Speaker: Professor Tom Daems, KU Leuven

Searching the human body is a widely used control measure adopted by police and prison systems across the globe. Body searches are perceived as indispensable to increase security and are applied in a wide range of settings, eg on the street, at dance-festivals or inside the prison.

However, these are also invasive and potentially degrading control techniques. It should not come as a surprise, then, that body searches have been widely debated and regulated, including in Europe, e.g. in rulings of the European Court of Human Rights and the monitoring work of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT). However, notwithstanding such regulatory activity it seems difficult to civilize body search practices: why is this so?

In this presentation we aim to shed some light on the paradoxical observation that body searches are both deeply contested and yet also a normal routine part of everyday life.

Bio:

Tom Daems is full professor at KU Leuven and director of the Leuven Institute of Criminology (LINC). In 2023 he was elected as member of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) in respect of Belgium. His recent books include Electronic Monitoring (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), Criminology and Democratic Politics (Routledge, 2021, with Stefaan Pleysier), Body Searches and Imprisonment (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023), Understanding Prisoner Victimisation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024, with Elien Goossens) and Just Prisons (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024, with Elena Larrauri). www.tomdaems.com

This online workshop is part of the Social Penalities Across Boundaries series which is organised by Professor Richard Sparks, University of Edinburgh, and Professor Máximo Sozzo, Universidad Nacional del Litoral in Argentina (UNL).

Body searches and Europe’s struggle with degradation