Over the years, the use of data and digital technology in neighbourhood watch groups for prevention and detection of crime and citizens initiatives to enhance public safety has increased due to social and technological changes of citizen participation in coproduction of safety and digitization of economy and society. This causes a transition towards a new technology regime, a shift from a ‘closed’ information and communication technology regime owned by governmental organizations towards (inter)national ‘open’ platforms, which in turn challenges the current policy regime. This transition creates new societal expectations and challenges, often with contrasting dynamics. For instance, citizens are becoming the so-called ‘eyes and ears’ for government in prevention and detection of crime in neighbourhoods, while professionals are increasingly expected to coproduce safety with citizens through new forms of prevention and detection. With the rise of data and digital technology such as platforms and applications citizens are increasingly enabled to take the lead and initiate collaboration and organize new forms of prevention and surveillance in their own neighbourhoods.
Both in literature as in public policy practice, neighbourhood prevention and crime detection in general is addressed. However, less attention is spent on the role and impact of data and digital technology. We propose this is an issue because the emerging digital technology regime requires a new conceptual view wherein citizen initiatives are no longer perceived as merely instrumental to government interventions, but are understood as coproducers of public safety in their neighbourhoods, as part of a broader societal shift in which citizens are enabled by digital technology to organize their own data environments. Based on the introduction of digital coproduction, we illustrate four case examples to explain which opportunities for safety professionals and local governments arise to create a policy regime that suits the emerging digital technology regime.

It is often assumed that digital neighbourhood watch groups lead to more emergency calls and more arrests by the police. This article revolves around the question whether or not these groups actually contribute to reducing crime in the Netherlands. It does so by looking at recent studies and the results of researchers’ own ‘realist evaluation’ of the city of Rotterdam’s policy on digital neighbourhood watch. The latter includes a reconstruction of the program theory and ten case studies with different types of groups. The reconstruction of program theory revealed two main routes to crime reduction: 1) more emergency calls and more arrests by the police and 2) more social control. Chat histories have been studied and moderators, participants, non-participants and professionals were interviewed on their perception of active mechanisms and on the efficacy of their group. None of the respondents believed their group led to an increased number of arrests, but interviews and chat histories show that crime can be reduced by means of social control. Social control by neighbours limits the opportunity for crime and disturbs criminal acts. Other studies in the Netherlands support this finding. The article closes by putting digital neighbourhood watch in a citizen’s perspective with suggestions to improve the efficacy of digital neighbourhood watch groups and the notion that for citizens, crime reduction is not the only or principal goal.

‘Illiberal’ is an adjective that is commonly used by scholars. For example, they might speak of ‘illiberal cultures’, ‘illiberal groups’, ‘illiberal states’, ‘illiberal democracies’, ‘illiberal beliefs’, and ‘illiberal practices’. Yet despite its widespread usage, no in-depth discussions exist of exactly what it means for someone or something to be illiberal, or might mean. This article fills this lacuna by providing a conceptual analysis of the term ‘illiberal practices’, which I argue is basic in that other bearers of the property of being illiberal can be understood by reference to it. Specifically, I identify five ways in which a practice can be illiberal based on the different ways in which this term is employed within both scholarly and political discourses. The main value of this disaggregation lies in the fact that it helps to prevent confusions that arise when people use the adjective ‘illiberal’ in different ways, as is not uncommon.

At the level of local government, preventive and repressive measures are used within an integrated- personalized-approach to prevent disturbing and criminal behaviour. This integrated approach is only possible when the professionals involved can share data of subjects in order to get good insight of the existing problems and to find possible solutions. The Startbaan study, which focused on the collaboration within such an integrated-approach on young adults with multiproblems and justice contacts, shows that privacy regulations are perceived as being obstructive by professionals. More knowledge about the GDPR, its legal bases and domain specific regulations is necessary for an integrated-approach.

It is unclear to what extent criminal record screening policies can explain low employment rates after release. This descriptive study provides more insight into this matter by examining whether ex-prisoners applied for a certificate of conduct, found employment and whether this job was found without such a certificate. To answer these questions interview data on ex-prisoners (N=931) are combined with data on criminal record screenings. Only 6 percent applied for a certificate, half of which were granted. Many ex-prisoners did not report any employment, but almost all working ex-prisoners found this job without a certificate. These findings bring nuance to discussions on the role of criminal record screening after release.

Deze bijdrage beoogt de belangrijkste thema’s van de nieuwe General Comment No. 24 (2019) uit te lichten die door het VN-Kinderrechtencomité zijn aangevuld of in hun geheel nieuw zijn toegevoegd. De wijzigingen zijn doorgevoerd in reactie op het veranderende beeld van kinderen in jeugdstrafrechtstelsels, dat van invloed is geweest op een drietal thema’s waaromtrent het Comité positieve en negatieve trends heeft gesignaleerd. Zo uit het Comité bijvoorbeeld zijn zorgen over het aanhoudende gebruik van vrijheidsbeneming ten aanzien van kinderen en benadrukt het nogmaals de noodzaak voor buitengerechtelijke interventies als alternatief voor vrijheidsbeneming. Het Comité hanteert daarentegen een optimistische toon wanneer het komt te spreken over de nieuwe absolute minimumleeftijd voor strafrechtelijke aansprakelijkheid, die is verhoogd van 12 naar 14 jaar, en het prijst de lidstaten die verder reiken dan dat minimum. Met de onderhavige General Comment tracht het Comité zijn standpunten omtrent bestaande en nieuwe thema’s te herbevestigen of geheel nieuw toe te voegen en daarmee aan lidstaten een richtsnoer te bieden voor het creëren van een jeugdstrafrechtstelsel dat volledig in lijn is met het VN-Kinderrechtenverdrag.

Doel van deze bijdrage is om bloot te leggen hoe Jos Dute heeft bijgedragen aan het preventiediscours. Na een bespreking van Dutes inaugurale rede volgt een uitgebreide analyse van infectieziektenregulering in het licht van de recente uitbraak van COVID-19. Dit gevolgd door een kortere analyse van de regulering van alcohol.

De openbaarheid van rechtspraak is een fundamentele pijler van de democratische rechtsstaat. Daar staat tegenover dat een verdachte of veroordeelde grote waarde hecht aan anonimiteit in het strafproces. Gerechten dienen bij de publicatie van strafrechtelijke informatie deze anonimiteit te waarborgen. Maar hoe is het toezicht hierop geregeld? Wat gebeurt er als bij het beschikbaar stellen van informatie over gerechtelijke (straf)zaken de Algemene verordening gegevensbescherming of de Wet justitiële en strafvorderlijke gegevens wordt geschonden? Is de Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens bevoegd een boete op te leggen? In dit naschrijft bij het artikel ‘Het belang van privacy in het strafrecht’ worden deze vragen beantwoord.

In deze bijdrage onderzoeken de auteurs de betekenis van de Algemene verordening gegevensbescherming (AVG) voor de fusie- en overnamepraktijk. Uit literatuuronderzoek blijkt dat onder M&A-professionals weinig aandacht voor de AVG bestaat. De auteurs zetten relevante wetgeving, literatuur en jurisprudentie af tegen de eigen praktijkervaringen en concluderen dat de omgang met persoonsgegevens in de M&A-praktijk nog veel te wensen overlaat. Daarom formuleren zij praktische aandachtspunten en adviezen voor de verschillende stadia van een M&A-transactie (achtereenvolgens de pretransactiefase, de transactiedocumentatie, de interim-periode na ondertekening en de fase na voltooiing van de transactie).

Onlangs oordeelde de Hoge Raad in de SNS-enquête dat aan het verschoningsrecht in het enquêterecht ook betekenis toekomt. De auteur bespreekt de beschikking van de Hoge Raad en de implicaties daarvan voor de enquêtepraktijk. Om aan de gevolgen van SNS te ontkomen wordt een drietal oplossingsrichtingen aangereikt.

Prison visitation is important for protecting against social isolation during imprisonment. It is also essential for maintaining contacts that are important for life in prison and after release. It is therefore not surprising that both nationally and internationally important policy measures and scientific research have been undertaken on the topic. Nationally, however, limited scientific research is available regarding how many, how often and from whom prisoners receive visits, how visits are experienced and the possible effects of visitation, thus leaving many questions unanswered. Meanwhile, in the past ten years great changes have been made to visitation in Dutch prison policy and practice. Given these recent developments, both scientists and practitioners could benefit from an overview of the current state of affairs of visitation. This article aims to bridge the gap between research, policy and practice by summarizing findings from the Life in Custody study. This study includes a description of how visitation is organized legally, at the policy level and in practice, a thorough review of prior research on visitation and an analysis of the most recent national data on the prevalence and frequency of visitation, while considering important differences between prisoners and prisons.

In this article we elaborate on the place of religion in the workplace. Does the individual freedom of religion imply that employers must always accommodate the religious claims of employees or can they boast a number of arguments allowing them to legitimately limit that freedom? And, conversely, do employers not also have a right to freedom of religion and a right to formulate certain religious expectations for their employees? In this contribution, we deal with these and related questions from a legal-philosophical perspective. The overall aim is to illustrate the extent to which univocal answers are jeopardized because of conceptual ambiguities. We first make a normative distinction between two strategies (i.e. difference-blind approach and difference-sensitive approach) and subsequently illustrate and elaborate on how and why these strategies can lead to different outcomes in legal cases. We illustrate the extent to which a contextual and proportional analysis can be a way out in theoretical and practical conundrums.

Socio-political concepts are not singularities. They are, instead, complex and evolving contextures. An awareness of the latter and of what we need to do when we handle concepts opens up space for the resolution of political disagreements and multiplies opportunities for constructive dialogue and understanding. In this article, I argue that the concepts-as-contextures perspective can unravel conceptual connectivity and interweaving, and I substantiate this by examining the ‘contexture’ of liberty. I show that the different, and seemingly contested, definitions of liberty are the product of mixed articulations and the development of associative discursive links within a contexture.

Do religious motives result in greater freedom of action? This question cannot be answered with a simple yes or no. First of all, a distinction must be made between conduct that falls within the scope of the right to freedom of religion as opposed to other conduct. This distinction in turn needs some qualification. The aforementioned right can, after all, be restricted. The conduct in question could moreover fall within the purview of another fundamental right, as a result of which persons without religious motives are entitled to invoke another fundamental right. All these distinctions will be reviewed in this article. Special attention will be given to religiously motivated statements condemning homosexuality and the religiously motivated refusal to have children vaccinated.

In het kader van de modernisering van het Wetboek van Strafvordering wordt ook beoogd het hele jeugdstrafprocesrecht te herzien. De vraag is echter of de strafwetgever bij die gelegenheden, conform artikel 4 IVRK, passende wettelijke maatregelen heeft genomen om de in het verdrag opgenomen minimumstandaard aan kinderrechten te verwezenlijken.