Sonja Snacken
Biographic Data
| ID | 1700950 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sonja Snacken |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sonja |
| FAMILY NAME | Snacken |
| SIGNATURE | SNACKEN S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Vrije Universiteit Brussel |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8538-424X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 57 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The Ability of Human Rights to Limit the State’s Power to Punish in Europe: Connecting Prison and Mental Health Policies through the Concept of “Transpolicies”
While scholars have pointed out the factors determining the impediments to and efficacy of international human rights rules, poor attention has been paid to human rights violations relating to transfers between prison and psychiatric detention. There is a lack of intersection of policy spheres in this regard that should be remedied. Our contribution aims to challenge traditional sociolegal boundaries by integrating the intersection of policy and …
Dignity, Social Reintegration of Prisoners, and the New Penal Power: European Human Rights, Experiences of Belgian Prisoners, and Professional Practices
Over the last 30 years, prisoners’ dignity and fundamental rights have increasingly been protected by European human rights bodies such as the European Court of Human Rights and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. This protection is aimed particularly at the traditional power relations between prisoners and uniformed staff. More recently, social reintegration of prisoners has also…
The European Human Rights System and the Right to Life Seen through Suicide Prevention in Places of Detention: Between Risk Management and Punishment
This paper analyses the shortcomings of European suicide prevention policy in places of detention, a topic that has been neglected in the European legal literature. Four interrelated characteristics of the suicide prevention policies developed by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) are responsible for the failures of these policies. First, the risk-based approach relies on individual risk calculations by national detention authorities to t…
Introduction: Human rights, prisons and penal policies
International audience
Can European human rights instruments limit the power of the national state to punish? A tale of two Europes
The power to punish is traditionally seen as an essential prerogative of the national state. Over the last three decades, judicial and standard-setting bodies of the Council of Europe (CoE) have sought increasingly, at a regional level, to monitor and control the power of European states to punish. In parallel, the European Union (EU) has become an increasingly important penal actor, fostering a common approach to transnational forms of criminali…
Human Dignity and Prisoners’ Rights in Europe
Protecting the dignity and human rights of prisoners poses difficult challenges. Degradation is a hallmark of all punishment and especially of imprisonment. Prisons as total institutions entail distinctive power relations between staff and inmates that increase risks of violations of prisoners’ dignity. Protection of human dignity is complicated by difficulties in defining the term: the sense of personal dignity experienced subjectively by the in…
Thomas Ugelvik, Power and Resistance in Prison: Doing Time, Doing Freedom
Belgian Sentencing as a Bifurcated Practice
Belgian sentencing is in a period of turmoil. Belgian judges value their independence. Most believe in the desirability of individualized sentencing and resent intrusions on their autonomy. Although many continue to hold classsical views about the purposes of sentencing, new practices and laws, triggered partly by several decades of rising imprisonment rates and recent efforts by policy makers and correctional officials to contain it, have change…
Punishment, legitimate policies and values: Penal moderation, dignity and human rights
Twenty years ago, we described how changing prison populations in western countries result from a complex interaction between criminality, external (demography, economy), internal (criminal justice policies) and intermediate factors (public opinion, politics and media). While the outcome of these interactions is contingent, we advocated a reductionist penal policy in order to curb penal inflation. Subsequent macro-sociological analyses and compar…
One cannot legislate kindness’: Ambiguities in European legal instruments on non-custodial sanctions
Non-custodial sanctions, particularly those that are implemented in the community, have different historical roots in common- and civil-law jurisdictions. Nevertheless, various European instruments seek to shape the imposition and implementation of such sanctions uniformly across the continent. These instruments reflect an apparent consensus about penal values, culminating in 1992 with the adoption of the European Rules on Community Sanctions and…
Les structures européennes de contrôle des administrations pénitentiaires: Le rôle et l'impact du Conseil de l'Europe et du Comité de Prévention de la Torture
Le rôle et l’impact du Comité de Prévention de la Torture sont analysés en interaction avec les autres instruments de protection des droits des détenus du Conseil de l’Europe : la Cour Européenne des Droits de l’Homme et les Recommandations du Comité des ministres. L’analyse démontre un renforcement réciproque du travail normatif ces vingt dernières années entre ce niveau judiciaire, politique et de contrôle sur le terrain. Par contre, peu de don…
Demandes d’euthanasie dans les prisons belges. Entre souffrance psychique, dignité humaine et peine de mort
En Belgique, l’euthanasie peut être appliquée légalement par des médecins à la demande expresse et répétée d’un patient qui se trouve dans une situation médicale sans issue et fait état d’une souffrance physique ou psychique constante et insupportable qui ne peut être apaisée et qui résulte d’une affection accidentelle ou pathologique grave et incurable. Au cours des deux dernières années, 17 demandes d’euthanasie ont été formulées par des détenu…
The Routledge Handbook of European Criminology
In his 1989 presidential address to the American Society of Criminology, William Chambliss captured the criminological imagination with a new concept: state-organised crime, or state crime (Chambliss, 1989). Like its predecessor ‘white collar crime’ half a century earlier the concept of ‘state crime’ has drawn attention to the ‘key questions at the foundations of the discipline, the definition of crime’ (Rothe and Friedrichs, 2006: 150). Both con…
Resisting punitiveness in Europe
Criminological literature of the last decade is rife with tales and analyses of ‘increased’ or ‘new’ punitiveness in western countries over the last 20 or 30 years. This article starts from the finding that levels of punitiveness vary greatly between countries and are correlated with welfare investments and political economy, different democratic political structures leading to more or less populist punitiveness and a different emphasis on human …
Prawa więźniów w perspektywie europejskiej ostatnich lat
Penal Policy and Practice in Belgium
Belgian imprisonment rates increased from sixty‐five to ninety‐five per 100,000 population in the past quarter century, and the use of pretrial detention and long prison sentences increased. Notorious crimes, most prominently the Dutroux case, produced mass demonstrations, and a right‐wing political party repeatedly urged harsher policies. In contrast to the United States and England, however, and although criminal justice policy became more poli…
The Future of Remand Custody and its Alternatives in Belgium
Searching for solutions to Belgian prison overcrowding, the authors examine how both the admissions into remand and the average length of remand custody can be reduced. Belgian alternatives to remand custody are compared to foreign initiatives aiming either at limiting the application of remand custody (judicial authorisation, regional quota, legal restrictions and guidelines) or at increasing the application of alternatives for remand custody (e…
Justice et société: Une justice vitrine en réponse à une société en émoi
Justice et société : une justice vitrine en réponse à une société en émoi? L’exemple de la Belgique des années 1980 et 1990. Un article de la revue Sociologie et sociétés (Les formes de la pénalité contemporaine : Enjeux sociaux et politiques) diffusée par la plateforme Érudit
L'évolution des longues peines… Aperçu international et analyse des causes
Die Untersuchung befasst sich mit dem Anstieg der Zahl der zu langen Freiheitsstrafen verurteilten Gefangenen in verschiedenen westlichen Ländern. Was die Ursachen dieser Entwicklung betrifft, so scheinen sich insbesondere zwei Faktoren auf alien Ebenen des Strafjustizsystems auszuwirken. Zuallererst führt offensichtlich die Abschaffung der Todejsstrafe zu Freiheitsstrafen von unbestimmter oder sehr langer Dauer. Sodann führt die Differenzierung …
Changing prison populations in Western countries: Fate or policy
Resisting punitiveness in Europe
Criminological literature of the last decade is rife with tales and analyses of ‘increased’ or ‘new’ punitiveness in western countries over the last 20 or 30 years. This article starts from the finding that levels of punitiveness vary greatly between countries and are correlated with welfare investments and political economy, different democratic political structures leading to more or less populist punitiveness and a different emphasis on human …
Changing prison populations in Western countries: Fate or policy
Punishment, legitimate policies and values: Penal moderation, dignity and human rights
Twenty years ago, we described how changing prison populations in western countries result from a complex interaction between criminality, external (demography, economy), internal (criminal justice policies) and intermediate factors (public opinion, politics and media). While the outcome of these interactions is contingent, we advocated a reductionist penal policy in order to curb penal inflation. Subsequent macro-sociological analyses and compar…
Human Dignity and Prisoners’ Rights in Europe
Protecting the dignity and human rights of prisoners poses difficult challenges. Degradation is a hallmark of all punishment and especially of imprisonment. Prisons as total institutions entail distinctive power relations between staff and inmates that increase risks of violations of prisoners’ dignity. Protection of human dignity is complicated by difficulties in defining the term: the sense of personal dignity experienced subjectively by the in…
Les structures européennes de contrôle des administrations pénitentiaires: Le rôle et l'impact du Conseil de l'Europe et du Comité de Prévention de la Torture
Le rôle et l’impact du Comité de Prévention de la Torture sont analysés en interaction avec les autres instruments de protection des droits des détenus du Conseil de l’Europe : la Cour Européenne des Droits de l’Homme et les Recommandations du Comité des ministres. L’analyse démontre un renforcement réciproque du travail normatif ces vingt dernières années entre ce niveau judiciaire, politique et de contrôle sur le terrain. Par contre, peu de don…
Penal Policy and Practice in Belgium
Belgian imprisonment rates increased from sixty‐five to ninety‐five per 100,000 population in the past quarter century, and the use of pretrial detention and long prison sentences increased. Notorious crimes, most prominently the Dutroux case, produced mass demonstrations, and a right‐wing political party repeatedly urged harsher policies. In contrast to the United States and England, however, and although criminal justice policy became more poli…
Justice et société: Une justice vitrine en réponse à une société en émoi
Justice et société : une justice vitrine en réponse à une société en émoi? L’exemple de la Belgique des années 1980 et 1990. Un article de la revue Sociologie et sociétés (Les formes de la pénalité contemporaine : Enjeux sociaux et politiques) diffusée par la plateforme Érudit
The European Human Rights System and the Right to Life Seen through Suicide Prevention in Places of Detention: Between Risk Management and Punishment
This paper analyses the shortcomings of European suicide prevention policy in places of detention, a topic that has been neglected in the European legal literature. Four interrelated characteristics of the suicide prevention policies developed by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) are responsible for the failures of these policies. First, the risk-based approach relies on individual risk calculations by national detention authorities to t…
One cannot legislate kindness’: Ambiguities in European legal instruments on non-custodial sanctions
Non-custodial sanctions, particularly those that are implemented in the community, have different historical roots in common- and civil-law jurisdictions. Nevertheless, various European instruments seek to shape the imposition and implementation of such sanctions uniformly across the continent. These instruments reflect an apparent consensus about penal values, culminating in 1992 with the adoption of the European Rules on Community Sanctions and…
Demandes d’euthanasie dans les prisons belges. Entre souffrance psychique, dignité humaine et peine de mort
En Belgique, l’euthanasie peut être appliquée légalement par des médecins à la demande expresse et répétée d’un patient qui se trouve dans une situation médicale sans issue et fait état d’une souffrance physique ou psychique constante et insupportable qui ne peut être apaisée et qui résulte d’une affection accidentelle ou pathologique grave et incurable. Au cours des deux dernières années, 17 demandes d’euthanasie ont été formulées par des détenu…
L'évolution des longues peines… Aperçu international et analyse des causes
Die Untersuchung befasst sich mit dem Anstieg der Zahl der zu langen Freiheitsstrafen verurteilten Gefangenen in verschiedenen westlichen Ländern. Was die Ursachen dieser Entwicklung betrifft, so scheinen sich insbesondere zwei Faktoren auf alien Ebenen des Strafjustizsystems auszuwirken. Zuallererst führt offensichtlich die Abschaffung der Todejsstrafe zu Freiheitsstrafen von unbestimmter oder sehr langer Dauer. Sodann führt die Differenzierung …
Changing prison populations in Western countries: Fate or policy
Justice et société: Une justice vitrine en réponse à une société en émoi
Justice et société : une justice vitrine en réponse à une société en émoi? L’exemple de la Belgique des années 1980 et 1990. Un article de la revue Sociologie et sociétés (Les formes de la pénalité contemporaine : Enjeux sociaux et politiques) diffusée par la plateforme Érudit
The Future of Remand Custody and its Alternatives in Belgium
Searching for solutions to Belgian prison overcrowding, the authors examine how both the admissions into remand and the average length of remand custody can be reduced. Belgian alternatives to remand custody are compared to foreign initiatives aiming either at limiting the application of remand custody (judicial authorisation, regional quota, legal restrictions and guidelines) or at increasing the application of alternatives for remand custody (e…
Penal Policy and Practice in Belgium
Belgian imprisonment rates increased from sixty‐five to ninety‐five per 100,000 population in the past quarter century, and the use of pretrial detention and long prison sentences increased. Notorious crimes, most prominently the Dutroux case, produced mass demonstrations, and a right‐wing political party repeatedly urged harsher policies. In contrast to the United States and England, however, and although criminal justice policy became more poli…
Prawa więźniów w perspektywie europejskiej ostatnich lat
Resisting punitiveness in Europe
Criminological literature of the last decade is rife with tales and analyses of ‘increased’ or ‘new’ punitiveness in western countries over the last 20 or 30 years. This article starts from the finding that levels of punitiveness vary greatly between countries and are correlated with welfare investments and political economy, different democratic political structures leading to more or less populist punitiveness and a different emphasis on human …
The Routledge Handbook of European Criminology
In his 1989 presidential address to the American Society of Criminology, William Chambliss captured the criminological imagination with a new concept: state-organised crime, or state crime (Chambliss, 1989). Like its predecessor ‘white collar crime’ half a century earlier the concept of ‘state crime’ has drawn attention to the ‘key questions at the foundations of the discipline, the definition of crime’ (Rothe and Friedrichs, 2006: 150). Both con…
Punishment, legitimate policies and values: Penal moderation, dignity and human rights
Twenty years ago, we described how changing prison populations in western countries result from a complex interaction between criminality, external (demography, economy), internal (criminal justice policies) and intermediate factors (public opinion, politics and media). While the outcome of these interactions is contingent, we advocated a reductionist penal policy in order to curb penal inflation. Subsequent macro-sociological analyses and compar…
One cannot legislate kindness’: Ambiguities in European legal instruments on non-custodial sanctions
Non-custodial sanctions, particularly those that are implemented in the community, have different historical roots in common- and civil-law jurisdictions. Nevertheless, various European instruments seek to shape the imposition and implementation of such sanctions uniformly across the continent. These instruments reflect an apparent consensus about penal values, culminating in 1992 with the adoption of the European Rules on Community Sanctions and…
Les structures européennes de contrôle des administrations pénitentiaires: Le rôle et l'impact du Conseil de l'Europe et du Comité de Prévention de la Torture
Le rôle et l’impact du Comité de Prévention de la Torture sont analysés en interaction avec les autres instruments de protection des droits des détenus du Conseil de l’Europe : la Cour Européenne des Droits de l’Homme et les Recommandations du Comité des ministres. L’analyse démontre un renforcement réciproque du travail normatif ces vingt dernières années entre ce niveau judiciaire, politique et de contrôle sur le terrain. Par contre, peu de don…
Demandes d’euthanasie dans les prisons belges. Entre souffrance psychique, dignité humaine et peine de mort
En Belgique, l’euthanasie peut être appliquée légalement par des médecins à la demande expresse et répétée d’un patient qui se trouve dans une situation médicale sans issue et fait état d’une souffrance physique ou psychique constante et insupportable qui ne peut être apaisée et qui résulte d’une affection accidentelle ou pathologique grave et incurable. Au cours des deux dernières années, 17 demandes d’euthanasie ont été formulées par des détenu…
Thomas Ugelvik, Power and Resistance in Prison: Doing Time, Doing Freedom
Belgian Sentencing as a Bifurcated Practice
Belgian sentencing is in a period of turmoil. Belgian judges value their independence. Most believe in the desirability of individualized sentencing and resent intrusions on their autonomy. Although many continue to hold classsical views about the purposes of sentencing, new practices and laws, triggered partly by several decades of rising imprisonment rates and recent efforts by policy makers and correctional officials to contain it, have change…
Introduction: Human rights, prisons and penal policies
International audience
Can European human rights instruments limit the power of the national state to punish? A tale of two Europes
The power to punish is traditionally seen as an essential prerogative of the national state. Over the last three decades, judicial and standard-setting bodies of the Council of Europe (CoE) have sought increasingly, at a regional level, to monitor and control the power of European states to punish. In parallel, the European Union (EU) has become an increasingly important penal actor, fostering a common approach to transnational forms of criminali…
Human Dignity and Prisoners’ Rights in Europe
Protecting the dignity and human rights of prisoners poses difficult challenges. Degradation is a hallmark of all punishment and especially of imprisonment. Prisons as total institutions entail distinctive power relations between staff and inmates that increase risks of violations of prisoners’ dignity. Protection of human dignity is complicated by difficulties in defining the term: the sense of personal dignity experienced subjectively by the in…
Dignity, Social Reintegration of Prisoners, and the New Penal Power: European Human Rights, Experiences of Belgian Prisoners, and Professional Practices
Over the last 30 years, prisoners’ dignity and fundamental rights have increasingly been protected by European human rights bodies such as the European Court of Human Rights and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. This protection is aimed particularly at the traditional power relations between prisoners and uniformed staff. More recently, social reintegration of prisoners has also…
The European Human Rights System and the Right to Life Seen through Suicide Prevention in Places of Detention: Between Risk Management and Punishment
This paper analyses the shortcomings of European suicide prevention policy in places of detention, a topic that has been neglected in the European legal literature. Four interrelated characteristics of the suicide prevention policies developed by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) are responsible for the failures of these policies. First, the risk-based approach relies on individual risk calculations by national detention authorities to t…
The Ability of Human Rights to Limit the State’s Power to Punish in Europe: Connecting Prison and Mental Health Policies through the Concept of “Transpolicies”
While scholars have pointed out the factors determining the impediments to and efficacy of international human rights rules, poor attention has been paid to human rights violations relating to transfers between prison and psychiatric detention. There is a lack of intersection of policy spheres in this regard that should be remedied. Our contribution aims to challenge traditional sociolegal boundaries by integrating the intersection of policy and …
Political science (18 works) · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis (16 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Law (13 works) · Criminology (12 works) · Human rights (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Prison (9 works) · Criminal Law and Evidence (5 works) · European Criminal Justice and Data Protection (5 works)