A period of labor market absence decreases the chance to get a job. Previous research showed that labor market positions of both incarcerated and temporarily unemployed people are worse after compared to before the (forced) time out of the labor market. It remains uncertain which mechanisms cause the negative association between labor market absence and employment outcomes. In this paper we investigate whether incarceration affects the time to employment differently than regular unemployment. Using an unique quasi-experimental design we conduct event history analyses in order to estimate to what extent job opportunities differ for a group of ex-prisoners (N=1,790) and a group of unemployed future prisoners (N=266). The results show that ex-prisoners find a job more quickly than unemployed future prisoners. Possibly, training, aftercare and the prison experience (deterrence) have a positive effect in the period right after release.

White-collar crime is mostly committed by men. It remains to be seen if this will stay this way. Increasing numbers of women succeed in attaining management positions in organizations. Could we therefore expect an increase in female white-collar crime?Criminological theories on female crime and on white-collar crime lead to contradicting hypotheses.Research on white-collar and organizational crime predominantly produces a situational hypothesis explanation according to which we could expect that the rise of women in organizational hierarchies will also bring more female white-collar crime.Research on female delinquency might lead to an opposite gender-difference hypothesis that would predict less white-collar crime, because they have a lesser tendency to show risky behavior.In this article, both assumptions will be elaborated for further research, against the background of possible gender bias in the relation between women and white-collar crime.

Nederland stond lang bekend als het kartelparadijs van Europa. Die situatie is wezenlijk veranderd, mede door de introductie van de Mededingingswet en de oprichting van de NMa in 1998. Tot eind van de jaren negentig van de vorige eeuw kreeg de kartellist nog goedkeuring van de minister voor Economische zaken voor kartelovereenkomsten. Nu wil diezelfde minister dezelfde kartellist achter de tralies zetten. Het kan in de politiek, zoals bekend, snel gaan. Het is echter de vraag of burgers en ondernemingen zich met hetzelfde tempo kunnen aanpassen aan een zo radicale wijziging van een norm.

This article focuses on the differences in perception that appear when the English and Dutch discourses on anti-social behaviour and street terror are compared. The political and media discourses in the Netherlands focus on the migration background of the youth responsible (mainly Moroccan juveniles) whereas in England and Wales the possible influence of discrimination is stressed. The analysis of the two discourses reveals that although the problems in the two countries are in essence comparable, very different discourses have developed.

In this article, theories on organisational crime are applied to the involvement of the German corporation Topf & Söhne in the Holocaust. This corporation produced ovens for various concentration and destruction camps in Germany and Poland and contributed significantly to the execution of the Holocaust with their innovative products. The motivation to procure these ovens to the SS does not seem to stem from force, ideological agreement or maximisation of profit. Instead loss-minimisation and a ‘culture of perfection’ seem to form the explanation. Opportunity was provided by the Nazi-Germany regime and the knowledge and skills were already at hand within the organisation. Because of the close collaboration between these two parties, this case can be qualified as a form of state-corporate crime. Administrative, political and social control was absent and neutralisations only seem to have been formed after the Holocaust. The analysis shows how theories about ‘regular’ organisational criminality can form an explanation of the involvement of corporations in international crimes.

This article focuses on the Madoff case which came to light at the end of 2008. Remarkable for this case is that Madoff could go on with his scam for a very long time. Failing supervision was not the only reason for this. Madoff’s qualities – disguising the illegal activities and his social stature – cannot explain the whole puzzle. The social network, a ‘secret society’ and the fact that people involved went on with it, even when knowing that ‘it was too good to be true’ are explained in this article.

In this article four possible relations of the credit crunch and corporate crime are examined. A first relation is that cases of accounting fraud have contributed to the causation of the crisis. Due to these scandals the trust in large corporations and the financial sector would have been eroded. A second possible relation is the reverse: the crisis will lead to more corporate crime. Because of the crisis companies run into financial difficulties. In their despair they could try to cut costs by not complying with regulations or they could try to gain illegal profits through fraud. The third relation is the criminalization of more unethical corporate behavior. The moral outrage on the behavior of banks and insurance companies that contributed to the crisis might lead to an increased labeling of risky or greedy of corporate executives as crime. This will result in more regulation. The fourth and final relation is that these amplification effects will lead to the discovery of more corporate crime.

Fifty years ago Tijdschrift voor Criminologie, the Dutch Journal for Criminology, appeared for the first time. It has now developed into a peer reviewed journal with quantitative and qualitative research of high quality. Youth and life course criminology, research into organised and organisational crime, criminographical research, and research into violence are strongly represented nowadays. Changes in the journal reflect more general developments in criminology in the Netherlands and Belgium. In the last 10-15 years the discipline has become more internationally oriented and professional, and scientific backgrounds of criminologists have become more diverse.

This study investigates criminal trajectories of individuals involved in organised crime. It combines qualitative information from the Organized Crime Monitor with rap sheets extracted from the Dutch Judicial Documentation System. A semi-parametric group model is used to cluster 854 individuals into groups with similar developmental trajectories, preceding the organised crime index case. Four judicial trajectories are identified: an early starters group with a high peak in late adolescence (11 percent); a persistent group of offenders with crimes from early adolescence until adulthood (30 percent); a unique group of adult onset offenders (40 percent); and a group of offenders without judicial contacts prior to the index case (19 percent). Largely, suspects who fulfilled different roles in criminal groups (leaders, coordinators, lower-level suspects) are equally distributed over the trajectory groups and the same applies to different types of criminal activities.