This book explores and addresses body search practices in prison
environments from different angles (criminology, sociology, human rights
and law) and discusses such practices in different national contexts
within Europe. Body searches are widely used in prison systems across
the globe: they are perceived as indispensable to prevent forbidden
substances, weapons or communication devices from entering the prison.
However, these are also invasive and potentially degrading control
techniques. It should not come as a surprise, then, that body searches
are deeply contested security measures and that they have been widely
debated and regulated. What makes theses control measures problematic in
a prison context? How do these practices come to be regulated in an
international and European context? How are rules translated into
national law? To what extent are laws and rules respected, bent,
circumvented and denied? And what does the future hold for body
searches?