ABSTRACT
The analysis made for Belgium is particular in that it covers the longest period studied to date. A recession phase around 1848, the peak of the economic crisis which in Belgium arose from a combination of three factors that provoked a great famine: the potato blight, a bad grain harvest and a structural crisis in the linen industry. This was followed by a phase of economic recovery and prosperity culminating about 1872. Statistical analysis shows a particularly significant relationship between variations in coal prices and variations in the overall population of detainees. Although the economy-penal correlation is confirmed, the analysis reveals another type of interplay between the economy and the penal system, in which the repression of vagrancy played an important role. The First World War established social equilibriums. The right to vote, given in 1919 to all men over the age of 21, opened an innovative period through expanded participation in the exercise of power.
