This paper concerns the question whether in the period 2011-2017 displacement effects occurred from the Netherlands to Belgium in the context of synthetic drugs production, cannabis cultivation, and retail of illicit drugs, and if so, how these may be explained. We conclude that displacement took place in modi operandi of retail drug dealers. This is explained foremost by the policy of banning non-residents from Dutch coffeeshops in border region municipalities. Dealers and traffickers responded by switching to local distribution in Belgium as well as deliveries by drug couriers. The synthetic drugs and cannabis cultivation markets show minor changes in modi operandi, but no changes occurred in choosing production locations. Displacement effects in the context of organized drug crime must be explained from a range of factors. Reality is therefore more complex than assuming that government interventions are the main cause of a balloon effect.

Restorative justice practices and policies have been growing in Belgium during last three decades. This article looks in particular at policy developments in the Flemish Community. It reconstructs how restorative justice has adopted a legal basis in 2005 and 2006 respectively in adult criminal law and juvenile justice. The rise and fall of the Belgian model of ‘restorative prisons’ is discussed. Special attention goes to the role of the Belgian State reform process, where the regions were given more competencies also in restorative justice matters. We investigate how this process of devolution has shaped the restorative justice landscape for the sectors of penal mediation, restorative mediation and conferencing. Some ambivalences in policy making are shown. Moreover, in recent years there are signs of a declining political interest in restorative justice.

Een veelheid aan ontwikkelingen doet de vraag opkomen naar de verenigbaarheid van de toenemende digitalisering van de maatschappij, en dus ook van de strafrechtelijke rechtshandhaving, met de waarden en beginselen die ten grondslag liggen aan onze strafrechtspleging. Het stimuleren van deze fundamentele reflectie was de belangrijkste drijfveer voor het samenstellen van dit nummer. Daarbij werd gepoogd een breed spectrum aan thema’s aan bod te laten komen.

De Hoge Raad staat een terughoudende rechterlijke controle van het vooronderzoek voor. Aan deze opstelling ligt de gedachte ten grondslag dat de controle op de strafvorderlijke overheid vooral een taak is van andere instanties, zoals de officier van justitie en in meer algemene zin het OM. Alom wordt aangenomen dat de officier van justitie een belangrijke verantwoordelijkheid heeft in dezen. Over hoe in de praktijk invulling wordt gegeven aan deze taak is echter weinig bekend. Dit artikel bespreekt op basis van eerder verricht onderzoek een aantal aspecten van het toezicht dat door de officier van justitie wordt uitgeoefend op de opsporing.

De voorzitter van de raad van commissarissen vervult een spilfunctie in de vennootschap. Hij is voor de raad het contactpunt met bestuur en aandeelhouders. Hij wordt geacht de regie te nemen in crisissituaties. Dit roept de vraag op of de juridische positie van de voorzitter niet nader omlijnd zou moeten worden.

In this contribution, I describe several key developments that have been fundamental to the development of criminology in the past 50 years. Next, I sketch the contours of several more recent developments, paying particular attention to three technologies, virtual reality, smartphones and wearables that will leave their imprint on the field. These developments will also imply a shift from the study of criminality to researching criminal behaviour.

The increasing volume of waste generated globally is one of the most prominent environmental issues we face today. Companies responsible for the treatment or disposal of waste are therefore among the key actors in fostering a sustainable future. Yet the waste industry has often been characterised as a criminogenic one, causing environmental harm which disproportionately impacts the world’s most vulnerable regions and populations. In this article, we illustrate how companies operating in global supply chains exploit legal and enforcement asymmetries and market complexities to trade waste with countries where facilities for environmentally sound treatment and disposal of waste are lacking. We draw on two contemporary cases of corporate misconduct in the Global South by companies with operating headquarters in the Global North: Seatrade and Probo Koala. We compare these cases building on theories about corporate and environmental crime and its enforcement. This explorative comparative analysis aims to identify the key drivers and dynamics of illegal waste dumping, while also exploring innovative ways to make the waste sector more environmentally responsible and prevent the future externalisation of environmental harm.

Within the group of Dutch foundlings, 28% are migratory foundlings: children coming from abroad to the Netherlands (inbound foundlings), and children going abroad from the Netherlands (outbound foundlings). According to the rational choice theory, there is at some point a rational decision behind human action, based on consideration of costs and benefits – terminology reminiscent of the origins within economic science. When viewed from that perspective, cross-border abandonment may be regarded to be a conscious effort to hinder detection. After all, abandonment of foundlings has been a criminal offence in the Netherlands since at least the Middle Ages. There is therefore also a vested interest in not attracting attention. Anyone abandoning a child and wishing to protect their identity will be attracted to locations that lack effective supervision, defined as guardianship within the criminological routine activities theory. However, the less familiar a location, the trickier it is to avoid visibility. Does the rational consideration of costs and benefits result in migratory foundlings being abandoned just over the border (in order that the perpetrators attract the least possible attention) or actually further inland (in order to detract from the cross-border activity, for example)? Is there a comparable choice in terms of distance when people abandon native foundlings – children found in their country of birth? Relevant questions indeed, as greater insight into such variables can support the direction taken by detection activities. This study is an exploratory analysis of the distance between the domicile or birth location and the abandonment location of cross-border foundlings. The results will then be compared with the distances in the case of domestic foundlings.

This article is part of a broader discussion about attaining a full-fledged child-friendly (criminal) justice. Attaining that goal is particularly challenging in cases of international parental abduction, due to the involvement of two branches of law. It is examined to what extent the current interaction guarantees a decision in the best interests of the child. More specifically, the implications of the adage le criminel tient le civil en état are scrutinised from a children’s rights perspective.
The central research question reads: “to what extent can the adage le criminal tient le civil and état be upheld when further elaborating the best interests of the child in criminal law, more specifically in the interaction between civil and criminal law?” The research wants to contribute to the debate of the difficult triangular relationship between civil law, criminal law and children's rights law.
In cases of child abduction, the link and interaction between the two procedures goes beyond the traditionally accepted scope of civil damages arising from a criminal offense. Nevertheless, both procedures following a parental abduction are based on the same facts and are inextricably linked, which means that they have to be assessed together, which means that they should be judged together. The question arises as to how the two parallel procedures can be coordinated better, now that it is clear that they may significantly influence each other.
A full-fledged application of the adage means that a decision concerning the return of the child can only be handed down from the moment when the criminal proceeding (concerning the prosecution of the parent) is completed. It is immediately clear that this cannot be in the best interests of the child.
It is argued that the adage must be abandoned or reversed to guarantee article 3 CRC. This statement is substantiated with arguments of both practical (referring to the time course) and fundamental (importance of the child best interets as a first consideration) nature. Thereby counterarguments are anticipated.
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Dit artikel kadert binnen de bredere discussie inzake het streven naar een kindvriendelijk (straf)rechtssysteem. In zaken van internationale parentale ontvoering, waarbij twee rechtstakken betrokken zijn, is dit bijzonder uitdagend. Er wordt onderzocht in welke mate de huidige interactie tussen beide rechtstakken het belang van het kind waarborgt. Concreet wordt het adagium le criminel tient le civil en état vanuit een kinderrechten-perspectief aan een kritische blik onderworpen.
De centrale onderzoeksvraag luidt: “in welke mate is het adagium le criminel tient le civil and état houdbaar in de verdere uitwerking van het belang van het kind in het strafrecht, meer bepaald in de wisselwerking tussen burgerlijk en strafrecht?” Het artikel wil aan het belang van het kind een duidelijkere positie geven in de moeilijke driehoeksverhouding tussen burgerlijk recht, strafrecht en kinderrechten.
In zaken van kinderontvoering gaat het de toepassing van het adagium verder dan de traditioneel aanvaarde reikwijdte van civielrechtelijke schadevergoedingen die voortvloeien uit een strafbaar feit. Niettemin zijn beide procedures, volgend op een parentale ontvoering, gebaseerd op dezelfde feiten en onlosmakelijk verbonden met elkaar, wat betekent dat ze samen moeten worden beoordeeld. De vraag rijst hoe de twee parallelle procedures beter gecoördineerd kunnen worden, nu duidelijk is dat ze elkaar op een significante manier kunnen beïnvloeden.
Onverkorte toepassing van het adagium betekent dat de burgerlijke beslissing betreffende de terugkeer van het kind pas kan plaatsvinden vanaf het moment dat de strafrechtelijke procedure (betreffende de vervolging van de ouder) is voltooid. Het is meteen duidelijk dat dit niet in het belang van het kind kan zijn.
Er wordt geargumenteerd dat het adagium moet worden verlaten dan wel omgedraaid om artikel 3 IVRK te garanderen. Argumenten van zowel praktische (verwijzend naar de tijdsverloop) als fundamentele (belang van het kind als eerste overweging) aard onderbouwen dit standpunt. Daarbij wordt geanticipeerd op tegenargumenten.

Een bestuurlijke aanpak van ondermijnende criminaliteit, al dan niet als onderdeel van een integrale aanpak, is in Nederland inmiddels gemeengoed. Toch bestaan er nog volop misverstanden over, die ook aanleiding geven tot niet altijd terechte kritiek. Het handhavingsinstrumentarium waarop deze aanpak is gebaseerd vinden we in alle landen terug. De mate waarin het wordt toegepast om (zware en georganiseerde) misdaad te bestrijden verschilt echter, al naar gelang de aard, ernst en de historie van die problematiek. Een bestuurlijke aanpak is een manier om hogere drempels op te werpen voor criminele bedrijfsprocessen, maar is geen afzonderlijk alternatief voor het strafrecht.

Nuclear energy is a controversial topic in Belgium and the government strives for a nuclear exit by 2025. However, there are few notable policy efforts which prepare the country for such a future. The framing of nuclear energy is crucial in the ongoing debate about its usage. In this article, the author analyses the discourse of the nuclear lobby and government through a green criminological lens. She compares the discourse with academic literature about nuclear energy and identifies ideological strategies via the analytical framework of Larrain (1983).

This article focuses on mobile organized criminal groups that travel through Europe and commit a broad range of property crimes. The study aims to explore the perspective of individual group members. Information was gathered from fifteen criminal investigations that were carried out in the Netherlands in recent years (2013-2016). The study shows that members of these crime groups view their criminal activities primarily as ‘work’. It is work that is characterized by conflicts and consensus. Conflicts often have to do with the stolen loot and reveal disagreement about leadership, rules and obedience. Rows and threats of violence go along with feelings of fear and distrust. At the same time gang members belong to an international deviant community with a shared common way of life and feelings of togetherness. Performing within this international community gives the possibility to attain social status and to express success and richness. These contractive emotions and symbolic meanings characterize the everyday life of gang members and motivates their daily practices.

In the near future, the legislator will decide on the criteria to be applied to make a choice between the administrative and the criminal justice system. It is a possibility that the legislator will depart from the so-called ‘open context’ and the ‘confined context’. In his Farewell Speech, Rogier pleaded that the severity of behavior should be the criterion to the applied. When behavior can be qualified as ‘serious’ a criminal procedure should take place and if the behavior is ‘less serious’ the administrative procedure has to be chosen.

Recent figures indicate that certain drug markets, or at least parts of it, shift from the Netherlands to Belgium. However, it is still unclear whether it is a displacement of some parts of the illicit drug markets or whether it should be seen as a diversification of certain parts of some illicit drug markets in terms of spreading of risks and taking profit of new opportunities. In this respect, this article contributes to an ongoing research (DISMARK) by providing an overview of drug policy measures most recently taken by the Netherlands, from a Belgian point of view, and by trying to link these developments to drug-related trends in Belgium. It is clear that both countries will have to invest in a common approach of their common drug problems. However, it is not yet possible to draw any profound conclusions on the actual displacement of illicit drug markets.

In dit artikel gaat de auteur in op de voorgestelde wijzigingen van de Nederlandse Corporate Governance Code op het terrein van risicomanagement. De auteur is positief over de voorgestelde wijzigingen. Wel zijn nog enkele verbeteringen mogelijk.

In dit artikel zijn de mogelijkheden van rechterlijke controle op de afdoening buiten geding in strafzaken onderzocht. Gepleit wordt voor een aparte raadkamerprocedure voor hoge en bijzondere transacties, waarbij toetsingscriteria werden ontleend aan de jurisprudentie van het EHRM en de internationale straftribunalen. De raadkamer toetst de overeengekomen transactie aan drie criteria. Ten eerste of de verdachte de transactie vrijwillig heeft geaccepteerd. Ten tweede of de verdachte voldoende geïnformeerd is over de procedurele gevolgen en over het bewijs dat tegen hem vergaard is. Ten derde toetst de raadkamer of er prima facie voldoende bewijsmateriaal in het dossier voorhanden is. Een door de raadkamer in het openbaar uitgesproken gemotiveerde beschikking maakt controle mogelijk op het overeenkomen van hoge en bijzondere transacties.

In the past decades, organised crime internationalised rapidly as a result of increasing mobility and ‘open’ borders. At the same time developments in information and communication technology have led to modernisation of existing types of crime and the introduction of novel ones. Finally, criminals have benefited from increasingly diversified migration streams. In the Netherlands and Belgium, organised crime appeared on the agenda in the 1990s. For a long time emphasis was on ‘trade crimes’ i.e. trafficking in drugs and humans, as well as human smuggling, followed by the production of synthetic drugs and cannabis. More recently the Low Countries are confronted by more visible manifestations of organised crime, for example rapid growth of outlaw motorcycle gangs. Criminals also try to utilise their capital to invest in businesses and real estate and to influence local politics.

New technologies such as social media, smartphones, GPS, the internet, sensors, and virtual environments are quickly becoming an increasingly influential part of our daily lives. While very relevant, and often highly accessible and user-friendly, criminologists have been slow to capitalize on the research potential of these technologies. CRIME Lab is a research initiative that promotes the use of new technologies and innovative methods to do cutting-edge crime research. In this article, the author discusses three different CRIME Lab research projects that all make use of virtual reality (VR), which, it is argued, can become a highly useful research method for criminologists in the coming years. The author demonstrates how the use of VR in these projects allows for answering research questions that are hard to address using conventional methods.