In our current society, governments face complex societal issues that cannot be tackled through traditional governance arrangements. Therefore, governments increasingly come up with smart hybrid arrangements that transcend the boundaries of policy domains and jurisdictions, combine governance mechanisms (state, market, networks and self-governance), and foster new forms of collaboration. This book provides an overview of what smart hybridity entails and of its potentials and challenges. It in...

The Praxis of Justice brings together original contributions on restorative justice centering on the work of Ivo Aertsen, Emeritus Professor of Criminology in the Faculty of Law, KU Leuven. The work of Ivo Aertsen has impacted not only his country, Belgium, but the whole world. In recognition of a worthy life, his friends and colleagues of different generations and from all around the world have created this Liber Amicorum, as a living testament to friendship and accomplishment. The contribut...

Research Methods for Empirical Legal Studies gives an overview of methods for empirical legal research. It begins with general methodological issues, such as reliability and validity as well as research ethics. Subsequently, the book discusses data collection: sampling, interviewing, observation and survey instruments, and research design. Then, data analysis methods are introduced, for qualitative as well as quantitative data. In separate chapters, statistical testing and multivariate analys...

Across Europe, restorative justice has gained acceptance as a way of resolving disputes and mitigating the harm of crime in the community. Practitioners have also begun to coordinate restorative meetings in prisons in an e¬ffort to reduce the harms of victimisation and to encourage desistance from crime. This book provides a comprehensive evaluation of Building Bridges, a programme of restorative meetings between victims and prisoners in seven European countries. The authors first describe h...