Joint Conference of the Working Group on Historical Crime Research, the GiwK, and the CiCS
The aim of the conference is to facilitate interdisciplinary exchange in order to discuss issues of selectivity in institutional punishment, both from a historical perspective and with regard to current developments. By selectivity, we mean the systematic tendency for members of certain social groups to have been and to be treated differently for comparable behaviors. This could and can affect various individuals, for example based on categories such as gender, social status, religious affiliations, regional origin, or perceived foreignness, or age, including the intersectional overlap of these categories. Unequal treatment refers not only to the severity of punishment but begins as early as the perception, assessment, and reporting of behavior. It is embedded in complex legal and social attributions (such as with regard to intent, criminal responsibility, or social danger), which themselves can have a selective effect.
Everything at a glance
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Event dates
, November 5, 2026, through November 7, 2026 -
Venue
University of Siegen
Campus Unteres Schloss
Obergraben 25 | 57072 Siegen
Room: US-S 001 -
Event format
Conference
Further information
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Speakers
; see program -
Organizers:
Working Group on Historical Crime Research
Society for Interdisciplinary Scientific Criminology (GiwK)
Center for Interdisciplinary Crime Studies (CiCS)
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Contact
Kira Keßler
School II, Education
Institute for Social Pedagogy
Adolf-Reichwein-Straße 2 a
57076 Siegen -
selektive-strafen@uni-siegen.de
Program | Information | Registration
| Thursday, November 5, 2026 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2:00–2:30 PM | Arrival & Coffee | |
| 2:30–2:45 | Introduction | |
| 2:45–3:45 |
Opening Lecture Manon van der Heijden (Leiden, Netherlands): Migrants and Discrimination in Criminal Cases in Early Modern Holland |
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| 3:45–4:15 | Coffee Break | |
| 4:15–5:35 | Petr Kreuz (Prague/CZ): Selective Punishment in the Practice of Prague Criminal Courts, 1680–1740 | Blanka Szeghyová & Richard Papáč (Bratislava/SK): Biased Scales: Selective Urban Justice in Early Modern Hungary |
| Sonja Dolinsek (Magdeburg): Unequal Policing of Sex Work in New York City (1960s–1980s) | András Biczó (Debrecen/HU): Contra Vagabundos: The Selective Criminalization of Vagrancy under the Statutes of Hungarian Noble Counties and Free Royal Cities (1650–1720) | |
| Friday, November 6, 2026 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 8:30–9:00 | Arrival & Coffee | |
| 9:00–10:20 | Belinda Rodríguez Arrocha (Puebla/MX): Public Sins and Social Control in the Early Modern Canary Islands | Lars Urbanski (Mannheim): Hierarchies of National Belonging in the Penal Colony: The Case of French Guiana |
| Andrea Féher (Cluj/RO): Normative Thresholds of Public Intervention in Domestic Violence and Child Maltreatment in 18th-Century Transylvania | Hjördis Bohse (Osnabrück): AForeign Homeland. On the Significance of Social Status, Gender, and Local Residency for the Punishment of Broken Marriage Vows in East Frisia (1643–1744) | |
| 10:20–10:50 | Coffee Break | |
| 10:50–11:30 | Kira Keßler (Siegen): Selective Visibilities in the Prosecution of Juvenile Delinquency in Prussia | Anna Clara Basilicò (Trento/IT): Between Magic and Murder: Inquisitorial Justice and Selective Prosecution in Late 17th-Century Italy |
| 11:30–12:15 | Karl Härter (Frankfurt am Main): Labeling and Selectivity in Early Modern Criminal Justice: The Case of the “Gypsies” | |
| 12:15–1:50 | Lunch Break | |
| 1:50–3:10 | Franziska Niedrist (Innsbruck/AT): State control as an extraordinary punishment? Discourses and normative steering mechanisms using the example of Habsburg criminal legislation | Johan Edman (Stockholm/SE): Public opinion, just deserts, and the political debate on crime policy and class injustice in Sweden (1853–1887) |
| Luigi Giuseppe Barbieri Ferrarini (São Paulo/BR): The Influence of Eugenics on Brazilian Criminological Thought, 1917–1950 | Benjamin Stückelberger (Bern/CH): Primary selectivity through the concept of intent in the Swiss Federal Supreme Court and criminal law literature regarding offenses against life and limb | |
| 3:10–3:40 PM | Coffee Break | |
| 3:40–5:00 | Manuel Bolz (Göttingen): The Securitization and Juridification of Urban Entertainment Districts. The Example of Hamburg’s St. Pauli District after World War II | Gaby Temme (Düsseldorf): Patterns of selectivity: Selective assistance for victims and perpetrators through social work |
| Francis Krik (Potsdam): Overload : The Crime Boom and Selective Enforcement Responses from Perestroika to Independent Ukraine (1985–1991) | Sonja Bojak (Kassel): Constructions and Interconnections of Unmanageability and Dangerousness. A Discourse-Theoretical Analysis of Justifications for Placement in the “Moringen Juvenile Protection Camp” | |
| 5:15–6:15 PM |
Evening Lecture Paul Lawrence (Milton Keynes/UK): Selective Policing |
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| Saturday, November 7, 2026 | |
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| 8:30–9:00 | Arrival & Coffee |
| 9:00–10:20 | Julia Derzsi (Sibiu/RO): Norm , Practice, and Collective Enforcement Strategies in Transylvanian Saxon Criminal Justice in the Early Modern Period |
| Michael Rocher (Berlin): School Punishment between Selectivity and Formality: The Claim of the Norm and Realities from the Late 17th to the Mid-19th Century | |
| 10:20–10:50 | Coffee Break |
| 10:50–12:10 | Benjamin Seebröker (Münster): Space , Conflict, and Social Interaction. The Potential of Criminological Approaches for Explaining Violent Crime in England (ca. 1730–1830) |
| Roland Perényi & Róbert Kerepeszki (Debrecen/HU): Urbanization , Metropolitan Space, and the “Standardized Gaze”: Transformations in Police Surveillance in Budapest (1881–1941) | |
| 12:10–12:30 | Summary | Wrap-Up |
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Venue
University of Siegen
Campus Unteres Schloss
Obergraben 25, 57072 Siegen
You can find information on the map and directions here.
Paid parking is available in the immediate vicinity:
CONTIPARK Unteres Schloss Underground Garage
Altstadt Parking Garage
Parking lot at the Löhrtor Indoor Swimming Pool
You can findaccommodation options in the Siegen area here.
Participation in the "Selective Punishments" conference is free of charge, but we ask that you register.
Registration deadline: October 15, 2026
Please use the following website to register.
