P. Ponsaers

GERN (Groupement Européen de Recherches sur les Normativités) is a large con-sortium of scientific researchers in the domain of deviance and social control, more precisely studying delinquency, penal institutions, public policies of security and the importance of penal questions in society. The consortium is multidisciplinary.

Today GERN is a scientific network present in ten European countries and abroad, uniting researchers of different disciplines. Each year the GERN organizes a doctoral summer school, giving PhD students from the consortium the opportunity to present and discuss their ongoing projects and research results as well as meet young and senior researchers.

This is the fourth volume stemming from the annual doctoral conferences organized by the GERN. Last edition of the Summer School was held in September 2015 in Paris. The selected theme for this Summer School was “Crime and order, criminal justice experiences and desistance”, reflecting the variety of theoretical frameworks and methodologies covered by the current PhD theses in the field of criminal justice and deviance as well as the fresh and new perspectives on subjective experiences of the criminal justice system and trajectories of desistance.

Critical thinking differs from magic reasoning, common sense, and speculation. Scientific evidence contrasts with belief, immediate and apparent knowledge, illusion and opinion. This is particularly true for the science of crime, criminology and more generally social sciences research on criminal justice issues. With the inauguration of this Research Paper Series, GERN intends to monitor and disseminate cutting-edge studies into European security issues, reflecting the result of doctoral research in the framework of the GERN. The series provides an excellent platform from which to survey key emergent topics in the field. With this series the editors and authors are contributing to a better understanding of contemporary questions, presenting recent research results and scientific reflection, by devising new approaches and by re-evaluating the heritage of social sciences in this domain. It implies a new openness with regard to other disciplines and to the normative questions arising from the commission of crime and the formal reaction to it by actors in the criminal justice system and beyond.

This collection of essays is the result of an intensive reflection and engagement between the authors and the editors. The essays in the book coalesce around four overarching themes: the use and meaning of violence; policing the informal economy and tackling social disorder; methodological issues in research on crime; and contemporary penal institutions. It is a rich compilation of new work by emerging European scholars in the field of ‘Crime, Violence, Justice and Social Order’.

With the inauguration of this new Research Paper Series, GERN intends to monitor and disseminate cutting-edge studies into European security issues, reflecting the result of doctoral research in the framework of the GERN. This series provides an excellent platform from which to survey key emergent topics in the field.

With this new series the editors and authors are contributing to a better understanding of contemporary questions, presenting recent research results and scientific reflection, by devising new approaches and by re-evaluating the heritage of social sciences in this domain. It implies a new openness with regard to other disciplines and to the normative questions arising from the commission of crime and the formal reaction to it by actors in the criminal justice system and beyond.