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Straftoemeting aan ouders: de kinderen gestraft? Naar een kinderrechtenbenadering in de straftoemetingsbeslissing in het gemeen strafrecht
Abstract
Onderzoek geeft aan dat ongeveer de helft van de gedetineerden in België een of meer minderjarige kinderen zou hebben, en dat ouderlijke detentie meestal een negatieve impact heeft op het welzijn van deze kinderen. In verschillende internationale en regionale soft law-documenten wordt niet enkel ingezet op het in stand houden en verbeteren van de ouder-kindrelatie, maar wordt ook gesteld dat strafrechters rekening dienen te houden met de belangen van de kinderen van de veroordeelde persoon bij de straftoemeting. Hoewel het Belgisch strafrecht vooralsnog geen vergelijkbare verplichting kent, laat de ruime discretionaire beslissingsbevoegdheid van strafrechters dit wel toe binnen de bij wet bepaalde grenzen. De literatuur geeft echter aan dat strafrechters deze impact amper in overweging nemen. Hierin kan wel verandering komen: het voorontwerp van boek I van het Strafwetboek bepaalt dat de strafrechter ook de potentiële impact op het gezin van de veroordeelde in overweging dient te nemen. De bijdrage reflecteert over enkele aspecten van artikel 26 van het voorontwerp van boek I van het Strafwetboek in het licht van het internationale en regionale kinderrechtenkader. Hierbij wordt bijzondere aandacht besteed aan het gewicht dat hierbij wordt toegekend aan de belangen van het kind, en het toepassingsgebied ratione personae.
International parental child abduction is on the rise and is a very delicate phenomenon to resolve. Therefore, cross-border mediation in international parental child abduction is one of the most used methods to solve these cases. It is a method that is used to guarantee the best interest of the child and it may be more successful than a criminal prosecution. However, not every cross-border mediation is as successful as the other. There are some factors that can determine the success of a cross-border mediation. The aim of this research is therefore to develop some conditions that can make the cross-border mediation more successful. To develop these conditions, a systematic review was conducted to search for the most successful aspects that can help to solve an international child abduction. This research has found that there are numerous conditions that can make a cross-border mediation successful, but there are also some conditions that can make a cross-border mediation fail. In Belgium, a successful cross-border mediation can also lead to a criminal prosecution when the mediation in criminal cases failed. Therefore, policy makers have to think about the integration of those two mediation paths into one.
A substantial body of research now exists indicating that parental imprisonment can produce multiple negative effects on dependent children. While the criminal justice system can respond to this post-imprisonment through positive interventions, an important question arises as to whether courts should take into account the impact of imprisonment on the children of offenders at the point of sentencing. The recognition of children’s rights in many jurisdictions has prompted courts to develop approaches that take account of these important third party considerations. This article will explore how the courts of South Africa and England and Wales have made space for the rights of children of offenders within the sentencing process and consider whether Ireland might adopt such an approach. Central to this process is how relevant information regarding dependent children can best be presented to the sentencing court. The article will therefore examine the potential introduction of child impact statements into the Irish sentencing process, and the extent to which probation officers are suited to adapting their current pre-sanction report role to include child impact information.
Every year, a substantial number of children are confronted with the detention of their primary caregiver, which in most cases is their mother. Empirical research shows that the well-being of children is seriously affected by their mother's imprisonment, although to date no study has been able to assess whether detention of a mother as such causes long-term damage. Starting from normative pedagogical principles, this article argues that mothers who are active caretakers of their children should not serve a prison sentence while their children are underage. The interests of children are a sufficient reason to prevent 'collateral damage' to their well-being - unless it is evident that other reasons either related to the well-being of children or society have to overrule this principle.
This article examines whether prisoners’ children have more adult convictions than children whose parents were convicted but
not imprisoned. This is investigated in England and the Netherlands from 1946 to 1981 using two prospective longitudinal datasets:
the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development and the NSCR Transfive Study. In the Netherlands, no significant relationship
was found between parental imprisonment and offspring offending. In England, a relationship was found for sons only. This
association can be partly explained by parental criminality. However, after controlling for number of parental convictions
and other childhood risk factors, a significant relationship remained between number of parental imprisonments and sons’ offending.
When parental imprisonment at different ages is examined, parental imprisonment only significantly predicted sons’ offending
when it happened after the sons’ seventh birthday.
Analyses of the effects of America's experiment with vastly increased use of imprisonment as a penal sanction typically focus on crime reduction and public spending. Little attention has been paid to collateral effects. Imprisonment significantly reduces later employment rates and incomes of exprisoners. In many urban communities, large fractions of young men attain prison records and are thus made less able to contribute to their communities and families. Less is known about the effects of a parent's imprisonment on children's development, though mainstream theories provide grounds for predicting those effects are substantial and deleterious. Until research begins to shed light on these questions, penal policy will continue to be set in ignorance of important ramifications of alternate policy options.
Sentencing guidance on the weight to be given to mitigation about the impact of punishment on an offender has differentiated between serious and less serious offending and between degrees and types of disadvantage. This article reviews current sentencing approaches and analyses the justifications for taking impact into account. In particular it notes that increased emphasis on victim impact and a recent 'inflation' of seriousness decreases the likelihood that punishment impact will influence sentencing decisions. Consequently, it argues that, at a time of rising use of imprisonment, principled justifications could support more attention to impact, and that this is particularly important where offending lies on the ‘cusp’ of a custodial sentence. NOTE: In Bata, [2006] EWHC 468 (QBD), the case referred to on pages 143-4, the minimum period of 10 years set by the trial judge and confirmed by the Secretary of State, had taken Mr Bata’s age and infirmity into account. The author regrets that it was not made clear in the published article that this was the context for the decision of Jack J. in the High Court that it was not appropriate to make further deductions in view of the gravity of the offence.
Prison visitation remains an under-researched and under-theorised aspect of prison life. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, this article takes an in-depth look at the lived experience of the prison visit from the perspectives of prisoners and their visitors. First, this paper describes the inherently problematic nature of current visits practice reflecting on the restrictions placed on prisoners and families and the longer term implications for their lives post-release. Whilst acknowledging these fundamental flaws, the paper then, describes what can make some visiting experiences more ‘survivable’ than others by comparing visiting experiences at two ostensibly similar prisons
Recent research suggests that children of prisoners are at risk for a range of adverse outcomes throughout their lives. However, there is almost no information about how many children prisoners have, where their children are or who looks after them. This article describes children's circumstances following their father's imprisonment, using a survey at an English prison. It is roughly estimated that 1 per cent of children under 18 experience parental imprisonment each year in England and Wales. It is argued that prisoners and their children are vulnerable to multiple types of social exclusion, including: pre-existing deprivation; loss of material and social capital following imprisonment; stigma; ‘linguistic exclusion’; political exclusion; poor future prospects; and administrative invisibility. Despite the apparent prevalence and urgency of the problem, the population of children of prisoners is unmonitored, under-researched and unsupported by the statutory sector. In the UK, failure to support children of prisoners reflects an era of punitive penal policy, and a lack of commitment to reduce social exclusion by the Government.
This book answers two basic but under-appreciated questions: first, how does the American criminal justice system address a defendant's family status? And, second, how should a defendant's family status be recognized, if at all, in a criminal justice system situated within a liberal democracy committed to egalitarian principles of non-discrimination? After surveying the variety of "family ties benefits" and "family ties burdens" in our criminal justice system, we explain why policymakers and courts should view with caution and indeed skepticism any attempt to distribute these benefits or burdens based on one's family status. This is a controversial stance, but we argue that in many circumstances there are simply too many costs to the criminal justice system when it gives special treatment based on one's family ties or responsibilities. This book breaks new ground by offering an important synthetic view of the intersection between crime, punishment, and the family. Although in recent years scholars have been successful in analyzing the indirect effects of certain criminal justice policies and practices on the family, few have recognized the panoply of laws (whether statutory or common law-based) expressly drawn to privilege or disadvantage persons based on family status alone. It is critically necessary to pause and think through how and why our laws intentionally target one's family status and how the underlying goals of such a choice might better be served in some cases. This book begins that vitally important conversation with an array of innovative policy recommendations that should be of interest to anyone interested in the improvement of our criminal justice system.
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