Description: The worldwide increase in the number of individuals that are ageing behind bars sparks heightened concerns about the extent to which carceral environments can foster the foundational conditions for ageing individuals to lead meaningful lives. However, the underdevelopment of research on carceral ageing is one of the most significant contemporary challenges in the social scientific study of criminal behaviour and society’s response to it. Scholarship is particularly lagging behind in Europe. The CAGED project addresses this critical need by understanding how existential psychosocial changes induced by human ageing intersect with effects of incarceration. It is designed to bridge two distinct academic realms: gerontology, which encompasses the multidisciplinary study of ageing, and penology, which is the study of punishment and incarceration. The project will push disciplinary boundaries, both methodologically and theoretically, by applying an interactive mixed-methods and interdisciplinary approach that is guided by three objectives: First, it will delve into the existential dimensions woven into the narratives of incarcerated ageing individuals, by employing multi and novel interviewing methods. Secondly, the project will develop a novel instrument for measuring existential meaning among diverse regimes and groups of ageing individuals. The measurement will encompass all carceral environments in Belgium. Renowned for its diverse approaches to the integration and segregation of older individuals in carceral settings, it makes an excellent case study with broad relevance across European jurisdictions. The measuring study will also extend to an age-segregated facility for older adults in Germany, unique in Europe. In bringing these insights together, the project will finally culminate in a ground-breaking interdisciplinary theoretical framework. In its pursuit, CAGED will propel the field of carceral ageing studies forward and launch a new field of geronto-penology.
Coordinator: Diete Humblet
Funding: European Research Grant (ERC)
Duration: 1/04/2025 – 31/03/2030