In a recent letter to parliament, the Dutch minister of Security and Justice announced a revision of the regulations concerning the use of force by members of the Dutch police. The police had requested such a revision, because they believe that the current regulations are not up-to-date and lead to an unacceptable criminalization of officers who have used force while on duty. The changes announced in the letter are the introduction of a new criminal offence, the introduction of a new defense type (specifically for police officers) and various changes in procedural law. This article critically examines several of these changes.

This article tries to answer the question whether the right to due process, especially for minors receiving a public prosecutor’s penalty decision in the Netherlands is sufficiently guaranteed. To answer this question, formal legislature with respect to this topic, the concept of ‘due process’ as well as the actual legal guarantees for minors, have been explored. In juvenile criminal law, contrary to adult criminal law, the pedagogic aspect plays an important role. The pedagogic point of view is also taken into account. A recent report by the Attorney General of the Dutch Supreme Court showed undoubtedly that after six years of experience, the processes surrounding the instrument of the public prosecutor’s penalty decision are far from being executed flawlessly. Both from a judicial perspective as well as a pedagogic perspective, this is a serious problem. The most important procedural aspects that require substantial improvement are related to determining guilt, attorney accessibility and the presence of parents.

People have all kinds of dependency relationships, for example in family life and on the work floor. Since almost a decade, the Dutch government uses the term ‘violence in dependency relationships’ for all kinds of violence that are applied in these dependency relationships: domestic violence, honour-based violence, child abuse, abuse of the elderly, abuse by professionals for example in homes for children or the elderly and violence related to prostitution and the trafficking of humans. In this article an overview is given that demonstrates how in all these forms of violence elements of cybercrime can be recognized.

Child safety is an important condition for the healthy development of children. Child maltreatment is an extensive problem in society with significant medical, emotional, cognitive, social and economic consequences. In policy-making, attention for this phenomenon has increased, resulting in new laws and measures. However, the Committee for Childs Rights of the United Nations formulated numerous recommendations for a better implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the Netherlands. This article focuses on how child safety and children’s rights are related and explores the implementation of the convention, considering relevant new laws and scientific (field) research.

Both the Court of Justice and the regional Court of The Hague ruled the retention of telecommunications data directive and the Dutch Wet bewaarplicht telecommunicatiegegevens in violation of the right to respect for privacy. The police and the Dutch Prosecutors Office have attempted to clarify the importance of the retention for criminal investigation. However, without an efficiency and effectiveness assessment of the method to request and analyse telecommunication data, it is not possible to substantiate the significance of data retention. To ‘save’ the retention of telecommunication data in its current form, but also to assess the importance of the existing and new investigative methods, a thorough analysis is necessary.

In several Dutch criminal cases rap artists have invoked the ‘exceptio artis’ as a ground for justification in court. In this article Bakker and Van de Wetering research the possibilities of successful appeals in such cases. Both the meaning and scope of the ‘exceptio artis’ are taken into consideration, consulting the literature and ECtHR case law on article 10 ECHR. Furthermore the contribution also deals with Dutch case law on the ‘exceptio artis’ and rap lyrics that were held punishable so as to clarify the seldom discussed relationship between rap and the ‘exceptio artis’.

Restorative Justice could have a more extensive implementation within criminal justice if there was more restorative practice within probation work. This may also lead to more restorative mediation. This article is based on practice-based research on what is known about restorative practices within probation and how contextual therapy, developed by the Hungarian-American psychiatrist Ivan Böszörményi-Nagy, can contribute to this. The main conclusion is that contextual therapy can offer a currently non-existent framework that is needed to be able to work with restorative practices within probation. This article describes how contextual approaches can be useful for probation officers.

Lately, several private and public compensation schemes have been established in the Netherlands for people who have been sexually abused as a minor by representatives of the Catholic Church, childcare workers or foster parents. Eligible for compensation are those who can make a reasonable case of the likelihood that they have been sexually abused. They do not have to provide indisputable proof of the abuse. The author of this article argues that this low burden of proof makes these compensation schemes vulnerable to fraud. He supports his argumentation with several examples of dishonest victims who have been unmasked as fraudsters. Furthermore, he explains that undetected fraud can have several adverse by-effects, such as the condemnation of falsely accused persons and impairment of the credibility of compensation schemes and agencies that run such schemes. The author concludes with emphasizing the need for more explicit policies on fraud prevention, detection, and control.

In their article on the victim orientation in the combat against human trafficking – in particular labour exploitation – Cleiren, Van der Leun and Van Meeteren highlight the limitations of the protection of victims in practice. Based on a brief legal analysis and a secondary reading of the empirical literature, they conclude that the rights of victims remain subordinate to the main aims of the relevant legal domains: criminal law and immigration law. In addition, the practices-based analysis shows a mismatch between a victim-oriented approach and preferences and perceptions of many migrants involved as well as existing tensions between different legal domains.

Although there is evidence for a victim-offender overlap for various crimes, specific empirical research into a victim-offender overlap for intimate partner violence is scarce. The current study empirically examines the presence of a victim-offender overlap among 156 victims of partner violence recruited at Dutch service organizations. Results show a clear victim-offender overlap, especially for behaviors of psychological partner violence and to a lesser degree for physical partner violence. Implications of these findings for the Dutch law on temporary restraining orders are discussed.

Victims play an increasingly more prominent role in the criminal justice process. While the consequences of victim participation in the judicial process have been criticized by researchers and practitioners alike, the possible negative consequences of secondary victimization has been largely neglected in this debate. From a social psychological perspective, I discuss research on just-world theory that can explain these negative reactions and give some insight into the processes that play a role in both negative and positive reactions toward victims. Implications for the law practitioners and scholars will be discussed.