Since 2014, several countries have introduced legislation to criminalize ‘street harassment.’ In France, this criminalization was framed within a feminist perspective, by conceiving of street harassment as the first level of a ‘continuum of violence against women.’ In the Netherlands, on the other hand, proposals to criminalize these behaviors came from right-wing political parties. They framed ordinances as protecting public order and focused on racialized loitering youth as the main problem group. Despite these differences, proponents of penalization in both countries encountered a similar criticism: according to left-wing politicians, feminists, and anti-racist activists, criminalizing street harassment could lead to disproportionate punishment of racialized men from disadvantaged backgrounds. This article argues for a pragmatic ‘sociology of critique’ within the sociology of law, which provides insight into how actors involved in the introduction of regulation develop reflexivity about the risks of legislation, as well as their blind spots.

Juvenile delinquents appear to be delayed in their moral development, more specific the development of their moral judgment, empathy, guilt and shame. Moral development also appears to predict recidivism. It is therefore plausible that interventions that focus on the moral development of juvenile delinquents could have a beneficial effect on reducing recidivism. However, our systematic review (i.e., meta-analysis) shows that with these so-called moral behavioral interventions the level of moral judgment of juvenile offenders can be significantly increased, by 22%, but that such interventions have no effect on recidivism. It may be possible to increase the effectiveness of moral interventions for juvenile delinquents by simultaneously influencing several aspects of moral development instead of, for example, only moral judgment or empathy. In addition, problems of poor aggression regulation, often caused by a history of traumatic events, may need to be addressed first before moral-behavioral interventions can be effective.

Background: In 2018 the Council of Europe issued recommendations on parenthood and detention. However, children and their detained parents still are administratively and socially invisible within the Netherlands.
Method: We conducted a scoping review of the literature on the largest group of detained parents, namely fathers. The goal was to describe what we know about imprisoned fatherhood.We also wanted to determine the focus for follow-up research.
Results: The thematic analysis of the literature reveals four main themes in the research on imprisoned fatherhood . The content analysis results in four recommendations for follow-up research, including qualitative research with incarcerated fathers and their children.

Police officers are often the victim of aggression by citizens, which has negative consequences for them and society in general. Therefore, it is important to gain knowledge about related factors. This study examines to what extent experiencing aggression as a police officer is related to their patience with citizens and use of force. Two explanations based on the victim-offender overlap are examined: that aggression experiences and dealing with citizens influence each other and that they have common causes. This study was conducted on the basis of a longitudinal questionnaire survey among police officers (N=693). The results show that interaction with citizens, including patience with citizens and the use of force, is related to the aggression police officers experience. The association diminishes when common causes, in this case socio-demographic and work-related characteristics, are taken into account, but does not disappear. No direct support is found for reciprocal influence. Implications and suggestions for further research are described.

In this article, we investigated the effects of the Covid-19 crisis and lockdown on social stability within the individual level, group level and society level. To investigate these effects, data from incident reports of emergency services (i.e., police, fire brigade and ambulance) in the South of the Netherlands from 2018 to 2020 were collected. An incident is defined as an unique notification with deployment of one or more emergency service(s). Incidents were categorized according to the standardized classification LMC 6.0. We investigated regional differences from 2018 to 2020 using monthly time trends. On the individual level we found a time trend in accordance with the onset of the lockdown, with a decrease in property crime operationalized as theft, burglary and robbery, and an increase in psychological effects, operationalized as suicide attempts and nuisance by a person. On the group level, operationalized as incidents nuisance by youth, noise, fireworks and vandalism, we found a time pattern with an increase in incidents coherent with the lockdown period. On the level of the society, operationalized as incidents public order, conflicts, violence and explosives, we also found an increase in incidents coherent with the lockdown period. We conclude that incident reports of emergency services give additional insight in the effects of a lockdown on social stability.

In this article a framework is provided for the design and implementation of exit programmes used in prisons and by probation services. These programmes are targeted at violent extremist (ex-)offenders and are used for the purpose of deradicalisation or disengagement and support the successful reintegration of (ex-)offenders back into society. Based on a review of scientific and practice-oriented literature six categories of standards and practices are described. An exit programme needs to be tailored to the context in which it is used and to the risks and needs of the individual. In addition to various other aspects, earlier attention for reintegration and the active involvement of an (ex-)offender’s social environment are crucial in an exit progamme.

This article considers the concept of ‘disposable army’ as a recent addition to the agendas of some policing units countering organized crime in the Western world. The idea of a disposable army comes from counterterrorism and national security languages, but it also echoes studies on disposable youth, their delinquency and vulnerability. The author sketches the main lines of arguments on both the securitisation of organized crime and the vulnerability of disadvantaged and disposable children and young people. Also, she reflects on the concept of disposable army in organized crime by presenting starting observations for a research agenda on this subject and by pointing out how unpacking this concept, and its implications, indeed means to understand how relationships, values, and resilience work in the so-called ‘underworld’.

The complexity of organized crime activities as compared to most common crimes makes that the offender types and involvement mechanisms differ from what has been described in traditional life-course studies. This article addresses two different involvement mechanisms for organized crime: family ties and work ties. Those who become involved through family or close friends are more likely to have an early start in crime, to intentionally search for opportunities for crime, and to situate themselves in a context where these opportunities are common. Those who become involved through work ties are more likely to have a late start in crime and to have no preconceived plan to involve in crime, but they are faced with an opportunity. Both types of offenders are interesting as crime groups benefit from a certain degree of heterogeneity, providing access to different contacts, knowledge, and skills.

This article was written by Claudia Mazzucato for The International Journal of Restorative Justice 21(2) and translated for our thematic issue. Mazzucato explains that there is something in restorative justice that resembles art. In her view restorative justice is made of the same fabric. Both deal with ‘creativity and rigour, imagination and insight, preparation and improvisation, vocation and inclination, talent and skill’. Both trigger innovation and have a political dimension when identifying problems and look for transformations or cultural change. The use of art in the restorative field is growing and visible in literature, paintings, theatre and films. Art can become a sort of mediator of restorative encounters or can give a concrete shape to stories that otherwise cannot be told. The author asks questions about liaisons between restorative justice, law and art. The leges artis of restorative justice are values and standards as drafted by the United Nations and Council of Europe. Do they nourish criminal justice in terms of beauty? To a certain extent yes. A challenging task of the art of restorative justice is in her view: ‘to approach the complexity of the quest for justice in the real world, combining hard and soft skills harmonically, and complying rigorously with the proper restorative leges artis, in order to amend in democratic ways what has proved wrong and harmful, and to prospectively avoid its reoccurrence’.

Penal protection orders (PPOs) aim to protect initial victims from repeat victimisation and in a broader sense from any danger for his or her dignity or psychological and sexual integrity and may therefore be important instruments for victim safety. However, knowledge on the actual practice of the PPOs and the successes, dilemmas and challenges involved is scarce. In this article, we describe the legal framework and actual enforcement practice of Dutch PPOs. The theoretical framework leading our explorative analyses regards Lipsky’s notion of ‘street-level bureaucracy’ and the succeeding work of Maynard & Musheno and Tummers on coping strategies and agency narratives of frontline workers. Using interview data from criminal justice professionals, victims and offenders, we describe the conditions of the enforcement practice and answer the question which coping mechanisms and types of agencies the professionals tend to apply in order to meet the legislative aims and to protect victims as effectively as possible. Results show that the five conditions described by Lipsky are clearly present. So far, in almost all situations the process of monitoring violations is reactive and because knowledge on risk indicators for violent escalation is still limited, it is difficult for frontline workers to decide how many and what type of resources should be invested in which cases. This results in a ‘moving away from clients’ strategy. However, within this context in which reactive enforcement is the default, we also found several examples of coping that represent ‘moving towards clients’ strategies.

Ethnic profiling by governments unfortunately has a worldwide interest. If we look at the Dutch situation, it turns out that the problem is not limited to the police. Serious problems also arise when it comes to checking the legality of tax benefits and detecting benefit fraud. In this contribution, the authors draw attention to racial discrimination due to the use of profiles by government institutions in the Netherlands. It seems that our anti-discrimination legislation is in good order and that raises the question of whether legal refinement is needed or whether solutions should be sought outside the legal sphere. The authors think the latter strategy and make suggestions for a more holistic solution direction.

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.

The adoption of big data analysis in the legal domain is a recent but growing trend that highlights ethical concerns not just with big data analysis, as such, but also with its deployment in the legal domain. This article systematically analyses five big data use cases from the legal domain utilising a pluralistic and pragmatic mode of ethical reasoning. In each case we analyse what happens with data from its creation to its eventual archival or deletion, for which we utilise the concept of ‘data life cycle’. Despite the exploratory nature of this article and some limitations of our approach, the systematic summary we deliver depicts the five cases in detail, reinforces the idea that ethically significant issues exist across the entire big data life cycle, and facilitates understanding of how various ethical considerations interact with one another throughout the big data life cycle. Furthermore, owing to its pragmatic and pluralist nature, the approach is potentially useful for practitioners aiming to interrogate big data use cases.

It has been proposed that when people perceive their treatment by criminal justice actors as more procedurally just, they will be more likely to comply with the law. Existing research mainly focused on the police or the judge. This longitudinal study examined how prisoners experienced their treatment by five different criminal justice actors using data from the Prison Project. The prisoners were most positive about the procedurally fair treatment by their lawyer and least positive about the treatment by the police. Additionally, the perceived treatment by the police was associated with the treatment by other actors at subsequent moments.

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.

Climate litigation is an understudied phenomenon in criminology. In this article we will discuss the rise of climate change litigation and growing recognition of global environmental harms from a green criminological perspective. More specifically, we will discuss both the legal reasoning and the impact of the Urgenda case in the Netherlands in the context of environmental, ecological and climate justice. We will conclude with how this case contributes for the recognition of diverse climate victims and strengthening of climate justice in the near future.

This article analyzes the opinion of twenty-four Surinamese ex-convicted young men on restorative justice. The results were obtained through four focus group sessions and a concise survey form. The factors (a) type of offense, (b) seriousness of offense and (c) prevention of recurrence were discussed. The opinions are divided, but the majority is of the opinion that restorative justice can mainly work for serious and violent crimes. Fear of revenge appears to be a barrier to participation. Employment has been indicated as the key to real recovery of the offender and prevention of recidivism (and thus satisfaction for the victim). The results provide insight into the susceptibility to restorative justice among this specific group in Suriname.

In het artikel wordt inzicht geboden in nieuwe instrumenten die een risicotaxatie mogelijk maken met behulp van artificiële intelligentie. In het bijzonder wordt ook ingegaan op de talrijke fundamentele vragen die met het gebruik ervan gepaard gaan. Tevens gaan de auteurs na in welke mate AI-risicotaxatie accurater is – of kan zijn – dan de bestaande methoden van risicotaxatie.

This qualitative study examines how criminal careers in cybercrime start and can be explained. Based on offender and expert interviews, the authors conclude that traditional factors linked with the initiation, such as a maturity gap (for juvenile offenders) and opportunism (for adult offenders), in combination with different types of (online) disinhibition – social, technical, situational and psychological – can explain the start of a criminal career. Features of the digital context appear to play a major role in the development of a criminal career and this requires more online supervision and education about – among other things – legal alternatives and the risks and boundaries of the online environment.