025.12

Risky places in the centre of Kalisz
type: item
description: The study is based on now abundant works on crime mapping and the concept of creating safe public spaces. Urban areas with high floor area ratios and high population density also have a high concentration of social issues, including crime. The users of these social and spatial environments often experience mental and emotional problems (stress, anxiety, lack of prospects or limited social trust), social issues (unemployment, poverty or exclusion) and problems associated with crime and safety, degradation of the housing environment or access to public services (e.g. health care or education). Identifying areas particularly at risk of crime can facilitate their transformation into safe spaces and help return these areas to the city and its residents. The study focusses on the centre of Kalisz and attempts to answer three key questions: (1) Which spaces should be identified as risky places? (2) Which risky places generate the highest risk of crime? and (3) What are the crime-promoting features of risky places? The study area was inspected and inventoried. Individual risky places were identified on the basis of the general guidelines of the CPTED strategy and the programme “Secured by Design”. However, it was Bartosz Czarnecki’s method of identifying and assessing threat factors in urban spaces that was of crucial significance. Field studies have shown that the areas in the centre of Kalisz with the highest risks of crime are in the northern and western parts of the city centre, aside from the historically valued former chartered town area. These areas coincide with the 19th-century and multifunctional development (as well as large-format retail facilities), which are nowadays largely dilapidated. The most important crime-promoting properties of these areas are the possibility of a perpetrator escaping or hiding, the presence of risk groups and third parties, a situational advantage for perpetrators, limited conditions for seeking assistance and a sense of anonymity. Th…
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: risky places
  topic: keywords
subject: crime mapping
  topic: keywords
subject: environmental crime predictors
  topic: keywords
subject: shaping safe space
  topic: keywords
subject: Kalisz
  topic: keywords
creator: Stanisław Mordwa
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Stanisław Mordwa https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-04-22
publication date: 2026-04-22
starting page: 28 pp.
ending page: 28 pp.
doi: 10.7420/AK2025.15

Criminalisation and penalisation of homelessness in the Polish legal system and social practice
type: item
description: The aim of this article is to present how the Polish legal system and social practice addresses the criminalization of homelessness and the penalization of related acts. The article includes an analysis of relevant regulations (institutional layer) as well as the results of the author’s research conducted among people suffering from homelessness regarding their interactions with police officers, city guards and security guards (practical layer). The paper also indicates key issues related to the presence of unhoused people in the public sphere, including their spatial segregation, stigmatization, and victimization, which are situated within the context of the social welfare system.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: homelessness
  topic: keywords
subject: penalization
  topic: keywords
subject: criminalization
  topic: keywords
subject: police
  topic: keywords
subject: municipal guard
  topic: keywords
subject: security guards
  topic: keywords
creator: Marta Czapnik-Jurak
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Marta Czapnik-Jurak https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-04-22
publication date: 2026-04-22
starting page: 20 ss.
ending page: 20 ss.
doi: 10.7420/AK2026.01

Disentangling sentencing for sexual offences: An analysis of Slovenian court decisions
type: item
description: Sentencing for sexual offences demands heightened scrutiny due to the moral gravity, public sensitivity and enduring social consequences of these offences. This study examines sentencing practices in Slovenia through an analysis of court decisions from 2016 to 2021. Focussing on four offences – rape, sexual violence, sexual abuse of a defenceless person and child sexual assault – we identified a notable gap between the breadth of statutory sentencing ranges and the narrow portion of those ranges used in practice. Courts frequently imposed suspended sentences or custodial terms close to the statutory minimum and rarely used the upper limits, even in cases involving significant harm. Judicial reasoning was frequently minimal or inconsistent, with courts variably assessing aggravating and mitigating factors and occasionally even relying on controversial rationales. Our findings suggest systemic inconsistencies in sentencing for sexual offences in Slovenia and point to a broader tension between a traditionally restrained penal culture and the need for sentences that differentiate meaningfully between levels of harm and culpability in violations of sexual autonomy.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: sexual offences
  topic: keywords
subject: sentencing
  topic: keywords
subject: penal policy
  topic: keywords
subject: punishment
  topic: keywords
subject: judicial reasoning
  topic: keywords
subject: Slovenia
  topic: keywords
creator: Lora Briški
creator: Mojca Mihelj Plesničar
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Lora Briški, Mojca Mihelj Plesničar https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-03-23
publication date: 2026-03-23
starting page: 45 pp.
ending page: 45 pp.
doi: 10.7420/AK2025.17

Crimes and violence against women in Kyrgyzstan and their aetiology
type: item
description: This paper presents crime and violence against women in contemporary Kyrgyzstan from a criminological point of view. Its purpose is to show the scope and background of these phenomena. It discusses the difficult situation of women resulting from discriminatory and criminal practices on the part of men, such as the kidnapping of women for marriage, early marriage, polygamy and dome­stic violence. The peculiarities, manifestations and causes of these practices are indicated. It is shown that their extent is closely related to the patriarchal family model that exists to this day in Kyrgyzstan.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: violence against women
  topic: keywords
subject: bride kidnapping
  topic: keywords
subject: polygamy
  topic: keywords
subject: early marriage
  topic: keywords
subject: Kyrgyzstan
  topic: keywords
creator: Katarzyna Laskowska
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Katarzyna Laskowska https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-15
publication date: 2025-12-15
starting page: 29 pp.
ending page: 29 pp.
doi: 10.7420/AK2025.08

Justice in the fast lane: The implications of penal orders in Czech criminal proceedings
type: item
description: This article presents the first systematic empirical analysis of the Czech penal order procedure. It uses a dataset of 623 criminal cases from 66 district courts (2010–2018) in which a penal order was issued and subsequently annulled following an objection. Drawing on theoretical parallels with plea bargaining, the study examines whether objections lead to harsher sentencing outcomes, whether this effect varies depending on who files the objection and how frequently compensation for victims is addressed. The findings show that objections broaden the range of potential sanctions, including a higher incidence of unsuspended prison sentences, yet they also lead to acquittals or dismissals in roughly one quarter of cases. Crucially, defendants who object do not face a systemic trial penalty: sentence severity increases primarily when objections are filed by prosecutors, not by defendants. The analysis further reveals that victims’ claims are addressed less frequently and awarded in lower amounts in penal orders compared to judgments following a full trial, highlighting structural limits on victims’ participation and access to compensation within fast-track procedures. Overall, the study provides new evidence on how simplified criminal proceedings shape sentencing dynamics and victims’ rights in Europe.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: penal order
  topic: keywords
subject: sentencing
  topic: keywords
subject: trial penalty
  topic: keywords
subject: compensation
  topic: keywords
subject: plea bargaining
  topic: keywords
creator: Tomáš Vanča
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Tomáš Vanča https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-05-15
publication date: 2026-05-15
starting page: 25 pp.
ending page: 25 pp.
doi: 10.7420/AK2025.18

Estimating the extent of unreported crime: Results of the Second National Victimisation Survey in the light of new challenges
type: item
description: Victimisation surveys are an integral part of crime analysis. They complement the reality presented in official statistics, and they draw attention to victims who do not files reports with the relevant law enforcement agencies. In this article, we describe the problems in estimating undisclosed crime using the example of selected groups which are particularly invisible in terms of victimisation data collection (invisible victims): children, foreigners, prisoners and victims of cybercrime. We then present the results of the Second National Victimisation Survey, commissioned by the Institute of Justice in 2024. We compare the results with previous victimisation surveys in Poland. One of the major findings is that Poles are increasingly becoming victims of crimes committed with new technologies: theft from a bank account or payment card and online shopping fraud.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: victimisation
  topic: keywords
subject: crime
  topic: keywords
subject: vulnerable groups
  topic: keywords
subject: cybercrime
  topic: keywords
subject: survey
  topic: keywords
creator: Paweł Ostaszewski
creator: Justyna Włodarczyk-Madejska
creator: Joanna Klimczak
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Paweł Ostaszewski, Justyna Włodarczyk-Madejska, Joanna Klimczak https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-11-26
publication date: 2025-11-26
starting page: 5
ending page: 37
doi: 10.7420/AK2025.05

Assistance for crime victims: Evaluation of the pilot programme
type: item
description: The programme “Assistant for crime victims”, implemented by the Crime Victims Assistance Foundation and the Blue Line, aimed to support victims by having assistants present during legal proceedings. The pilot programme entailed training volunteers in law, psychology and trauma. Surveys and interviews with assistants, victims and law enforcement conducted to evaluate the programme rated the usefulness of the training highly and demonstrated the real support provided by the assistants. The volunteers provided emotional and practical support, facilitating interactions between victims and institutions. The findings emphasize the need for further systemic support for developing and formally recognising assistants within aid structures. The importance of volunteer involvement, training quality and collaboration with public institutions was also highlighted.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: victim assistant
  topic: keywords
subject: volunteering
  topic: keywords
subject: crime victim
  topic: keywords
subject: crime victim support
  topic: keywords
subject: victimization
  topic: keywords
creator: Maria Kopeć
creator: Dagmara Woźniakowska-Fajst
creator: Dominik Wzorek
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Maria Kopeć, Dagmara Woźniakowska, Dominik Wzorek https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-11-26
publication date: 2025-11-26
starting page: 79
ending page: 117
doi: 10.7420/AK2025.06

Toughening of criminal law and its influence on sentencing
type: item
description: The development of criminal law in German-speaking countries has been characterised by a tendency towards strictness and criminalisation in recent years. In light of this, the question arises as to how this toughening of the law affects actual judicial sentencing practice. This article aims to summarise these developments in the toughening of criminal law, using Austria as an example. It also examines whether corresponding tendencies can be found in Austrian judicial sentencing practice, and whether the legislative toughening of Austrian criminal law can be regarded as a decisive factor in any harshening of Austria’s judicial sentencing practice.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: sentencing
  topic: keywords
subject: criminalization
  topic: keywords
subject: tightening of criminal law
  topic: keywords
subject: criminal law developments
  topic: keywords
subject: sentencing practice
  topic: keywords
subject: Austrian criminal law
  topic: keywords
creator: Sebastian Gölly
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Sebastian Gölly https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-04-27
publication date: 2026-04-27
starting page: 22 pp.
ending page: 22 pp.
doi: 10.7420/AK2025.20

The normative weight of individual sensitivity to punishment
type: item
description: This article examines the normative relevance of individual sensitivity to punishment, focussing on prison sentences. While financial penalties are widely accepted as requiring adjustment to individual means, there is significantly less normative consensus on whether custodial sentences should reflect differences in personal vulnerability. The author explores whether considerations of fairness and proportionality justify a more systematic inclusion of the subjective experience of suffering. The discussion addresses both practical and principled objections, paying particular attention to the risk of introducing class justice: differential treatment based on socioeconomic background. The article concludes that heightened sensitivity may justifiably be treated as a mitigating factor, where it is important that the court addresses the issue openly rather than disguising it by embedding it within a network of other, presumably less controversial factors.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: punishment theories
  topic: keywords
subject: individual sensitivity
  topic: keywords
subject: proportionality
  topic: keywords
subject: sentencing
  topic: keywords
subject: hard treatment
  topic: keywords
creator: Matjaž Ambrož
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Matjaž Ambrož https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-03-30
publication date: 2026-03-30
starting page: 17 pp.
ending page: 17 pp.
doi: 10.7420/AK2025.16

Prosecutors as sentencers? Prosecutorial sentencing discretion re-imagined
type: item
description: Despite its growing influence, the sentencing discretion of continental European prosecutors has remained largely underexplored. This paper seeks to fill that gap by offering a systematic account of prosecutorial sentencing discretion in continental Europe. It identifies five core dimensions through which prosecutors exercise sentencing discretion, illustrating how prosecutorial decisions shape sentencing outcomes, both directly and indirectly. The study sheds light on the critical – yet often overlooked – role of prosecutorial hierarchy in guiding and constraining these decisions. Drawing on psychological, organizational and doctrinal perspectives, the paper identifies key sentencing mechanisms and explores their practical implications. In doing so, it provides a novel perspective on the role of continental prosecutors in sentencing and offers pathways for future research.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: public prosecution
  topic: keywords
subject: sentencing
  topic: keywords
subject: sentence recommendations
  topic: keywords
subject: continental prosecution
  topic: keywords
subject: prosecutorial discretion
  topic: keywords
creator: Alena McClure
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Alena McClure https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-04-27
publication date: 2026-04-27
starting page: 20 pp.
ending page: 20 pp.
doi: 10.7420/AK2025.11

The Expectations and Needs of Victims towards the Justice System
type: item
description: Polish victimology primarily focuses on the rights and procedural guarantees of victims, while less often giving voice to the victims themselves. In this article, we aim to present the perspec­tives of victims and to describe their needs and expectations regarding the justice system. The article is one of three texts (cf. Kopeć, Woźniakowska, Wzorek 2025; Francuzik, Szulecka 2025) presenting an evaluation of a pilot victim support program implemented by the Foundation for the Assistance of Crime Victims and the Emergency Service for Victims of Domestic Violence, “Niebieska Linia.” The evaluation involved interviews with victims of violence in close relationships, representatives of the justice system, and victim support professionals. We show that victims perceive the justice system as a complex whole. Their key needs and expectations include being heard, having their harm acknowledged, and feeling safe.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: victimology
  topic: keywords
subject: victim
  topic: keywords
subject: victimization
  topic: keywords
subject: Victim Support Assistants
  topic: keywords
subject: survivor
  topic: keywords
creator: Witold Klaus
creator: Łukasz Kuliński
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Dr hab. Witold Klaus, prof. INP PAN, Łukasz Kuliński https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-11-26
publication date: 2025-11-26
starting page: 39
ending page: 77
doi: 10.7420/AK2025.03

Ensuring the rights of women who are victims of intimate partner violence in Lithuania: A literature review
type: item
description: In 2019, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), an independent centre of excellence for promoting and protecting human rights, conducted research to take a closer look at the experiences of female victims of partner violence as they encountered the criminal justice system. The fieldwork covered seven EU countries, excluding Lithuania. The objective of this paper is to examine the findings of the FRA research on the state of knowledge in Lithuania. A narrative literature review methodology focussing on qualitative synthesis was utilised. Following a database search, 15 research studies that met the inclusion/exclusion criteria were selected for analysis. The findings in the case of Lithuania fully support the conclusion reached by the FRA, that the most problematic areas in ensuring the rights of women as victims of partner violence are the lack of effective protection against repeat victimisation and insufficient support services. Additionally, the paper not only verifies whether similar problems are present in other studies, but also expands on the findings of the FRA study by exploring urgent issues in the national system of protecting IPV victims’ rights.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: crime victims’ rights
  topic: keywords
subject: intimate partner violence (IPV)
  topic: keywords
subject: women as victims of IPV
  topic: keywords
subject: victim support services
  topic: keywords
subject: criminal justice system
  topic: keywords
creator: Ilona Michailovič
creator: Ramunė Jakštienė
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Ilona Michailovič, Ramunė Jakštienė https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-04-16
publication date: 2026-04-16
starting page: 36 pp.
ending page: 36 pp.
doi: 10.7420/AK2025.09

“No education, no job, no plan”: An analysis of the relationship between social prognosis, nationality, race and sentencing in Germany
type: item
description: While courts assume the law does not allow biases based on race, the legal reality says otherwise. Non-nationals receive harsher sentences; in Germany this means more daily rates in penal fines, imprisonment rather than suspended sentences and longer prison terms. We know little about why this is so. This paper draws on data from courtroom observations and interviews with defendants from a project called “Performances and Manifestations of Institutional Racism in the Criminal Justice system”. During 8 months of fieldwork, ethnographic data from more than 300 cases of low-level offences were gathered. The court’s evaluation of the defendant’s social circumstances – the so-called “social prognosis”, is an important determinant in decision-making. We found that the factors which account for a positive assessment are often more difficult for marginalised groups to meet, resulting in more negative outcomes.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: institutional racism
  topic: keywords
subject: stereotypes
  topic: keywords
subject: prejudices
  topic: keywords
subject: sentencing
  topic: keywords
subject: court hearings
  topic: keywords
subject: courtroom ethnography
  topic: keywords
creator: Nicole Bögelein
creator: Dyana Rezene
creator: Levin Reichmann
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Nicole Bögelein, Dyana Rezene, Levin Reichmann https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-03-16
publication date: 2026-03-16
starting page: 25 pp.
ending page: 25 pp.
doi: 10.7420/AK2025.10

Collateral consequences of conviction – a hidden punishment?
type: item
description: Traditionally, the focus of research lies on the process of sentencing and on criminal sanctions. However, these criminal sanctions are often accompanied with supplementary ramifications. These diverse ramifications are legal and social, intentional and unintentional, immediate and distant and temporary and lifelong. Especially in the United States, they are known among other terms as “collateral consequences” of a criminal conviction or criminal punishment. These collateral consequences may have serious negative effects for the convict. For example, a fine for tax evasion in the context of a trade can be followed by a trade ban. As trade bans are administrative acts, the criminal court does not usually take the impending trade ban into account in its sentencing decision. However, the trade ban might strike the convicted person much harder due to the loss of their livelihood. Collateral consequences concern a wide area of application extending beyond the well-known criminal sanctions. In doing so, they do not depend on a specific legal system and its dogmatic assumptions. In this article, the definition and nature of collateral consequences are introduced first. Afterwards, the focus turns to the wide spectrum of collateral consequences. Then, the criminal provisions and penal purposes of collateral consequences come to the fore with an emphasis on Germany. Even before a conviction, media coverage can lead to prejudgment: an example from Germany illustrates these negative side effects of criminal investigations, i.e. of potential convictions in future. Finally, it is important to raise awareness of the collateral consequences of a conviction and to establish (legal) mechanisms to regularly take them into account.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: ancillary ramifications
  topic: keywords
subject: collateral consequences
  topic: keywords
subject: hidden punishment
  topic: keywords
subject: media coverage
  topic: keywords
subject: penal purposes
  topic: keywords
subject: sentencing
  topic: keywords
creator: Rita Haverkamp
creator: Johannes Kaspar
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Rita Haverkamp, Johannes Kaspar https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-03-24
publication date: 2026-03-24
starting page: 18 pp.
ending page: 18 pp.
doi: 10.7420/AK2025.13

Making sense of statutory penalty ranges: Proportionality and penalty value in Sweden
type: item
description: This article examines what it can mean for a sentencing system to be built on proportionality, using the Swedish notion of penalty value (straffvärde) as a case study. Penalty value translates the seriousness of an offence into the severity of the penalty, and it structures both statutory scale-setting and judicial sentencing. The analysis contrasts a desert-based account centred on blameworthiness with instrumental accounts in which seriousness is calibrated to preventive or expressive aims. Set against a period of rapid legislative change – involving reforms on organised crime, sexual offences and honour-related crimes – it illustrates how these rationalities interact in the construction of statutory penalty ranges. The article concludes by developing two ideal types and a third, less ideal-typical model to make systematic sense of this interaction. Methodologically, this reconstruction engages criminal policy from within the system’s normative structure.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: penalty value
  topic: keywords
subject: penal value
  topic: keywords
subject: proportionality
  topic: keywords
subject: just deserts
  topic: keywords
subject: sentencing
  topic: keywords
subject: sentencing rationalities
  topic: keywords
subject: Swedish criminal law
  topic: keywords
subject: statutory penalties
  topic: keywords
subject: preventive turn
  topic: keywords
subject: punitive turn
  topic: keywords
creator: Axel Holmgren
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Axel Holmgren https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-04-21
publication date: 2026-04-21
starting page: 27 pp.
ending page: 27 pp.
doi: 10.7420/AK2025.19

Sentencing practice and specific deterrence: Unveiling relevant factors in decision-making behaviour in Austrian criminal proceedings
type: item
description: According to Austrian criminal law, court decisions must be made in a way that serves specific deterrence. This principle emphasizes that judges must weigh a variety of factors in order to impose a sentence that supports the offender’s rehabilitation and the prevention of future offences. Although some norms offer insight into the range of information to be considered, the underlying concepts remain vague, leaving significant room for discretion. Additionally, judges are not obliged to provide comprehensive reasons for their considerations in their final judgment. These aspects not only lead to the lack of detailed justifications for sentencing decisions in individual cases but also result in hardly any appellate decisions that address the relevance of individual factors. Furthermore, there are no relevant studies in this area, resulting in a lack of detailed information on the factors considered in the decision-making process, leaving the following research question unresolved: What factors play what role in the reasoning-behavior within the Austrian sentencing practice? The study “Intuition in criminal proceedings? – On the interdisciplinarity of factors in specific deterrence decision-making practice,” funded by the Province of Styria (Austria), has set itself the goal of quantitatively surveying the reasoning behavior of judges and public prosecutors through questionnaires, as well as qualitatively through interviews and file analysis. By collecting both qualitative and quantitative data, the study seeks to uncover the key factors that contribute to the decision-making process and offer a more detailed understanding of the judicial reasoning behind individual sentences. In this paper, we present some of the findings, focusing on the empirical relevance of various factors of specific deterrence in everyday court practice, as well as on how their importance varies across different types of sanctions and between judicial and prosecutorial decisions.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: sentencing
  topic: keywords
subject: specific deterrence
  topic: keywords
subject: deterrence
  topic: keywords
subject: decision-making behavior
  topic: keywords
subject: interdisciplinarity
  topic: keywords
creator: Nina Kaiser
creator: Ida Leibetseder
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Nina Kaiser, Ida Leibetseder https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-04-13
publication date: 2026-04-13
starting page: 23 pp.
ending page: 23 pp.
doi: 10.7420/AK2025.14

Challenges for the police investigating border crime in Bangladesh: An exploratory study on the Bangladesh Police
type: item
description: Border crime in the north-western region of Bangladesh is severe, as illegal activities such as illegal trade, drug trafficking and unauthorised border crossings occur on a regular basis. This study explores the challenges faced by the Bangladesh Police in investigating border crime and examines the nature and causes of these offences. The research uses a qualitative approach, collecting primary data through in-depth interviews with investigation officers from police stations located in border areas. The data were coded, and later revealed several themes and subthemes. The findings of this study indicate that open borders, a lack of supervision and corruption among agencies are the primary causes. These offences are often committed by powerful individuals who exploit young and economically vulnerable populations to carry out such activities. Investigative challenges include insufficient evidence, excessive caseloads, personnel shortages, limited access to information, inadequate financial support, political pressures, misleading sources, hostile environments and poor communication systems in border areas. The study suggests that increasing resources, depoliticising law enforcement, providing support to secure evidence, enhancing inter-agency collaboration and improving access to information can help reduce these investigative challenges.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: border crime investigation
  topic: keywords
subject: investigation challenges
  topic: keywords
subject: nature of border crime
  topic: keywords
subject: causes of border crime
  topic: keywords
subject: multi-agency collaboration
  topic: keywords
creator: Mostak Bari Fahim
creator: Nelufer Yesmen
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Mostak Bari Fahim, Nelufer Yesmen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-11-26
publication date: 2025-11-26
starting page: 36 pp.
ending page: 36 pp.
doi: 10.7420/AK2025.07

Sexual violence in a relationship – the scale and characteristics of the phenomenon
type: item
description: The main aim of the study was to estimate the scale of sexual violence experienced by women in relationships. The study was nationwide and was part of a pan-European victimisation study on gender-based violence (GBV). The study was carried out in 2021–2023 by Statistics Poland and was co-financed by Eurostat. It used a survey questionnaire prepared by Eurostat, and involved a group of 5,247 respondents from all sixteen voivodeships of Poland. The article presents the results regarding sexual violence in a relationship; therefore, only the questionnaires completed by women who were currently or previously in a relationship were analysed. A total of 5,242 survey questionnaires that met the established criteria were collected. According to the results, nearly 4% of the women had experienced serious acts of sexual violence in a relationship by a current or former partner. Sexual violence from a partner is usually combined with psychological and physical violence. Such acts are extremely rarely reported – typically only when there are physical injuries which require medical attention.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: violence against women
  topic: keywords
subject: sexual violence
  topic: keywords
subject: sexual violence in a relationship
  topic: keywords
subject: marital rape
  topic: keywords
subject: partner rape
  topic: keywords
creator: Anna Więcek-Durańska
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Anna Więcek-Durańska https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-11-26
publication date: 2025-11-26
starting page: 137
ending page: 160
doi: 10.7420/AK2025.04

A lone voice in the wilderness? Persistent problems with victim support in Czechia
type: item
description: This article examines the challenges in implementing victim support in Czechia and highlights discrepancies between legislative frameworks and practical applications. The study employs a mixed-methods approach, including a focus group conducted in 2017 with experts in victim support and an expert survey in 2022. While the 2013 adoption of the Act on Victims of Crime led to notable improvements in victims’ rights and services, persistent problems include ineffective information delivery, regional disparities in service provision and a lack of inter-agency coordination. The article concludes that while legislative reforms have laid a solid foundation, systemic changes and practical implementation are essential to ensuring effective victim support and mitigating secondary victimisation.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: victims of crime
  topic: keywords
subject: victim support
  topic: keywords
subject: Czechia
  topic: keywords
subject: legislative framework
  topic: keywords
subject: secondary victimisation
  topic: keywords
creator: Michaela Roubalova
creator: Hana Preslickova
creator: Jakub Holas
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 Michaela Roubalova, Hana Preslickova, Jakub Holas https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-11-26
publication date: 2025-11-26
starting page: 119
ending page: 136
doi: 10.7420/AK2025.01

Comparison of Albert K. Cohenʼs theory of delinquent subculture with selected psychological theories
type: item
description: In this article, I reinforce Albert K. Cohen’s theory with selected psychological theories. Cohen’s concept may seem outdated today, as it presents a twentieth-century social structure. A comparison between the theory of delinquent subcultures and psychological theories brings to light similarities and convergences between the theses put forward by Cohen and the remarks of more contemporary authors. These analogies make it possible to present the concept of delinquent subcultures in the form of a model that could be empirically verified in the future. The similarities I discuss include issues of self-esteem, status, aggression, and adjustment.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: self-esteem
  topic: keywords
subject: status
  topic: keywords
subject: agression
  topic: keywords
subject: delinquent subculture
  topic: keywords
subject: Albert K. Cohen
  topic: keywords
creator: Jakub Orłowski
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 Jakub Orłowski https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-11-26
publication date: 2025-11-26
starting page: 221
ending page: 241
doi: 10.7420/AK2025.02

Enhancing the criminology of mobility: A need for interdisciplinary and multi-sited research approaches. Introduction
type: item
description: Scholars from various disciplines, geographic locations and research traditions have examined border dynamics – investigating what occurs at borders, how it happens, its origins, consequences and normative implications. This has given rise to the burgeoning field of the “Criminology of Mobility”, an academic discipline focussed on issues such as citizenship, race, gender, ethnicity and immigration control. This relatively new and innovative academic discipline delves into the processes of inclusion and exclusion both at and within state borders, often employing methods traditionally associated with the criminal justice system, law enforcement and military operations – frequently without the safeguards typically in place. Scholars in this field investigate how existing inequalities – particularly those related to gender, race, nationality and class – are exacerbated by new power structures and systems of belonging. We have observed that there remains a notable lack of diversity in research from global regions, as well as a lack of attention to the perspectives of those directly affected by or involved in border control mechanisms and their extraterritorial dimensions. This special issue is a step to address this gap.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: criminology of mobility
  topic: keywords
subject: border criminology
  topic: keywords
subject: crimmigration
  topic: keywords
subject: criminalisation of migrants
  topic: keywords
subject: border practices
  topic: keywords
creator: Cristina Fernandez-Bessa
creator: Valeria Ferraris
creator: Witold Klaus
creator: Mieke Kox
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 Cristina Fernandez-Bessa, Valeria Ferraris, Witold Klaus, Mieke Kox https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2024-09-30
publication date: 2024-09-30
starting page: 5
ending page: 14
doi: 10.7420/AK2024.14

Dark personality traits and cyber-dating abuse: The moderating role of empathy
type: item
description: The results of research on cyber-dating abuse in intimate relationships are presented in this article. The study analysed dark personality traits (i.e. narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy and sadism) treated as relevant individual risk factors for this kind of violence. The sample consisted of 200 young adults (72% women). The following measures were used in the research: the Cyber Dating Abuse Questionnaire, the Short Dark Tetrad and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. The results indicate that the severity of both the Dark Triad and sadism is related to the perpetration of cyber-violence and victimisation from an intimate partner. The research also showed that men more often than women use direct aggression in cyber-dating abuse. Moreover, the moderating role of empathy in the relationship between dark personality traits and cyber-dating abuse was confirmed.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: cyber dating abuse
  topic: keywords
subject: intimate violence
  topic: keywords
subject: dark triad
  topic: keywords
subject: dark tetrad
  topic: keywords
subject: psychopathy
  topic: keywords
subject: sadism
  topic: keywords
subject: empathy
  topic: keywords
creator: Krzysztof Nowakowski
creator: Aleksandra Gubała
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 Krzysztof Nowakowski, Aleksandra Gubała https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-11-26
publication date: 2025-11-26
starting page: 161
ending page: 189
doi: 10.7420/AK2024.16

Life imprisonment without parole: Results of a longitudinal study in Hungary
type: item
description: The main goal of the study was to raise questions concerning life sentences and to demon­strate how it evolves and impacts the criminal, who is cast out from society and incarcerated for decades. The data collection phase of this qualitative longitudinal research spanned ten years, from March 2011 to December 2020. The narrative interviews were analyzed using content analysis. The prison system has the potential to facilitate both personality development and changes in mental­ity, but it can also hinder them. The legal institution of a life sentence without parole excludes the possibility of making positive changes in the convict’s mindset and does not take into account the chance for the inmates’ personality to develop during their long sentences. The legal institution of a life sentence, due to the exclusion of the possibility of review, could only be considered a rational institution in case of an infallible investigative and judicial system.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: life imprisonment
  topic: keywords
subject: personality development in prison
  topic: keywords
subject: prison effects
  topic: keywords
subject: career model in prison
  topic: keywords
subject: death penalty
  topic: keywords
creator: Agnes Solt
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 Agnes Solt https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2024-12-20
publication date: 2024-12-20
starting page: 197
ending page: 220
doi: 10.7420/AK2024.12

Asylum procedure as a means of transferring victims of human trafficking to Poland
type: item
description: Research on human trafficking highlights that its victims can be exploited in many areas of the economy. Moreover, some victims of trafficking are also forced to commit a crime (e.g. drug smuggling), though the victims of this peculiar type of crime can also be found among those seeking refugee status or international protection. This article discusses a new way of transferring victims of human trafficking across borders and describes who these people are, how they were recruited and how they were transported from their country of origin to the transit countries and finally reaching Poland. The modus operandi and profile of the perpetrators are also discussed. The research also describes the process of identifying victims of human trafficking, attempting to determine how, when and by whom these people were identified. The research findings are based on the files of asylum seekers that were gathered between 2012 and 2020 by the Office for Foreigners in Poland (the institution responsible for providing asylum status in Poland).
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: human trafficking
  topic: keywords
subject: modern slavery
  topic: keywords
subject: forced labour
  topic: keywords
subject: asylum
  topic: keywords
subject: violence
  topic: keywords
subject: protection of the victim
  topic: keywords
subject: foreigners
  topic: keywords
creator: Łukasz Wieczorek
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 Łukasz Wieczorek https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-11-26
publication date: 2025-11-26
starting page: 191
ending page: 220
doi: 10.7420/AK2024.15

Human smugglers or smuggled persons? An approach to the situation of youths accused of human smuggling in southern Spain
type: item
description: The lack of safe entryways into Europe generates alternative maritime routes from Africa to the European continent. In recent years, there has been an increase in these arrivals and in the detention of individuals accused of migrant smuggling on the Central Mediterranean route to Italy and the North-west African (Atlantic) route to the Canary Islands upon their arrival by sea. Both the UNODC and various NGOs have suggested in recent reports that the punitive response to boat captains may have less to do with tackling the crime of human smuggling than it may initially appear. During fieldwork conducted as part of the JEPRAN project, a surprising number of youths accused of human smuggling were identified in a prison in Almería, Spain, having arrived via the Western Mediterranean route. This serendipitous finding allows for reflection within this article on the crime of human smuggling across different routes into Europe based on interviews with youths accused of this crime and imprisoned in the south of Spain.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: migration
  topic: keywords
subject: asylum
  topic: keywords
subject: sea
  topic: keywords
subject: crime
  topic: keywords
subject: defencelessness
  topic: keywords
subject: law
  topic: keywords
subject: moral
  topic: keywords
creator: Jacqueline Carvalho da Silva
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 Jacqueline Carvalho da Silva https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2024-09-30
publication date: 2024-09-30
starting page: 69
ending page: 100
doi: 10.7420/AK2024.06

Social sorting in Europe: Self-censorship in a digital asylum
type: item
description: In recent decades, global mobility control and digital surveillance measures have increasingly prioritised affective aspects and perception-based policies. However, these practices encounter resistance, particularly in the everyday use of connected migrants. Through qualitative data analysis within the tradition of critical surveillance studies, this paper investigates how marginalised mobile groups – often labelled suspects of terrorism and organised crime – circumvent mobile surveillance and social sorting mechanisms within and beyond Fortress Europe. Rising tech literacy and surveillance awareness among users challenge digital policing, reshaping interactions between suspected newcomers and border control authorities. While existing studies focus on countersurveillance activities, less attention is given to strategic “silences” and social filters used to evade profiling and sorting mechanisms, protecting those who fear the risks of crossing a border. Based on notions of secure connectivity, this research employs a multi-site analysis of refugee polymedia use to examine countersurveillance strategies and digital self-censorship practices in transit countries.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: surveillance
  topic: keywords
subject: censorship
  topic: keywords
subject: hardware
  topic: keywords
subject: imaginaries
  topic: keywords
subject: migration
  topic: keywords
creator: Veronika Nagy
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 Veronika Nagy https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2024-09-30
publication date: 2024-09-30
starting page: 149
ending page: 179
doi: 10.7420/AK2024.13

The reform of administrative detention in Italy: A “declaration of war” to irregular migrants and asylum seekers
type: item
description: Dating back to Italy’s first comprehensive immigration law in the 1990s, the practice of detaining irregular migrants has served various explicit and implicit purposes, both practical and symbolic. Two decrees passed in 2023, under the far-right government of Giorgia Meloni, were explicitly framed as responses to the increasing number of migrants arriving at the borders. The aim of these decrees was to prolong the detention of asylum seekers and irregular migrants, with the stated aim of increasing returns. However, despite these measures, available data suggests that the capacity of detention centres has not increased significantly, and the rate of returns has remained stable. Against this backdrop, this article seeks to explore the explicit and implicit functions of detention by examining recent reforms and publicly available quantitative data obtained through a request under Italy’s Freedom of Information Act. It suggests that whilst detention serves practical purposes for a minority of migrants, its symbolic role in conveying state sovereignty and strict border control is equally important.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: administrative detention
  topic: keywords
subject: borders
  topic: keywords
subject: asylum seekers
  topic: keywords
subject: deterrence
  topic: keywords
subject: symbolic policies
  topic: keywords
creator: Costanza Agnella
creator: Eleonora Celoria
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 Costanza Agnella, Eleonora Celoria https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2024-09-30
publication date: 2024-09-30
starting page: 101
ending page: 129
doi: 10.7420/AK2024.11