Professor Francis Pakes
Biography
My long standing research area is comparative criminal justice. It considers why arrangements are different in different places and what we can learn from each other. More specifically I look at prisons abroad. I have written about the nature of prisons in Norway, Iceland and the Netherlands.
My latest project involved spending a week in two prisons in Iceland as a 'quasi prisoner' in order to study their culture from within and to find out what other countries could learn from them.
I am from the Netherlands and came to the UK in 1998.
Research interests
- Comparative Criminal Justice
- Criminal Justice in the Netherlands
- Psychology and Criminal Justice
- Criminal Justice and Mental Health
- Prisons in the Nordic countries, in particular Norway and Iceland
Research outputs
2025
Resettlement and citizenship in Iceland: The role and position of halfway house Vernd
Pakes, F., Gunnlaugsson, H.
1 Dec 2025, In: International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice. 83, 8p., 100806
Research output: Article
2024
Prison break - or a break from prison? Reflections on escapes from Icelandic prisons
Pakes, F., Gunnlaugsson, H.
2 Dec 2024, In: Nordic Journal of Criminology. 26, 1, p. 1-18, 18p.
Research output: Article
Comparative Criminal Justice
Pakes, F.
1 Aug 2024,
Research output: Book
How Iceland takes better care of its foreign offenders than the rest of Europe
Pakes, F.
5 Feb 2024, In: The Conversation
Research output: Article
2023
The shallow end: understanding the prisoner experience in Iceland’s open prisons
Pakes, F.
1 Dec 2023, In: Incarceration. 4, 16p.
Research output: Article
Out in the cold?: The experiences of foreign national prisoners in Iceland's open prisons
Pakes, F.
1 Dec 2023, In: International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice. 75, 10p., 100626
Research output: Article
The dire state of British prisons – and what they could learn from Europe to get better
Pakes, F.
12 Sep 2023, In: The Conversation
Research output: Article
2022
Sweden’s new right-leaning government to look at outsourcing prisoners to other countries
Pakes, F.
21 Oct 2022, In: The Conversation
Research output: Article
2021
Conclusion
Pakes, F.
20 Sep 2021,
Research output: Chapter (peer-reviewed)
Conclusion
Pakes, F.
20 Sep 2021,
Research output: Chapter (peer-reviewed)