Binnen het Instituut voor Strafrecht & Criminologie wordt door verschillende specialisten onderzoek gedaan naar straffen en straftoemeting.
Jan de Keijser, Pauline Schuyt en Ard Schoep hebben zowel op het materiële en formele straftoemetingsrecht als op het gebied van de praktijk van straffen en de totstandkoming van beslissingen over straffen het nodige onderzoek verricht. Hilde Wermink bereidt een dissertatie voor over straftoemeting in Nederland.
Thans vervullen de onderzoeken een rol in de Working Group on Sentencing and Penal Decision-Making van de European Society of Criminology.

Deze Working Group heeft de volgende focus:
Because of its comprehensive focus on sentencing as an exercise in decision-making, the Working Group's remit extends well beyond those issues connected solely with the judicial selection of punishment. Many other decision-making processes which either affect or are affected by judicial sentencing practices are also of interest. So-called "back-door" decisions, such as the grant of remission, parole or other early release to sentenced prisoners, clearly fall within this category. But so also do other decisions, at earlier and later stages of the overall criminal process, including prosecution charging practices, plea decision-making and, where it exists, plea bargaining, which may have a significant impact on the sentence ultimately imposed. An indicative areas of interest to the Working Group include, for example: influences in the sentencing decision process; the politics of sentencing and penal policy-making; judicial discretion; the use of non-executive penalties; judicial and penal cultures; victims and sentencing; public opinion, public attitudes and knowledge of sentencing and punishment; multi-disciplinary courts; sentencing reform structures; penal aims and justifications; (in)equality and punishment; consistency and disparity in sentencing and penal decision-making; legitimacy and decision-making; the role of new technologies; release from custody; plea-bargaining.

Meer informatie over de Working Groups van de European Society of Criminology.