Samenvatting

Thanks to fifty years of research, knowledge about youth crime and its dealing with has grown significantly. The precise extent of juvenile crime cannot be determined, but more is known about prevalence and development, nature and severity of crimes committed, and offender characteristics. The situation is stable. A multitude of risk and protective factors are associated with criminal behavior but explaining (predicting) remains difficult. Also, much is known about dealing with youth crime. Periodic overviews show that reluctance is an important and stable characteristic of the application of criminal justice to juveniles. The number of young people being prosecuted has fallen sharply. Many community service orders are imposed and fewer custodial sanctions. The influence of research on practice and policy and legislation is difficult to determine, as is the effect of, among other things, behavioural interventions on recidivism. This is partly due to the largely absence of experimental studies. More fundamental and experimental research could change this.