ICPA2023-PID087 - Esther van Ginneken

Safety Dilemmas in Prison Management: Findings from Research on Prison Violence in the Netherlands

Author

Esther van Ginneken

Associate Professor in Criminology, Leiden University, Netherlands

Esther van Ginneken is Associate Professor in Criminology at Leiden University, the Netherlands. She received her PhD in 2014 at the University of Cambridge for her thesis on ‘The pains and gains of imprisonment’. Since the start of her academic career, Van Ginneken has conducted research on imprisonment in England and the Netherlands. Her primary research interests are prison climate, prison violence, and the wellbeing of incarcerated individuals. Van Ginneken has conducted research as part of the Life in Custody Study in the Netherlands, which involves a periodic survey among all individuals incarcerated in the Netherlands. This has included studies on cell sharing, the relationship between prison conditions and recidivism, and the concept of prison climate. This research has been published in international peer-reviewed journals, such as the Journal of Criminal Justice, Justice Quarterly, and Criminal Justice and Behavior. She is also well known for her work on posttraumatic growth among incarcerated individuals. Van Ginneken is principal investigator of a five-year research project on the The Social Ecology of Violence in Prisons (2023-2027), which is financially supported with a grant from the Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). This project seeks to identify why violent incidents occur in prison and how correctional officers respond to them. Innovative methods will be used, including virtual reality, to study why some conflicts escalate and others do not. The project is also concerned with violence in the context of contraband trading and continued criminal activity from prison.

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