NEWS
Stay up to date with the project’s latest activities, including workshops, conferences, publications, and other news, right here on this page.
SENTRIX Team Share Findings on Sentencing Decision-Making at ESELS 2026
On 18–19 June 2026, Ljubljana hosted the fourth annual conference of the European Society for Empirical Legal Studies (ESELS), bringing together scholars from around the world to discuss the latest developments in empirical legal research. The conference highlighted...
Sentencing forum: The importance of theoretical openness and close observation of sentencing practice
At the end of May, I had the pleasure of attending the fourth virtual Sentencing Forum. This edition explored the theoretical and practical implications of researching sentencing as a social practice. More specifically, it examined the theoretical possibilities and...
Shadowing sentencing work
You are welcome to join us at our fourth forum, Shadowing sentencing work, which will take place on Wednesday, 27 May from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM CET. The “Shadowing Sentencing Work” edition of the Sentencing Forum turns its attention to the practice of close observation:...
Talking to Sentencers: on methods, questions, and things that depend
The last Sentencing Forum brought together me and Nicole Bögelein from the University of Cologne to discuss something that sits at the heart of much sentencing research: what actually happens when you try to study sentencing by talking to the people who do it.What can...
Lost in court: What you hear when you don’t understand a word
In March, while on a research visit in Prague, Jakub Drapál was kind enough to take us to court. Luckily, this was literally, not figuratively. Despite studying sentencing for a living, a lot of my understanding is acquired through the mediated lens of court files and...
The Third Sentencing Forum is just around the corner
You are welcome to join us at our third forum, Talking to Sentencers, which will take place on Wednesday, 15 April from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM CET. Talking to Sentencers explores interviews and focus groups as ways of studying sentencing through the accounts of judges and...
Sentencing: The map and the territory
In the Sentrix project, we pursue an ambitious goal: to create a map of sentencing, to sketch a representation of a terrain far more intricate than it first appears. Sentencing is not a tidy territory; it is dense, uneven, and alive. It includes statutory rules,...
Sentencing guidelines across jurisdictions: a reflection on design, discretion, and misunderstanding
Last week’s sentencing forum brought together Julian Roberts, Johannes Kaspar and Sigrid van Wingerden, three speakers from England and Wales, Germany, and the Netherlands, respectively, to discuss sentencing guidelines across different jurisdictions. What made the...
Join us on our second Sentencing Forum
You are welcome to join us at our second forum, which will take place on Wednesday, 4 March from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM CET. This session will explore sentencing guidelines across jurisdictions, focusing on their design, use, and effects on judicial discretion,...
A sentencing analogy for emergence
The other day, during a bit of an introductory chit-chat with our team in one of our weekly meetings, the topic of quantum mechanics came up. It was shortly followed by the phenomenon of emergence in physics and chemistry and other sciences: that a complex system can...
Sentencing Forum, a new meeting point that strengthens connections across the sentencing research community
What is the Sentencing Forum? The Sentencing Forum is a new online meeting space designed to complement the existing academic structures in the sentencing field. We have conferences, workshops, working groups, and project-based collaborations, but we rarely have...
Italy’s new femicide offence: When sentencing becomes an easy substitute for understanding violence
A new offence, an old political reflex Italy has adopted a reform transforming femicide into a distinct offence in the penal code, with life imprisonment as the maximum penalty. On paper, it reads like a bold response to a social crisis. In reality, I see an old...
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Inštitut za kriminologijo
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Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Research Council. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
