We are witnessing a remarkable trend in the youth crime in the Netherlands. A spectacular crime drop is accompanied by growing concerns about the serious nature of youth crimes and young people on a pathway to become hardened criminals at an early age. In this article, we focus on the rise of young offenders in organized drug crime in the Netherlands. We describe some of the features of these young offenders, highlighting their intelligent, strategic and professional behavior. Furthermore, we signal the development and the (territorial) violence of the (youth) groups these young offenders are usually embedded in. In light of these developments, we argue that there is a need for more specialism amongst law enforcement and judicial authorities to identify and deal with these young and potential serious criminals.

This article builds on two previous publications in this journal on the topic of the role of the parents of misbehaving children. We previously concluded that the family plays an important role in ending crime among young people. More recently, we sharpened that conclusion on the basis of long-term monitoring of a large group of young repeat offenders: they don’t stop because their parents say so. The role of the parents turned out to be much more fragile. This article aims to offer an extra insight into the complexity of the relationship between education and crime based on three recent cases.

Het afgelopen jaar hebben burgemeesters naar aanleiding van ernstige steekincidenten en vanwege desastreuze gevolgen van de coronacrisis voor de meest kwetsbare buurten gepleit voor een integrale aanpak gericht op deze gebieden. Minister Dekker heeft daarop onder meer voorgesteld om de ouders van deze jongeren aan te pakken. Hij denkt daarbij aan het Britse jeugdstrafrecht, waar ouders een sanctie kan worden opgelegd vanwege wangedrag van hun kind. In dit artikel worden kritische kanttekeningen bij dit voornemen geplaatst.

This article presents findings from a longitudinal study of 81 young recidivists examined over fifteen years. By the age of 25, 50 percent had desisted for at least three years. 60 percent had had no new police contacts during the last two years. Four stages could be distinguished in the desistance process. Apart from a small number of explicit persisters, all of the young adults did consciously consider whether the benefits of their criminal activities outweighed the disadvantages. With just a few exceptions, the decision to quit was not motivated by an altruistic goal, nor by extreme fear, but mainly motivated by the feeling of being too old for criminal life and by striving for a pleasant self-esteem. It is concluded that when young adult recidivists give up crime, this must be seen as an extreme and extremely late form of maturation.

Dutch youth care was decentralized in 2015. Since the transfer to the municipalities, youth care is in a state of deep crisis. There are long waiting lists, even in situations of acute need; there is lack of money, of professional and experienced staff, of adequate care, and of central coordination and guidance. In contrast to Denmark, where youth care was transferred to municipalities in 2007, there was barely time to prepare the transfer in the Netherlands. Moreover, the number of municipalities was not significantly reduced and the funding was extremely cut back. In this article, a number of interventions is being proposed to save what can still be saved. First, funding will have to be substantially increased. Second, the access to youth mental health care should not be a matter of municipal authority.

This article addresses the role of parents and girlfriends in the process of giving up crime. It presents findings from a longitudinal study of 81 young recidivists examined over 15 years. It concludes that parents played a pivotal role in this process, since the young men began to realize what misery they had caused them. However, these young men did not change their path in life because of their parents. We conclude even stronger than with the parents that it does not seem likely that a young recidivist would desist because of his girlfriend. Nevertheless, it would seem that both parents and a secure, lasting relationship could indeed have a positive influence in this process, particularly in the motivation to stick to a new path towards a more pro-social lifestyle once it has been set out on.

This article gives a historical sketch of a century of juvenile justice in the Netherlands. It focuses on the development of the concept of childhood from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present. Starting from the notion of degeneration and the idea of the neglected child, in the thirties a psychologization process emerged. Crucial was the notion of the childlike nature of the behavior of minor offenders, which was clearly inspired by new insights coming from pedagogy, developmental psychology and child psychiatry. The author argues that recently, after some decades showing a trend towards more toughness on crime, there are indications of a reemergence of the notion of the childlike nature of young delinquents, again inspired by knowledge and insights from the behavioral sciences but also from neurology and brain research.

Aansluitend op het betoog van Honing uit 1922 over de grens tussen strafrechtelijk volwassenen en kinderen wordt in deze bijdrage een drietal nieuwe argumenten gegeven voor een aparte strafrechtelijke reactie op criminaliteit van jong volwassenen. Deze drie argumenten zijn gebaseerd op sociaalwetenschappelijk onderzoek naar de leeftijdsgroep 18-25, op recent hersenonderzoek en op ervaringen in het buitenland