Neighborhood watch schemes have become increasingly popular in the Netherlands. Drawing from data from 340 municipalities and fieldwork in four districts, the article shows how neighborhood watch groups have developed in the Netherlands and illustrates how they contribute to lower crime levels and collective efficacy, advancing theoretical notions from the literature. However, this form of coproduction of public safety is not without its moral problems. Stigmatization, ethnic profiling and excessive social control are real issues.

In this article the authors discuss the opportunities and challenges they experience from the criminal investigation of financial exploitation of the elderly. By sharing knowledge and experience, they stress that the all party approach in this distressing problem, from the viewpoint of criminal investigations, will achieve the best results. This article could thus be seen as a first step, and invitation, to discuss future interventions and policymaking on fighting the exploitation of the elderly to prevent, detect and investigate these crimes.

This article focuses on the role of local municipalities in detecting and sanctioning benefit fraud, specifically fraud with social assistance benefits. Since the early 2000's, the government's attention for benefit fraud has been increased, resulting in the strengthening of the tasks and responsibilities of local municipalities in combatting and detecting fraud. There are indications that this has been successful: there is an increase in detection and the number of people that claims to offend the rules is decreasing. However, there is a significant amount of variety between municipalities in their performance with this regard. The authors argue that these differences are related to the design and implementation of local policies concerning the detection of benefit fraud. They offer several recommendations for more effective policies at the local level. These recommendations include a better use of available data and knowledge about the background of offenders and social assistance recipients.