In deze bijdrage bespreekt de auteur het Interbestuurlijk Programma voor het waterbeheer, dat op 14 februari 2018 is gepresenteerd.

The article provides a description of the issues and considerrations facing Flemish victim-offender mediators on the job. Instead of focusing on professinal risks and caveats present within victim-offender mediation, the authors concentrate on the positive concept of ‘enabling high quality mediations’. A description is given of the frames that are felt to be helpful towards mediators, stressing the need to act with due creativity if needed. Moreover, in order to enable high quality victim-offender mediations, conditions need to be met, more specifically a common acknowledgment of the need for teamwork. The latter implies conditions such a sound legal basis, a deontological code, formal procedures and constant interaction with practice.

In de praktijk blijft behoefte aan een reorganisatie op basis van de stoelendansmethode. Indien nieuw gecreëerde functies een deel van de werkzaamheden van de oude (te) vervallen functies bevatten, kan de werkgever niet langer de meest geschikte werknemer plaatsen. De werkgever dient in dat geval af te spiegelen over die geschikte werknemers van wie een deel van de functie terugkeert en automatisch te plaatsen op basis van omgekeerde afspiegeling. Pas daarna mogen de rest van de geschikte werknemers worden geplaatst. In de literatuur en jurisprudentie worden de termen (her)plaatsen, automatisch plaatsen, direct plaatsen, tewerkstellen en benoemen door elkaar gebruikt. In deze bijdrage wordt een terminologie-suggestie gedaan om duidelijkheid te scheppen. Om in de praktijk een reorganisatie op basis van de stoelendansmethode volgens een juist stappenplan uit te voeren is een visueel stappenplan in deze bijdrage opgenomen.

De Roo verdedigde onlangs in dit tijdschrift de stelling dat tot nog toe niet is gebleken van overtuigende redenen om de vervulling van de niet-uitvoerende bestuurdersfuncties te beperken tot natuurlijke personen. In deze bijdrage plaatst de auteur een aantal kanttekeningen bij deze stelling en de onderbouwing daarvan. Daarbij stelt zij de wijze waarop de rechtspersoon-bestuurder thans in Nederland is geregeld ter discussie.

Research on street culture in the Netherlands constitutes an area of relative paucity. Moreover, even less is known about the virtualisation of street culture. In this article, we draw on the social media accounts of a network of delinquent youngsters from Spangen, a neighbourhood in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. Analyzing tweets and images on social media, we found Goffmans (1959) notion of the ‘front’ in three main themes: the importance of the negative image of the locality, the communication of criminality, and emphasizing an oppositional relationship with the police. We argue that these results illustrate the performance of a street identity on social media.

Prison staff is exposed to aggression of prisoners which evokes work stress. In forensic psychiatry risk management principles, such as the Risk-Needs-Responsivity-model (RNR), assist staff to manage aggression by means applying risk management strategies. The Early Recognition Method (ERM) is such an evidence based strategy, developed and tested in forensic psychiatry. In ERM, staff gradually try to attune to aggressive behavior by means of the identification of early warning signs of aggression and systematically evaluated these in predetermined intervals. In this article it is explained and discussed how ERM could be applied meaningfully in prison services.

Circles of Support and Accountability (COSA) is a method in which volunteers support and monitor a convicted sex offender during his or her re-entry into society in order to prevent new sex offences. COSA was developed in Canada in 1994 as a grass roots approach to an acute crisis in a small town near Toronto, and since then has spread throughout Canada. In 2002, the COSA model was introduced and further developed in England, and from there the approach found its way to the Netherlands, where circle projects are provided by the Dutch Probation Organization since 2010. Until now, more than one hundred sex offenders (‘core members’ in a circle) have participated in a circle in the Netherlands. Although the COSA model predates the Good Lives Model, it’s basic principles align very well to the Good Lives Model. In COSA, a group of three to five volunteers form a surrogate social network, that offers social inclusion, practical and moral support in all kinds of daily challenges the core member faces, and that monitors risk and risk behavior. The volunteers are supervised by a professional circle-coordinator and supported by professionals who are involved in the core members’ after care arrangements. The COSA intervention model describes a number of conditions and strategies that support its effectiveness. Canadian, American and English case-control studies into the effectiveness of COSA shows a substantial reduction of offending behavior in core members compared to controls. Since the international proliferation of the COSA model is ever increasing, protecting the program integrity is a growing concern, and stresses the need for international cooperation between COSA providers.

De afgelopen jaren is de aandacht voor de rol en de positie van de raad van commissarissen (RvC) van een doelvennootschap bij een overname toegenomen. Het komt in de praktijk regelmatig voor dat de RvC (mede) uit zijn midden een speciale overnamecommissie of stuurgroep vormt die specifiek belast is met een juiste afwikkeling van het overnameproces. In dit artikel gaan de auteurs in op de rol en vormgeving van deze speciale overnamecommissie.

Afgelopen jaar was er veel aandacht voor de nieuwe Corporate Governance Code. De Code kent veel bepalingen die het handelen van bestuurders en commissarissen normeren. Dit artikel behandelt de vraag of bestuurders en commissarissen op dit moment vaak aansprakelijk worden gesteld vanwege schending van de Corporate Governance Code, en of zij in dat geval in rechte wat te vrezen hebben.

In onze diverse maatschappij bestaat veel aandacht voor het tegengaan van discriminatie, bijvoorbeeld in het proces van werving en selectie. In deze bijdrage onderzoekt de auteur aan de hand van rechtspraak en oordelen van het College voor de Rechten van de Mens welke rol discriminatie een rol speelt bij de beëindigingen van arbeidsovereenkomsten. Op grond van de onderzochte zaken wordt geconcludeerd dat een beroep op de gronden geslacht of chronische ziekte en handicap het vaakst aan de rechter of het College worden voorgelegd, waarbij het bij discriminatie op grond van geslacht meestal gaat om discriminatie wegens zwangerschap.

Diverse toezichthouders hebben vertrouwen in ondertoezichtstaanden gekozen als uitgangspunt. Inspecteurs van de Inspectie Gezondheidszorg en Jeugd (IGJ) vinden vertrouwen een lastig te hanteren begrip. Tegelijk geven zij aan dat vertrouwen wel een grote rol speelt bij hun oordeel en handhaving. Ze missen echter handvatten om de afweging van vertrouwen in de zorgaanbieder te kunnen expliciteren en te onderbouwen. Dit is voor de IGJ aanleiding om vanuit het perspectief van de IGJ praktijkonderzoek te doen naar het begrip vertrouwen. Dit leidt tot het afwegingskader.

This article analyses whether the local youth worker can operate on the intersection of social welfare and signalling of extremism. Although it is a rare phenomenon, there is a clear message from the government to watch out for the first signs of deviant behavior and unacceptable behavior. However, shouldn’t we ask ourselves whether youth workers are adequately equipped at local level to signal threat? The qualitative results show that in daily practice there is a lack of clear standards which make terminology for social professionals not easily distinguished. In addition their opinion depends largely on their own intuition regarding the issues. This can create side effects which form a risk that the local terrorism policy does not have the intended effect.

The authors reflect on ‘Handelen naar waarheid’ (Acting on truth), an assessment of the state of criminal investigations in The Netherlands, which appeared in May 2016. This report, assigned by the police and public prosecution service and written by four inside experts, caused substantial turmoil in the police organization and beyond. The report addresses six domains: professionalism, attitude and behavior, direction and leadership, capacity for change, organizational structure and business management. The critical and transparent self-reflection by the police received praise from policymakers, journalists and academic observers. It also met with recognition and appreciation in the law enforcement community, in particular among investigators and prosecutors. In the wake of the report, a reform program was organized to modernize both the police and the prosecution service in order to increase the quality and effectiveness of their work. Such reform is deemed necessary because crime problems have become ever more complex and citizens increasingly organize their own (counter-)investigations. The authors conclude that in spite of many recent initiatives, truly innovative practices remain scarce. Also, the crucial ambitions to increase the educational level of investigators and the organizational culture are still far from realized.

This article focuses on the challenges facing Community Oriented Policing (COP) in an increasingly complex society. The authors describe how the Dutch police adresses this context through a new police organisation on a national basis, specified job protocols, intelligence led policing and higher educated specialists. Seeking for alternatives the authors argue that COP should be based on a problem centered approach which profits from the insights of local policemen and operational specialists. Adressing ambiguous problems will fail when only applying system logic. Instead, moral involvement and sensemaking are indispensable.

Recently the Dutch parliament passed a law that provides the subsidy for religious and humanist education in state schools. The law on primary education gives to the parents the right to ask for it. Religious education in state schools exists in the Netherlands since the beginning of the 19th century, optional and taught by representatives of the church. So it is appropriate for the state school which wish to be a school for everyone. And public funding is appropriate in the Dutch education system.

In 2009 the Dutch temporary restraining order Act came into being. The order is a much used instrument in the fight against domestic violence. However, it’s effectivity has yet to be proven beyond doubt. There are signs the order can be effective, but it is unknown what influences this effect: which choices in its implementation, which characteristics of violence and those involved, which characteristics of the care that is provided.
This article claims that the temporary restraining order can be more effective if we collect more data on what it is that makes it effective, and use this data to mirror the order against other instruments that are available in the fight against domestic violence. In that way, we can choose the instrument that best suits the situation, instead of picking the temporary restraining order simply because it is most readily available. This means the following is necessary: 1) more knowledge about the types of situations in which the order can be most effective; 2) more knowledge about the effects of choices that are being made in the implementation of the instrument; 3) an overview of all available instruments for intervening in situations of serious and immediate threat of domestic violence and the effects that can be reached with those instruments; and 4) a better use of available knowledge about the effects of care and assistance to victims and perpetrators of domestic violence to improve the trajectories that accompany temporary restraining orders. This will enable a more balanced choice between these orders and other interventions and will improve the effects of the orders and the care and assistance that accompanies them.