Dhami Mandeep K, van den Brink Yannick N
Department of Psychology, Middlesex University, The Burroughs, Hendon, London, NW4 4BT UK.
Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Eur J Crim Pol Res. 2022;28(3):381-395. doi: 10.1007/s10610-022-09510-0. Epub 2022 May 13.
The decision to remand a defendant into custody pre-trial is one of the most controversial criminal justice decisions because it deprives individuals of their liberty while they are presumed to be innocent of a crime. Indeed, pre-trial detention decisions can have significant consequences for defendants, which need to be balanced against the potential implications of bail for public safety and the course of criminal proceedings. Despite this, court-based bail and remand decision-making remains relatively underexplored. In this paper, we compare court-based bail/remand decision-making in England and Wales and The Netherlands. We focus on (i) the procedure and structure of decision-making, (ii) the substantive relevant legal frameworks, (iii) the courts in which the decisions are made and the decision-makers in those courts, (iv) the conditions characterizing the decision task, and (v) the court's reasoning of bail and remand in custody decisions. Using a comparative and multi-disciplinary approach, relying on Law, Criminology, and Psychology, we make predictions about bail and remand in custody rates in the two jurisdictions as well as the decision performance of court-based decision-makers. These predictions are then evaluated using available (official) statistics and past research. We identify the need to collect more nuanced statistical data on bail and remand in custody rates and point to potentially fruitful avenues for future research. A comparative, multi-disciplinary, evidence-based approach can underpin remand reform in England and Wales, The Netherlands, and beyond.
审前将被告还押候审的决定是最具争议性的刑事司法决定之一，因为这在个人被推定无罪时剥夺了他们的自由。事实上，审前拘留决定可能会给被告带来重大后果，这需要与保释对公共安全和刑事诉讼进程的潜在影响相权衡。尽管如此，基于法院的保释和还押决定机制仍相对未得到充分研究。在本文中，我们比较了英格兰和威尔士与荷兰基于法院的保释/还押决定机制。我们关注以下方面：（i）决策的程序和结构；（ii）实质性相关法律框架；（iii）做出决定的法院以及这些法院中的决策者；（iv）决定任务的特征条件；（v）法院在保释和还押候审决定中的推理。我们采用比较和多学科方法，依靠法学、犯罪学和心理学，对两个司法管辖区的保释和还押候审率以及基于法院的决策者的决策表现进行预测。然后利用现有（官方）统计数据和过往研究对这些预测进行评估。我们指出需要收集关于保释和还押候审率更细致入微的统计数据，并指明未来研究可能富有成果的方向。一种比较、多学科、基于证据的方法可以为英格兰和威尔士、荷兰及其他地区的还押改革提供支持。
