Luc Robert

National Institute of Criminalistics and Criminology | INCC NICC · Department of Criminology

By comparing criminal careers of individuals who have sexually offended to those who have not sexually offended, the current study examines whether their criminal career parameters and trajectories differ. National conviction records (entire criminal history and about 18 years of follow-up after index offence) from Belgium and the Netherlands are u...

Belgium does not yet have any periodical reconviction studies or statistics on reconviction on a national scale. Nevertheless, over the past decade, especially within the NICC, investments have been made in the development of research on recidivism and criminal careers. Recent developments, such as the creation of a specialised NICC-research unit o...

For the past 10 years, Belgium has made some investments in research projects to close a nationwide knowledge gap on recidivism and criminal careers. One of these projects aims at producing reliable statistics on these phenomena, on the basis of an Integrated Historical Database (IHD). The data to feed into the IHD was extracted from a conviction d...

In this article, the decision-making process of prison leave is discussed, and a discussion is given of the current impact of covid 19-measures for prison leave.

In: Fatik, Tijdschrift voor Strafbeleid en Gevangeniswezen, 38 (nr. 169, januari-februari-maart 2021), 16-22. *** In deze bijdrage blikken we terug op recente wijzigingen in de besluitvorming omtrent uitgaansvergunningen (verder: UV) en penitentiaire verloven (verder: PV). Als startpunt nemen we de bevindingen van een onderzoek uit 2012-2013 dat do...

In: Panopticon, Tijdschrift voor strafrecht, criminologie en forensisch welzijnswerk, 42(2), 97-115. ISSN 0771-1409 *** Phoning behind bars. An exploratory study into in-cell telephony *** Abstract: Information and communication technologies have begun to enter into the penitentiary systems, adding a digital dimension to the detention experience (M...

In this chapter, I set out to assess whether and how criminological research results are put to use in sex offender policies. This focus connects to research related to what has been termed ‘research utilization’ (notably, Weiss, 1979) and to debates about ‘public criminology’ (e.g. Loader and Sparks, 2010; Uggen and Inderbitzin, 2010). A first sec...

Sexual offenses are often part of a larger criminal career also encompassing nonsexual crimes. However, most sexual offending typologies focus on an individual’s most recent sexual offense. We compare data from Belgian and Dutch national conviction cohorts and use latent class analysis to distinguish groups of individuals based on their history of...

Prison leave decision-making remains largely unknown, operating as a black box in which applications enter and decisions come out, without knowing what happens in between. Prison leave decision-making in Belgium is no exception to this. After a prisoner submits an application for prison leave, the prison director has to provide a written opinion ab...

This is the editorial introduction of a special issue that focuses on prison leave as it is applied in 8 European countries across the continent.

In this article, we zoom in on prison leave, an institution that mostly remained under the scientific radar. Very little is known about prison leave in Europe (and elsewhere too). In this article, we focus on issues that emerged in the context of an analysis of prison leave in eight countries from all parts of Europe. Scholars from Belgium, Denmark...

Daders van zedendelicten worden vaak getypeerd op basis van een specifiek delict, bijvoorbeeld het laatst door hen gepleegde zedendelict. Het is onduidelijk of typologieën van deze daders op basis van hun criminele voorgeschiedenis hierbij aansluiten of tot nieuwe inzichten leiden. Deze studie identificeert verschillende typen criminele carrièrepat...

This book marks the 20th anniversary of the Department of Criminology of the National Institute of Criminalistics and Criminology (NICC). On the occasion of this anniversary, a series of research seminars were organised, during which NICC researchers, practitioners and international experts engaged in a dialogue on several key research themes. They...

The result of a year of work, deep thought and moments of camaraderie, this book marks the 20th anniversary of the Criminology Department of the National Institute of Criminalistics and Criminology (NICC). For just over one year, the members of the Criminology Department looked back to their past, but they especially tried to project themselves int...

As a (mainly) applied research department, the Criminology Department of the National Institute of Criminalistics and Criminology (NICC) has only recently begun addressing questions related to recidivism, since 2011-2012. Although this was largely unplanned, a posteriori several reasons for this shifting research attention to recidivism can be ment...

Wie in een gevangenis rondloopt en vraagt wie onschuldig veroordeeld is, zal veel respons krijgen. Het is niet ongebruikelijk dat we mensen in de gevangenis tegenkomen die bij hoog en laag blijven beweren dat ze onschuldig veroordeeld zijn. Zo sprak één van ons (Luc) ooit met een man die elke aanzet tot een vervroegde (voorwaardelijke) invrijheidst...

Wie in een gevangenis rondloopt en vraagt wie onschuldig veroordeeld is, zal veel respons krijgen. Het is niet ongebruikelijk dat we mensen in de gevangenis tegenkomen die bij hoog en laag blijven beweren dat ze onschuldig veroordeeld zijn. Zo sprak één van ons (Luc) ooit met een man die elke aanzet tot een vervroegde (voorwaardelijke) invrijheidst...

Objective. Every year 7,3 million people are killed in traffic worldwide. Human error and non-compliance to the rules are the most important causes for serious traffic accidents. The objective of the present study is therefore to determine the profiles and risk factors associated with traffic (re)offending in Belgium. Method. The data originate fr...

http://www.belspo.be/belspo/brain-be/themes_4_Strategic_en.stm#SOC *** Context *** Sex offences have attracted a lot of public and policy attention in the last decades. In Belgium, the Dutroux case led to unseen public protests and important policy changes. Elsewhere, similar horrifying events have taken place, also affecting in important ways po...

in: Panopticon, 40(1), 29-45 (ISSN 0771-1409) Title: PrisonCloud for inmates. Limits to digital normalization? Abstract: Digital media and technology are affecting our lives in profound ways. The ongoing digitalization has even been called a new industrial revolution. For a long time, prisons have been considered as total institutions. Social devel...

In the aftermath of several affairs of sexual abuse, over the last decades in Belgium practical initiatives and policy measures have been developed that target sex offenders. Until recently, little was known in Belgium about the prevalence and nature of recidivism of sex offenders. In this presentation, statistics about recidivism and risk factors...

In the aftermath of several affairs of sexual abuse, over the last decades in Belgium practical initiatives and policy measures have been developed that target sex offenders. Until recently, little was known in our country about the prevalence and nature of recidivism of sex offenders. In this contribution, statistics about recidivism and risk fact...

Since long, the delinquency of sex offenders has been the focus of many assumptions. These include the ideas that sex offenders are prone to commit new offences, that they are repeating (identical) sex offences and that they do not seize to offend. Such ideas suggest sex offenders are a distinct group. Based on the study of criminal careers of sex...

This research analyzes the influence of the negative changes during the supervision after prison on the reintegration. We also compare the differences concerning these change between a completion group and a revocation group.

This study try to explain the link between change and successful ending of probation.

In this chapter we briefly introduce some of the key developments and institutions at the European level (in particular, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT)) which touch upon prison policy. The chapter also discusses at length the approach that has inspired the project (‘Europe i...

In this concluding chapter, the editors identify a number of key issues that emerge from the chapters of the book and raise further questions about the evolution and developments of European institutions and the impact these institutions may have on domestic prison systems. This provides some key topics of a Europe in prisons research agenda. A num...

In this chapter we assess how the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), a European actor with preventive objectives, and the European Court of Human Rights ( ECtHR), an actor whose work is more reactive in nature, have impacted upon prisons in Belgium. The chapter begins with an in-depth description of the CPT’s visits to Belgium,...

Op 13 juli 2017 legde het Europees Comité voor de Preventie van Foltering en Onmenselijke of Vernederende Behandeling of Bestraffing (CPT) een openbare verklaring betreffende België af. Centraal in deze publieke verklaring staat het gebrek aan een gegarandeerde dienstverlening in de penitentiaire inrichtingen tijdens personeelsstakingen. Het CPT gr...

This volume explores the role that European institutions have come to play in regulating national prisons systems. The authors introduce and contribute to advancing a new research agenda in international penology (‘Europe in prisons’) which complements the conventional comparative approach (‘prisons in Europe’). The chapters examine the impact – if...

Most (Western) European countries dispose of national recidivism statistics. Belgium has been a marked exception: up until now, no national recidivism statistics are available. National statistics on recidivism provide important information to policy makers and scientists. In this article, that hiatus is addressed. Drawing on data of the Central Cr...

Most (Western) European countries dispose of national recidivism statistics. Belgium has been a marked exception: up until now, no national recidivism statistics are available. National statistics on recidivism provide important information to policy makers and scientists. In this article, that hiatus is addressed. Drawing on data of the Central Cr...

Belgium is one of the last countries in Western Europe where no national recidivism statistics are available. As a consequence, criminal policy can only make use of international statistics and of studies of specific, often unrepresentative groups of delinquents. In this study, use is made of the Central Criminal Registry (CCR). All persons with a...

Electronic monitoring is increasingly used as an alternative to imprisonment. Compared to imprisonment, electronic monitoring presumably is less costly. Furthermore, compared to imprisonment electronic monitoring may have less collateral consequences, as detainees who are electronically monitored are able to keep their job, housing and social netwo...

For criminologists, Belgium is at once an interesting and a very complex country. Belgium is one of the first European countries where criminology became institutionalized in the universities. As for criminal justice, in many ways Belgium can be situated in the European middle. One feature of Belgium is its institutional complexity, with a push tow...

Over de strafrechtelijke recidive, of zelfs zgn. ‘detentierecidive’, van veroordeelden tot een vrijheidsstraf is in België weinig bekend. Het laatste grootschalige Belgische onderzoek hieromtrent dateert al van 1983. In Europees perspectief is België dan ook één van de weinige West-Europese landen dat tot voor kort niet over nationale recidivecijfe...

Following the Dutroux case in 1996, the Belgian parole system was thoroughly reformed in 1998 and 2006. Decision-making was transferred from the Minister of Justice to multidisciplinary "Sentence Implementation Courts", supervision and follow up of conditionally released prisoners was tightened and the proportion of recalls increased. Recall of con...

In Belgium, policy makers’ ideas and assumptions on gradual release and recidivism, alongside other reasons, led to the adoption of conditional release at the end of the 19th century. Until today, the policy claim of the superiority of a gradual return to freedom, preferably through conditional release, has remained - recent legislation has undersc...

In "Limits of the Law (Introduction)", the editors identify and outline four functions of the law: the regulatory function; the symbolic representation of the norms and values of a group of people (or, broader, of society); the dispute resolution function (i.e. the law as a way to solve disputes); and the legal protection of citizens2. These functi...

In recent years Zygmunt Bauman, one of the world's leading sociologists, has increasingly devoted time and energy to topics that are directly relevant to readers with an interest in criminology and criminal justice. In a number of books and essays Bauman broaches themes such as unsafety and insecurity, punishment and prisons, social exclusion and p...

En Bélgica está en marcha desde 1998 el proyecto ¿detención dirigida a la restauración¿ en seis cárceles belgas, del que se explican sus inicios, marco contextual, recorrido y estructura, así como algunos aspectos de sus objetivos. Para ello, se examinan un abanico de actividades, como la formación del personal carcelario de cara a la información y...

Left Sixth Nerve Palsy; Numbness in Face; Numbness in Tongue; Numbness in Fingers; Headache; Depression; On September 18, 1982, a 59-year old man developed left sixth nerve palsy. In December 1982, he noted numbness of both sides of his face, the left side of his tongue, and finger of both hands. By November 1983, he noted progressive fatigue, with...

Dimming of vision; Photophobia; Difficulty with reading; In October 1992, a 55-year old man noted dimming of vision particularly at night, photophobia, and difficulty with reading. His eye history was significant for color blindness and bilateral posterior subcapsular cataracts. He had a history of mastocytosis with systemic and cutaneous involveme...

Optic atrophy; Exotropia; A 5 1/2 year old girl was referred for evaluation of optic atrophy in October 1995. She had developed an exotropia at age three months, which did not improve with patching. 5yoF, 35XT since age 3mos, optic atrophy L>R. thrombosed LICA aneurysm; no.

drooping of the right eyelid; horizontal diplopia In August 1978 a thirty-two year old white female was hit in the right eye with a tennis ball. Her ophthalmologist found a partial right third nerve palsy with pupillary involvement. Diplopia ; Drooping left eyelid. no