Research profile

Annette Olesen’s primary research areas include rehabilitative work in- and post-prison, reentry barriers and the informal/invisible punishment and collateral consequences faced by (re)offenders in- and post-prison, this includes a specific emphasis on issues related to indebtedness and legal costs. Annette also conducts research on ’access to justice’ issues, with a special focus on (penal) voluntary sector organizations and legal aid organizations’ outreach initiatives targeting vulnerable groups in society. A recurring theme in Annette’s research is criminal law, ‘penal expansionism’ and how quasi-penal methods extend into other legal areas outside criminal law.
Annette is lecturing in the fields of prison research, desistance research, prison reentry and cross-sectoral authority cooperation, crime prevention and rehabilitation, legal consciousness, sentencing and citizens’ attitude towards punishment, socio-legal methodology, causes and effects of punishment, as well as law and its application in social work.

Areas of specialization: criminology and sociology of law

Areas of competence: prisoner re-entry; informal/hidden punishment; penal voluntary sector; legal aid targeted prisoners and ex-prisoners; cross-sector collaboration; ex-prisoners’ indebtedness; penal expansionism, criminal law and the broadened scope of criminal law or quasi-penal methods.