25 Ben Crewe: Prisons research, Scandinavian penal exceptionalism, research teamwork

Ben Crewe is a professor of criminology at the University of Cambridge. He is one of the founding editors of the academic journal Incarceration and one of the series co-editors of the book series Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology. Ben is interested in all aspects of prison life, in particular the prisoner experience, staff-prisoner relationships, prison management, and the impact of political, economic, and cultural factors on the nature of imprisonment.

His latest project called 'Penal policymaking and the prisoner experience: a comparative analysis' – or COMPEN for short – is of particular interest to us Scandinavians. It is a large-scale and multifaceted comparison of imprisonment in two different jurisdictions, namely England and Wales and Norway. Of course, over the last 15 years or so, Scandinavian prisons, and perhaps Norwegian prisons in particular, have received a lot of attention from international scholars. The ongoing debate around so-called Scandinavian penal exceptionalism has however lacked a proper comparative empirical grounding. Does it make sense to say that Scandinavian penal systems and prison conditions are 'exceptional'? After more than a decade of research, we are no closer to a final, definitive answer. Will Ben and his COMPEN project colleagues finally set things straight once and for all?

PS: We had technical problems recording this episode. Unfortunately, the sound quality of my questions only is very poor. It sounds as if I were asking questions from within a heavy burlap sack. With a mask on. Sorry. It's only for the first 25 minutes or so, and Ben sounds good throughout, so I hope you'll still enjoy the episode.

Ben's Cambridge U webpage: Professor Ben Crewe | Institute of Criminology (cam.ac.uk) The COMPEN project: Comparative Penology | Institute of Criminology (cam.ac.uk)

Interviewer, editor, etc etc etc: Thomas Ugelvik

Music: Morten Qvenild/Uglalyd