In each youth justice system, several age limits exist that indicate what type of reaction can and may be connected to the degree of responsibility that a person can already bear. Civil liability, criminal responsibility and criminal majority are examples of concepts on which age limits are based, but whose definition and impact is not always clear. Especially as far as the minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) is concerned, confusion exists in legal doctrine. This is apparent from the fact that international comparison tables often show different MACRs for the same country. Moreover, the international literature often seems to define youth justice systems by means of a lower and upper limit, whereas such a dual distinction is too basic to comprehend the complex multilayer nature of the systems. This contribution therefore maps out and conceptually clarifies the different interpretations and consequences of the several age limits that exist within youth justice systems. To that extent, the age limits of six countries are analysed: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Northern Ireland. This legal comparison ultimately leads to a proposal to establish a coherent conceptual framework on age limits in youth justice.

The relationship between debts and delinquency is still unclear and knowledge about the prevalence and scope of debts among delinquents, which is needed to systematically explore this relationship, is lacking. The present study contains a systematic and scoping literature review on this relationship and analyzed data from risk assessment and client files (N = 250) from the Dutch probation service. Results show that debt and crime are strongly related and that debts among probation clients are highly prevalent and complex and underline the importance of inquiring more knowledge about debts as a potential risk factor for relapse during supervision.

An exceptionally high prevalence of financial debt problems can be found among prisoners, but criminological knowledge on the link between debts and crime is limited. Previous studies are hindered by a lack of information on types of debts, informal debts and background characteristics. This article provides first and detailed insights in the types and amount of debts during and after prison in the Netherlands. Based on data from the Prison Project we show that the majority of prisoners report having debts during prison, show how different types of debts are related and how these debts change six months after release.

Since 1 April 2014, young adults aged 18 up to and including 22 years can be sentenced with juvenile sanctions in the Netherlands. This legislation is referred to as ‘adolescent criminal law’ (ACL). An important reason for the special treatment of young adults is their over-representation in crime. The underlying idea of ACL is that some young adult offenders are less mature than others. These young adults may benefit more from pedagogically oriented juvenile sanctions than from the deterrent focus of adult sanctions. Little is known, however, about the characteristics of the young adults sentenced with juvenile sanctions since the implementation of ACL. The aim of this study is to gain insight into the demographic, criminogenic and criminal case characteristics of young adult offenders sentenced with juvenile sanctions in the first year after the implementation of ACL. A cross-sectional study was conducted using a juvenile sanction group and an adult sanction group. Data on 583 criminal cases of young adults, sanctioned from 1 April 2014 up to March 2015, were included. Data were obtained from the Public Prosecution Service, the Dutch Probation Service and Statistics Netherlands. The results showed that characteristics indicating problems across different domains were more prevalent among young adults sentenced with juvenile sanctions. Furthermore, these young adults committed a greater number of serious offences compared with young adults who were sentenced with adult sanctions. The findings of this study provide support for the special treatment of young adult offenders in criminal law as intended by ACL.

In deze bijdrage wordt de rechtspositie van aangehouden minderjarige verdachten vanaf het moment van aanhouding tot en met de voorgeleiding onderzocht en naast de lat van Europese en internationale kinderrechten gelegd. Welke rechten en plichten hebben minderjarige verdachten in het Nederlandse rechtssysteem tijdens de eerste fase van het strafrechtelijk onderzoek, welke rol hebben Europese regelgeving en internationale kinderrechten in de totstandkoming van deze rechten en plichten gespeeld en voldoet Nederland aan dit internationale kader van kinderrechten?

Internationale kinderrechten genieten enerzijds vrijwel universele erkenning maar worden anderzijds ook stevig bekritiseerd. Vooral kinderrechten binnen het strafrecht worden als controversieel gezien. Tegelijkertijd is op dit gebied sprake van toenemende aandacht voor de ontwikkeling gedurende de adolescentie die door lijkt te lopen na de dominante leeftijdgrens van achttien jaar, alsmede de implicaties daarvan voor de positie van jongvolwassenen in het strafrecht. Deze bijdrage gaat nader in op de toepasselijkheid, en toegevoegde waarde, van het kinderrechtenperspectief voor jongvolwassenen in het strafrecht.

In this article a critical reflection upon age limits applied in the law is provided, in light of the tension that exists in international children’s rights law between the protection of children and the recognition of their evolving autonomy. The main research question that will be addressed is to what extent the use of (certain) age limits is justified under international children’s rights law. The complexity of applying open norms and theoretically underdeveloped concepts as laid down in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, related to the development and evolving capacities of children as rights holders, will be demonstrated. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child struggles to provide comprehensive guidance to states regarding the manner in which the dynamic legal position of children should be applied in practice. The inconsistent application of age limits that govern the involvement of children in judicial procedures provides states leeway in granting children autonomy, potentially leading to the establishment of age limits based on inappropriate – practically, politically or ideologically motivated – grounds.

In deze bijdrage bespreekt de auteur het op 13 december 2019 gepubliceerde Monitoring Rapport van de vierde Monitoring Commissie Corporate Governance Code. Hierin wordt voor het eerst verslag gedaan over de in 2016 herziene Corporate Governance Code en de naleving daarvan over boekjaar 2018. Daarnaast besteedt de Monitoring Commissie aandacht aan enkele specifieke governance onderwerpen en benoemt zij enkele aandachtspunten.

Restorative justice has developed into a recognized sanction or intervention in several countries. Literature shows that restorative justice is experienced as a procedural just approach by participants. Furthermore, a strong rejection of the behavior of the violators would reinforce reintegrative shaming in the process. Finally, stopping crime (desistance) could be achieved if the restorative justice approach would include reconstructing the self-image of the participants. This systematic literature review examines to what extent restorative justice contributes to compliant behavior by individuals and corporations. Although direct effects of restorative justice on compliance and recidivism fail to appear, procedural justice and reintegrative shame are positively affected. The results offer practical implementations and challenges for further research.

In zijn jaarverslag over 2018 presenteert de Raad van State zijn ideaal van de wet als een pijler van ‘buigzaam beton’. Met dat ‘beton’ (rechtszekerheid) zit het bij de Raad wel goed, maar die buigzaamheid (flexibiliteit) komt er wat bekaaid af. Daarom gaat dit artikel in op manieren om die flexibiliteit in wetgeving te bereiken. Die manieren worden gecategoriseerd en voorzien van commentaar. Uiteraard komt daarbij ook het right to challenge aan bod, als één van die instrumenten en als benchmark voor de andere. Het artikel sluit af met aanbevelingen tot aanpassing van de Aanwijzingen voor de regelgeving.

This article focuses on the challenges associated with public-private partnerships in tackling drug crime in the port of Rotterdam. The authors identified the actors involved in the fight against drug crime and, more generally, security in the port. The authors show how these various actors view the subject of drug crime (so-called mentalities), what they set as objectives (finalities) and how they try to achieve these objectives. Subsequently the various aspects of the interactions between these actors are being analyzed. The article is empirically based on 76 interviews with public and private actors in the port of Rotterdam, that were conducted in the period from January 2018 to February 2019, and an analysis of literature, news items, government reports and other documents.

This contribution seeks to bring together three themes in a descriptive and exploratory manner: (a) community service orders, (b) traffic offences and (c) restorative justice; the Dutch situation is central. To this end, the Dutch legal regulation regarding community service orders is first explained. Attention is also paid to existing empirical research on the effectiveness of community service orders in terms of reduction of recidivism (section 2). Furthermore, the sanctioning of traffic offences is discussed as well as the consequences for this of the current bill that seeks to sharpen criminal liability for serious traffic offences (section 3). Subsequently, it is examined which restorative justice provisions or modalities are available and how restorative community service orders are and can be designed (section 4). Finally, I describe my ideal when it comes to the sanctioning of traffic offences in the form of a continuum in which a special role is reserved for restorative community service orders (section 5). The contribution ends with a conclusion (section 6).

This article relates criminological research on youth delinquency to the social development of adolescents. Starting point is a goal-framing approach which assumes that young people aim for the achievement of two goals: status (‘getting ahead’) and belonging (‘getting along’). Peers form an important context for achieving these goals. Therefore, the role of delinquency in peer networks is examined: on the one hand, the extent to which delinquency contributes to peer status, and on the other hand, how delinquency contributes to the formation of network relationships and, vice versa, how network relationships influence adolescents’ delinquency. Finally, several directions for further research are discussed.

Recent studies show that neurocognitive functioning of people within the criminal justice system might be relevant for judicial intervention and reintegration programs, but the use of this information is hindered by – among other things – a lack of appropriate norm scores for neuropsychological tests. A total of 272 detainees completed the d2 attention and concentration test. This article shows that for the d2 attention and concentration test, the already available norm scores are not appropriate for the use within the criminal justice system. New norm scores for Dutch detainees are provided, based on outcomes of a regression based norm procedure. These norm scores are made freely available.