Life imprisonment without parole: Results of a longitudinal study in Hungary
Life imprisonment without parole: Results of a longitudinal study in Hungary

Summary/Abstract: The main goal of the study was to raise questions concerning life sentences and to demon-strate how it evolves and impacts the criminal, who is cast out from society and incarcerated fordecades. The data collection phase of this qualitative longitudinal research spanned ten years, fromMarch 2011 to December 2020. The narrative interviews were analyzed using content analysis. Theprison system has the potential to facilitate both personality development and changes in mental-ity, but it can also hinder them. The legal institution of a life sentence without parole excludes thepossibility of making positive changes in the convict’s mindset and does not take into account thechance for the inmates’ personality to develop during their long sentences. The legal institution ofa life sentence, due to the exclusion of the possibility of review, could only be considered a rationalinstitution in case of an infallible investigative and judicial system.

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