Het project Modernisering Strafvordering beoogt de vervolgingsbeslissing op meerdere punten te wijzigen. Dat geldt echter niet voor de manier waarop het hof in beklagzaken de beslissing tot niet-vervolging moet toetsen. De toetsingsomvang blijft waarschijnlijk het beste als ‘vol’ te karakteriseren, hoewel andere interpretaties niet zijn uitgesloten. Deze bijdrage werpt een blik op eerdere discussies over de toetsingsomvang in beklagzaken. Verder wordt, aan de hand van een beschouwing van de procedure van administratief beroep, het argument verworpen dat in beklagzaken een marginale toetsing zou moeten worden gehanteerd vanwege het feit dat de beklagprocedure gelijkenis vertoont met bestuursrechtelijke procedures.

De auteur gaat in op de definitie van het begrip ‘zwaar ongeval’. Hij constateert dat de uitwerking van dit begrip in de rechtspraak nog weinig aandacht krijgt. Uit diverse rapporten kan worden opgemaakt dat zich in de praktijk weinig voorvallen voordoen die onder de noemer ‘zwaar ongeval’ vallen. Het is dus de vraag of eventuele gebreken in de naleving van het Brzo wel zo vaak kunnen leiden tot een zwaar ongeval. Dat wringt vooral in strafzaken, waar hoge eisen moeten worden gesteld aan het bewijs dat niet alle maatregelen zijn getroffen om te voorkomen dat een zwaar ongeval kan plaatsvinden.

In this article we analyze how organized crime offenders use IT to handle their money flows. How and to what extent do offenders use IT-facilitated possibilities, such as bitcoin, to launder their money? The empirical data consist of thirty large-scale police investigations. These thirty cases are part of the Organized Crime Monitor, an ongoing research project into the nature of organized crime in the Netherlands. One of the most striking findings is the fact that cash is still king – even for online drug dealers who get paid in digital currencies.

Worldwide, the digitalization of society is proceeding rapidly and this brings new forms of crime. The threats arising from different types of cybercrime are real and constantly evolving, as the internet with its anonymity and borderless reach, provides new opportunities for criminal activities. This article describes some results from an international empirical study aimed to gather more insight on the link between cybercrime and organized crime as well as on the question whether cybercrime is organized. It shows how cybercriminals cooperate with each other and what this organization structure looks like.

De rechter oordeelt ogenschijnlijk snel dat voorwerpen waarvan is bewezenverklaard dat zij zijn witgewassen wederrechtelijk voordeel zijn en miskent hierdoor het reparatoire karakter van de ontnemingsmaatregel, namelijk dat alleen de criminele verdiensten mogen worden afgepakt. De rechter moet de schatting van het WVV voldoende motiveren en onderzoek doen naar het daadwerkelijke WVV van betrokkene.
De verbeurdverklaring is een mogelijk alternatief voor de ontnemingsprocedure in geval van witwassen: voorwerpen kunnen worden afgepakt zonder dat het bezit ervan ten laste wordt gelegd, zonder dat de verdachte het nog bezit of in een situatie waarin een verdachte het bij een ander heeft veiliggesteld.

There is a large – and still growing – body of criminological literature on the relationship between crime and work. However, the exact nature of that relationship often remains diffuse. In this article we explored the relationships between organized crime and work. Based on analysis of the forty most recent cases of the Organized Crime Monitor we distinguished between two types of relations connecting organized crime and work. First, crimes can be based in the occupation of the offender when the occupation provides concrete opportunities to offend or facilitates the crimes of others. Secondly, the occupation of the offender can also be used as a shield concealing the illegal behavior or identity of the offender.

The literature on using Social Network Analysis (SNA) in criminological research is expanding. The SNA perspective already changed the way we look at organized crime. More often organized crime is referred to as changeable social networks instead of hierarchical structured organizations like the Italian or American mafia. In this respect, SNA seems to lack behind in empirical research on organized crime. Mainly, this is due to the lack of suitable network data on organized crime. For obvious reasons, commonly used methods of gathering network data – such as questionnaires – are less suitable for research on organized crime. Suspects of organized crime have not much to gain from talking about their ‘comrades in crime’. Alternative data need to be explored. Wiretaps from criminal investigations are one such source. In this contribution the SNA perspective is used to present an overview of the possibilities and limitations of using wiretaps for SNA. It follows that wiretaps from criminal investigations should be regarded as ego-centered network data. Therefore, research questions and objective for both criminal investigations as well as scientific research should be directed to the personal networks of suspects instead of the network as a whole.

The social network approach is gaining influence among criminologists studying organized crime and terrorism. The theoretical concept, however, still needs further elaboration. To this end, concepts developed within the field of economic sociology could provide a substantial contribution. Economic sociologists have, among other things, focused on the role of social networks with regard to the completion of economic transactions. They regard mutual trust built through personal relations as an essential part of economic transactions, particularly if these imply certain risks for the parties involved. In other words, before transactions materialize, the parties must first be able to establish trustworthy personal relations. Based on these ideas, Spapens introduced in 2006 the theoretical concept of the criminal macro network, being a social network consisting of individuals able and willing to engage in illegal activities. The capital of each member of the criminal network consists, on the one hand, of his links, defined as information relations, within the network. On the other hand, a person’s position is determined by personal knowledge and skills. It is assumed that executing an actual illegal activity – e.g. drug production, trafficking human beings, bank robbery – requires cooperation between a subset of members of the criminal network, the criminal group.An extensive study of xtc production in the south of the Netherlands between 1996 and 2004 revealed the existence of a ‘xtc network’ consisting of individuals interconnected by social relations. The macro network proved to be relatively stable over time. The composition of the criminal groups, however, changed regularly. This was not only explained by shifting business opportunities, but also by the efforts of the police and the Public Prosecution Service leading to convictions and the dismantling of criminal groups. Better knowledge of the functioning of the criminal macro network can provide valuable contributions to criminological understanding of organized crime. These insights are of course also of great practical importance for law enforcement agencies.