With the development of the ‘digital society’ the information about crime on the internet is increasing rapidly. This creates the necessity for clarity about the boundaries of open source research by law enforcement agencies. However a specific article in the Code of Criminal Procedure lacks. While waiting for this article the police, the prosecution office, criminal defense lawyers and judges are struggling to find these boundaries. Nevertheless are they the only ones that can bring this clarity by informing themselves and exploring what should be legitimate.

On Thursday January 25, 2018 the study day of PROCES took place with the title ‘Sex, ICT and criminal law’. Sex is as old as the road to Rome so there is nothing new there. But with the arrival of ICT in addition to the physical world there is a new world in which sex has also found his way. Where as sex in the past consisted of physical interactions between people in the same space, now sexual interaction also happens between people who are miles apart, connected by ICT. During the study day the central issue was how organizations involved in sex, ICT and criminal law deal with sex in the digital dimension and which problems they face.

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.

In a recent letter to parliament, the Dutch minister of Security and Justice announced a revision of the regulations concerning the use of force by members of the Dutch police. The police had requested such a revision, because they believe that the current regulations are not up-to-date and lead to an unacceptable criminalization of officers who have used force while on duty. The changes announced in the letter are the introduction of a new criminal offence, the introduction of a new defense type (specifically for police officers) and various changes in procedural law. This article critically examines several of these changes.