This is an annually awarded prize in memory of Janine Segers, doctor in Law at the ULB, Master in criminology and judge at the juvenile court, who died in 1969 at the age of 44. The prize of 500 euros is awarded every year at the official proclamation to the best master dissertation submitted in the previous academic year that answers to the following criteria:
- ‘Vrij onderzoek’ (free research) or the capacity to conduct research in a ‘redelijk eigenzinnige’ way, following the university’s credo.
- Original and innovative research or the use of problem formulations, theoretical frameworks and/or methods that are not mainstream in criminology.
- Scientific quality or an outstanding work on a theoretical and methodological level Language use and writing style are of excellent level.
- Quoted with at least 15/20 during the last academic year.
A call is sent out each year in September to all graduated students.
2024
Siri Hellen
"Tussen vrijheid en bestraffing: een kwantitatief en kwalitatief criminologisch onderzoek naar het verloop van probatie-begeleidingen"
Jury Composition: Mattias De Backer (chair), Esther De Graaf, Yana Demeyere, and Lorenz Pardon
ABSTRACT
The decision-making processes in the Sentence Implementation Court and by probation officers have been extensively explored, but this is lacking for the probation committee. This master’s research aims to research the course of probation supervision, which are community sentences supervised by the
probation committee. Specifically, we will examine quantitative trends in the
course of probation counselling assignments within the Leuven House of Justice. Additionally, we will qualitatively explore the factors and considerations influencing the decision-making processes of the probation committee and the decision-making processes among probation officers when conditions are violated. To research this, a file study was conducted. A total of 363 files from the Leuven House of justice, closed in 2022, were examined during this file study. In 55% (200 out of 363) of the files, we found no violation of the conditions caused by an act or negligence of the probant. We identified violations of the conditions in 45% (163 out of 363) of the cases and these files were further investigated. A proposal for revocation was drawn up in 33% (54 out of 163) of cases, resulting in 16% (26 out of 163) revocations and 1% (2 out of 163) in non-revocation. The solution
regarding a proposal for revocation was unclear in 16% (26 out of 163) of the cases. For the qualitative in-depth research, we ultimately examined 157 cases closely, due to uncertainties regarding the case closure in six of them. We identified eleven factors taken into consideration by the probation committee in formulating a proposal for revocation. These show similarities with the factors considered by probation officers and the court. Notable factors included absence at the probation committee hearing (1), failure to respond to summonses from the probation officer and the probation committee (2) and limited options for both the probation committee (3) and the probant (4). These factors contributed the most to the probation committee’s drafting a proposal for revocation.
Ena De Brucker
“’Niet meer doen he!’: Een kwalitatief onderzoek naar de visies en ervaringen van de jeugdrechter omtrent de berisping.”
Jury Composition: Mattias De Backer (chair), Esther De Graaf, Yana Demeyere, and Lorenz Pardon
ABSTRACT
The reprimand has been among the response options of the juvenile court since 1897 relating to juveniles who committed an offense defined as a crime. However, no (recent) research is available today that focuses specifically on this sanction. This research aims to gain insight into the practice of the reprimand and aims to look at the content of this sanction form a critical perspective. Consequently, the following research question is central: “What are the perceptions and experiences of juvenile judges regarding the reprimand?”. In order to answer this research question, this study relies on semi-structured interviews and non-participatory observations. The respondents are Dutch-speaking juvenile judges from different juvenile courts in
Flanders. This study shows that perceptions regarding the reprimand are very divided among juvenile judges; for example, we see that some respondents question the effectiveness of this response while others consider it an important sanction. Yet juvenile judges agree on a number of issues. Namely, we see that the reprimand is applied as the capstone of a case, that importance is given to ‘the moral appeal’ and that the criticism of ‘la mystication du language’ is contained in the reprimand. On this basis, a more evidence-based approach is recommended, considering a more constructive structure of the reprimand and a clearer distinction between the different moral apples. Possible follow-up research could focus on this evidence-based approach, as well as the perceptions and experiences of juvenile judges in the other communities and youth themselves.
2023
Joyce Albrecht
"De onzichtbare noden van kinderen met een gedetineerde ouder."
Jury Composition: Mattias De Backer (chair), Esther De Graaf, Yana Demeyere, and Lorenz Pardon
ABSTRACT
Children of prisoners are often called the “forgotten victims” of crime (Murray & Farrington, 2008). Detention is always harming, and not only for the prisoners, but also for their children. They end up in a situation they did not choose, but often bear the negative consequences of it (Eddy & Poehlmann-Tynan, 2019). In order to mitigate these negative consequences, it is important to gain insight into their needs. This master's thesis offers an answer to the question "What are the needs of children with an incarcerated parent given the impact they experience due to parental detention." The research was focused, on the one hand, on the impact they experience due to parental detention and, on the other hand, their specific needs resulting from it. In the first part, existing scientific insights are explained based on a literature review. This shows a lot of international research on the effects of parental detention exists, but national empirical research on the impacts and needs of children with an incarcerated parent is lacking. To address this research gap, the second section presents the results of the qualitative empirical research that was conducted. In this part, children with a detained parent are speaking about their experiences. The conducted research confirms that parental detention has mainly negative impacts and to a lesser extent positive impacts. The impact of parental detention is always determined by a complex combination of risk factors and protective factors. The needs experienced by children with a detained parent depend strongly on their individual situation. In the future, it is important to gain a better understanding of these specific needs in order to minimize the harm of parental detention. This thesis contributes to making these invisible needs more visible.
2022
Alexandra Bernaert
"Straatintimidatie, who do we blame? Een discoursanalyse naar de reacties op berichtgeving op Facebook over seksuele intimidatie in de publieke ruimte."
Jury Composition: Katrien De Koster (chair), Jenneke Christiaens, Els Enhus, Estelle Hanard and Yana Demeyere
ABSTRACT
Ten years ago, Sofie Peeters' documentary (2012) highlighted the problem of sexist street harassment in Brussels' public spaces. Two years later, the sexism law criminalised the phenomenon and it seemed that everyone agreed with the problematization of street harassment. However, still many women experience street harassment every day and society's perception of this phenomenon remains unclear. However, this is important because, its normalisation in society has an impact on women's perception of street harassment. This is why this study examined the perception of sexual harassment in the public sphere by Belgian readers reacting to news items on Facebook. In this context, Facebook was the playground by and large, because of its high proportion of users and its possibilities for discussing social phenomena. In addition, this is also the place where feminists call out everyday sexism. The research took place by means of a discourse analysis that made use of the framing theory. The data selected from a random proportional sample of both French-language and Dutch-language articles were then coded using a deductive strategy and analysed in MAXQDA on the basis of pre-existing reasoning and framing devices. The findings show that Belgian readers' reactions mainly condemn street harassment and with only 14.7% of the reactions rejecting the problem. Furthermore, four frames were found, which differed somewhat from previous research. The new culturalization frame views street harassment as a problem of citizens with a migration background. The systematic gender inequality frame emphasises the difference between harassment and flirting and takes the causes of the events from the patriarchal system. The 'Blaming the victim' frame, in turn, denies the incidents and regards them according to women's behaviour and manner of dress. Finally, the 'nothing is allowed' frame equates street harassment with compliments and expresses irritation at the restrictions on freedom of expression imposed on citizens.
2021
Raf Oostvogels
"Exploration of blockchain as a disruptive information technology: your identity in a block. How can blockchain technology offer a solution against identity fraud?"
Jury Composition: Katrien De Koster (chair), Elisabeth Enhus, Yana Demeyere, and Estelle Hanard
ABSTRACT
The ‘fourth industrial revolution’ is deploying the world for intelligent and autonomous systems powered by data and machine learning (OOSTVOGELS & STRUYF, 2021). As technology becomes more intertwined with cyber systems, data protection is of paramount importance. In the first place, it is crime - as first-adopters - who eagerly use this paradigm shift to steal your personal data and then commit criminal acts with it. In the current digital age in which consumers are increasingly embracing and using the internet in online transactions to buy goods or services, the concept of ‘digital identity’ is becoming more and more pressing. Although no uniform, comprehensive definition of this concept has been described in the literature, it is understood as: "all of an individual's personal data available online" (ANJANA & RAMAN, 2020, p. 10). The content of the digital identity is therefore very broad, ranging from a personal e-mail address to confidential bank details and product preferences. This identity is not uniform and can therefore vary between financial institutions, telecom operators and social media platforms. In order to halt this unbridled distribution of personal data - which can lead to identity fraud -, there currently is a lot of effort to explore blockchain technology as an innovative information technology. Given the intrinsic characteristics of cryptography, transparency and user control, blockchain technology fulfills all key factors for the development of a new robust digital identity system. To merge both two - so far - separate worlds in one study, I developed the following research question: "How can blockchain technology offer a solution against identity fraud?" This question is central in my research and I will try to answer it on the basis of an exploratory literature study. Given the little academic research that has been conducted into this question and the large amount of nescience, the aim of this master’s thesis is to contribute to scientific knowledge development and to show the reader where the hidden power of blockchain lies, beyond the Bitcoin hype.
2020
Lien Maes
"Necessities, incivilities and remedies in public spaces: a study of public toilet facilities"
Jury Composition: Katrien De Koster (chair), Elisabeth Enhus, Yana Demeyere, Jenneke Christiaens and Estelle Hanard
ABSTRACT
The literature review showed that public toilets are an important (and even indispensable) service to society. At the same time, however, the media regularly reports about an acute shortage of these public sanitary facilities. Initiativesorganisedby social activists point out as well theconsequences of the shortage for the most disadvantaged groups of our population. Moreover, the shortage of public toilets attracted the attention of many researchers. One of the explanations for the shortage of public toilets is therefore central to this work. It concerns the presence of nuisance in these public facilities. The aim of this study is to explore the forms of nuisance that occur in the public toilets in the city centre ofBrussels. Subsequently, the focus will be seton how the reported nuisance can be prevented. The questions at the baseof this research are the following: What is the importance of public toilets in public space? What types of incivilities occur in public toilets in Brussels? What potential solutions are there to the reported incivilities?The results found were obtained byvarious qualitative data collection methods, specifically observations and semi-structured interviews. The latterwere conducted with professionals working atthe institutions responsible of, or linked to the public toiletsstudied.Moreover, additional data was provided by more brief interviews, conducted with other respondents (e.g.shop keeperswhose businessesoverlook one of the public toilets).Firstly, according to the respondents, public toilets contribute to a cleaner city. They were presented as animportant weapon in the fight against public urination. Public toilets can make public spaces more accessible to many, and increase the mobility of city visitors in this way. Secondly, it was found that physicalas well as social incivilities occurin thepublic toilets in Brussels. Due tothe presence of incivilities in public toilets, bona fide users will avoid visiting such facilities.Thirdly, several solutions were proposed to deal with the nuisance in the toilets.However, the results show that the third and final question cannot be answered with aready-made solution,but that an integrated approach to this phenomenon is required.
Sofie Van den Bussche
"Beroepsgeheim vs schuldig verzuim: vertrouwen komt te voet, maar gaat te paard"
Jury Composition: Katrien De Koster (chair), Elisabeth Enhus, Yana Demeyere, Jenneke Christiaens and Estelle Hanard
ABSTRACT
Professional secrecy and guilty neglect are ubiquitous in the media, due to a number of recent convictions for guilty neglect committed by professional secrecy holders. Societal events have increased judicial authorities’ demand for more information sharing between relevant stakeholders.Both judicial authorities and care, develop common initiatives on professional secrecy and guilty neglect in view of achieving a good relationship and transparent cooperation. Different perspectives and expectations of both sides however jeopardize the efforts made.In the study "Professional secrecy versus guilty neglect. Trust arrives walking and departs riding”; the stakeholders arguments and discourse are examined.The first part of the research includes a literature study, including the history and conditions of both guilty neglect and professional secrecy.In the second part, discourse analysis examines how stakeholders in the field of care, justice and politics establish their discourse and are then compared in search of differences and similarities.Social context makes mutual understanding possible and gives meaning to communication; the results of the research are also assessed in this light.
The tension between professional secrecy and guilty neglect occurs within a broader society that is characterized by a number of events and phenomena. It therefore transcends the perceived contradiction between aid and justice and impacts society at large.The discourse analysis showed that stakeholders emphasize their own position and therefore have a fragmented view of the complex relationship between professional secrecy and guilty neglect. The research has shown that the field of tension between professional secrecy and guilty neglect can be attributed to a construct of society.Professional secrecy and guilty neglect are not enemy concepts, but can coexist without conflict and without dwelling into each other's waters.Finally, the researcher formulates a daring objection. Can political actors be held accountable for the constructed tension between justice and care? Potential security risks are being resolved by politicians through the adoption of additional laws, pressured by the electorate, further fostering the utopia of absolute security. Providing help entails risks. Care workers have to balance information and make educated decisions based on the acquired information. Care workers cannot give watertight guarantees as to the results of their interventions. With regard to their clients and society, care workers perform on a best efforts basis and not an obligation of result.
2019
Hannelore Mason
Doe “Rap” je verhaal: een kwalitatief onderzoek naar de beeldvorming van jongeren omtrent hun jeugdrechter en hoe deze zich verhoudt ten opzichte van de opzet van het jeugdrecht en de intenties van de jeugdrechter’
Jury composition: Katrien De Koster (chair), Jenneke Christiaens, Els Enhus, Marijke Van Buggenhout
ABSTRACT
Based on the assumption that the juvenile court sets out to act in the interests of the youngsters, it was a challenge to discover if the youngsters also experience it that way. On the basis of the research question, we looked for the differences between the intentions of the juvenile judge and the perception that the juveniles have of him/her. We investigated how and where these differences come about, and which aspects or actions can align this vision more positively. In addition to the literature study, we opted for a creative ‘rapworkshop’, in order to find a method that is close to the youngsters’ interests. By contacting institutions, five responded positively. This resulted in five different workshops, where the youngsters wrote a rap together with a musician, about their image of the juvenile judge. In total twenty-six respondents eventually participated in the project. Both from the literature study and from this empirical part, we found that the juvenile judge has a dual role. On the one hand, there was the protective role of the juvenile judge, which particularly applied to the group of respondents who appeared before him due to a problematic upbringing. On the other hand, there was the juvenile judge's punitive role, which was more evident with the group of respondents who appeared before the court for some transgression or other. The difference between the intentions of the juvenile judge and the image of the youngsters is mainly reflected in his/her role and the context in which these two groups must appear before him/her. It was remarkable that all respondents wished for a relationship of trust, with someone closer to their environment.
2018
Jasmien Bougrine
Ik ben mijn verhaal: gender en zelf-narratieven bij meisjes binnen Basketclub Foyer Molenbeek
Jury composition: Katrien De Koster (chair), Tom Bauwens, , Iris Steenhout, Esther Jehaes, Annelies De Schrijver
Abstract
Young people from Brussels are often seen as a homogeneous group and associated with a negative connotation. Nowadays people try to mobilize these young people through social sports projects. These ‘sports for development’ programs focus on individual and social development within a multicultural society. Now it appears that the scientific results of these programs are not unequivocally positive and especially aimed at men. BC Foyer Molenbeek is such a project with this special feature that it focuses exclusively on girls. It concerns a group that is both socially and scientifically invisible. The following research question has been decided upon to discover what these urban girls consider important and at the same time to empower them: 'Which elements are represented in the self-narratives of the girls of BC Foyer Molenbeek?' With as sub questions: 'Which place takes the project from BC Foyer Molenbeek?’ and ‘What role do the girls of the project give to gender within their self-narratives?’ The first part of the literature study deals with the current situation of young people in Brussels and the sports programs. Later on, it zooms in on this urban youth. These young people are seen as vulnerable, but at the same time they are expected to assume responsibility for structurally embedded problems. There is also a plea for a wider vision in which understanding and voicing this youth takes a central position. This points out the importance of self-narratives. We all create our own social reality in interaction with social processes and the Other. To understand what urban youth is concerned with, we need to understand which processes play a role in the construction of their identity. The third part deals with gender. This describes the importance of recognizing gender as a social construction that generates expectations. The methodological part describes the data collection methods: observing participation, photohistorias and focus groups. Photos that the respondents collected themselves formed the guideline for these focus groups. This created a large degree of freedom. The results are then described and analysed. This chapter notices the importance of an identity that is co-constructed and the important role of the Other. Some of these identity traits may even lead to exclusion and discrimination. The need for more visibility of urban girls and processes at the micro level is prominent here. We decide with a conclusion, a discussion and a number of recommendations.
2017
Julia Gutsgell
'A loving provision ? How former Jehovah’s witnesses experience shunning practices’
Jury composition: Katrien De Koster (chair), Iris Steenhout, Tom Bauwens, Mark Leys, Esther De Graaf
Abstract
The impact of ostracism (being excluded or ignored) on its targets has been extensively explored in the last decades. Ostracism has been found to have adverse effects on targeted individuals physical and mental health. Most research in this field, however, has focused on the immediate and short-term impact on ostracised individuals and has been conducted under laboratory conditions. Utilising a qualitative approach, the current study explored the long-term impact of chronic ostracism in former members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses who were excommunicated from their community following a variety of doctrinal transgressions. Moreover, the study explored how ostracised individuals make sense and explain ostracism to themselves. The study comprised twelve qualitative interviews with six participants. The results of this study support findings from previous studies, in regards to the short-term effects of ostracism. Ostracism affects four fundamental human needs; the need for belonging, self-esteem, control and meaningful existence. The study offers preliminary evidence that these basic human needs are not only thwarted as a short-term consequence but continue to affect its targets beyond the immediate ostracism episode. Long-term effects of chronic ostracism, as experienced and described by participants in this study, include adverse effects on the perception of participants identity, the development of destructive and harmful coping mechanisms, feelings of disconnection from others, fears regarding ones’ personal integrity, as well as anxiety and uncertainty about the future. Further research in this area is needed to provide conclusive evidence for these long-term effects. Based on the findings of this study, a number of recommendations have been identified: The need for raising awareness of ostracism as a controlling and coercive behavioural tool amongst professionals who come in contact with children raised in environments that promote the use of this unethical behaviour, the provision of specialist support services for people who experience ostracism, plans and actions from policy makers and legislators to prevent and prosecute the unethical use of ostracism as a control tool.