The “panoptic” powers characteristic of nineteenth-century criminal justice systems created prison sources that are increasingly used to study past populations. Each step of the criminal process has its own selection logic, leading to a predominance of unskilled and low-skilled men and women in prison samples. There are also crucial differences between the profiles of single and repeat offenders. This article employs a sample of more than 27,000 individual admissions to Belgian prisons in the nineteenth century to explore these trends in greater depth. Recidivists form a specific subset of the prison population. Detailed comparisons of recidivists and nonrecidivists are therefore useful as they help to understand the selection mechanisms inherent in prison data. Male recidivists were predominately low-waged workers incarcerated for minor acts of violence or misconduct classified as disturbances of the peace. Female recidivists were disproportionately low-skilled workers arrested for beggary and sex work. Recidivists also differed in their stature. Male recidivists in Belgian prisons were shorter than the average prisoner. By contrast, female recidivists were taller than one-time offenders. These height differences have important implications for our understanding of well-being in the past.

中文翻译：

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来来回回：比利时监狱累犯的选择性

十九世纪刑事司法系统特有的“全景式”权力创造了越来越多地用于研究过去人口的监狱资源。刑事程序的每一步都有自己的选择逻辑，导致监狱样本中不熟练和低技能的男性和女性占主导地位。单一犯罪者和屡犯者的特征也存在重大差异。本文以 19 世纪比利时监狱的 27,000 多名个人入狱为样本，以更深入地探讨这些趋势。惯犯构成监狱人口的特定子集。因此，对惯犯和非惯犯进行详细比较很有用，因为它们有助于理解监狱数据中固有的选择机制。男性累犯主要是因轻微暴力行为或被归类为扰乱治安的不当行为而被监禁的低薪工人。女性累犯是不成比例的低技能工人，因乞讨和性工作而被捕。累犯的身份也不同。比利时监狱的男性惯犯比普通囚犯矮。相比之下，女性累犯比一次性犯罪者高。这些身高差异对我们过去对幸福的理解具有重要意义。女性累犯比曾经的罪犯高。这些身高差异对我们过去对幸福的理解具有重要意义。女性累犯比曾经的罪犯高。这些身高差异对我们过去对幸福的理解具有重要意义。