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.

This article sketches an experiment initiated by a local mediation service in Flanders (BAL) with regard to the role of a supporting volunteer in the context of family group conferencing. Engaged as researchers in this experiment, the authors reconstruct the conceptual challenges of this project and the solution proposed by the team of mediators. One of these challenges revolves around finding an appropriative account of restorative justice that fits with the aims of the Belgian conferencing practice and clarifies the role of the supporting volunteer. Another comes down to distinguishing this role with the essential tasks of the moderator, and formulating deontological devices. In the last part of this contribution a few learning points are formulated with regard to the process and results of the experiment. One of these points is the need to rethink how successfully offering the possibility of engaging a supporting volunteer to the stake holding parties.

Technological progress has a great impact on the lives of many citizens. The increasing amount of available information may however be used by criminals too, for example by burglars in their search for a suitable target. Applying the rational choice perspective and by means of an experiment with students, this paper first investigates whether it is likely or not that tools such as Google Maps and Google Street View are used for burglary. Furthermore, we investigate whether the considered target characteristics differ when such tools are used. The results indicate that we cannot give an affirmative answer to these questions so far.

In restorative thinking it is often assumed that the involvement of volunteers, almost naturally, flows from its values and aims. But are there really convincing arguments that account for, justify or even necessitate an active policy on volunteering in restorative justice practices?This contribution focuses on the moderate view on restorative justice as developed in the Belgian context. It is argued that this approach offers a variety of reasons for developing a volunteers-programme. Two central issues in a moderate view on restorative justice are essential to understand the value of volunteering in restorative justice practices. Such a view sees 1) crime as a multi-layered phenomenon, and 2) takes participative and communicative justice as its central aim.

This article aims at grounding and defining the role of volunteers in restorative justice practices. It starts from the observation that processes of institutionalization tend to make the role of volunteering citizens in restorative justice programmes doubtful and superfluous. These doubts are strengthened by the fact that the link between restorative justice values and the importance of working with volunteers is too easily assumed. Can we offer some well-founded arguments to back up this assumption and to outline what key roles volunteers can play? Several conceptions of restorative justice might be explored. This contribution examines the maximalist view, as developed by Lode Walgrave in his latest book Restorative Justice, Self-interest and Responsible Citizenship. The article critically asks if and how his conception demands an active role for volunteers within restorative justice practices. The paper develops its arguments on the basis of three key concepts in Walgraves model: (1) his definition of restorative justice; (2) his notion of crime; and (3) his socio-ethical intuition of common self-interest.

Starting a decade ago, police authorities in Western Europe have been dealing with (South)Eastern European gangs coming over to Western Europe. These gangs commit a large number of property crimes and are characterised by their high level of mobility. Yet, this raises questions as to how their mobility has to be interpreted: is it temporary, making them criminal tourists, or are there any migration mechanisms involved? This article is based on interviews with offenders charged with selling criminal goods (i.e. fencing). Fencing activities appear to take place either in Western Europe or in the countries of origin. Alongside these activities, their centre of social activity appears to be located in either one of them as well. This heterogeneity indicates there is little added value in combating the Eastern European crime gangs, because different offender types with a different background are involved.