De positie van slachtoffers van strafbare feiten kan zich in een toenemende belangstelling verheugen. Uitgangspunt van het kabinetsbeleid is dat slachtoffers voldoende mogelijkheden moeten hebben om de gevolgen van criminaliteit te (laten) herstellen. Ten aanzien van de verschillende mogelijkheden die het recht thans biedt, rijst de vraag wat slachtoffers van strafbare feiten ondernemen om hun schade vergoed te krijgen, welke afwegingen zij daarbij maken en wat zij feitelijk ervaren bij het verhalen van hun schade. Dit is een verslag van een kwalitatief onderzoek naar ervaringen waarin deze slachtoffers zelf aan het woord komen.

Starting in 2015, Dutch municipalities will have complete administrative responsibility for all types of youth care on the continuum of preventive child education programs to youth probation and re-entry aftercare. In the process of this so called ‘youth care transition’, the use of available and valid scientific knowledge about effective reduction of juvenile crime (distilled from What Works, desistance focused studies and forensic pedagogy) seems to be suppressed by the administrative and procedural concerns that municipalities are now facing. In this article, these concerns are discussed and some solutions are presented.

In the near future juvenile delinquents who return from a PIJ-measure (Placement in Institution for Juvenile Offenders) will receive aftercare on a compulsory basis. Aftercare aims at a successful re-adjustment in society, contributing to reduced recidivism. In 2008 a pilot was set up in which 18+ PIJ youth were offered voluntary aftercare. Commissioned by the Ministry of Justice, Regioplan Beleidsonderzoek investigated the experiences in the pilot. Results show that the content of the aftercare is mainly focused on practical issues. Support on (further) development of psychosocial abilities is minimal. The authors make recommendations that could be relevant in setting up the content of obligatory and effective aftercare.

The Dutch Minister of Justice has promised that a city’s mayor will be informed if a former prisoner, who was sentenced for a sex offense and/or serious violent crime, returns to the municipality. Because of an improved information position, the mayor is able to take founded and timely measures in order to prevent disturbances in public safety. To determine how this information can be organised in the best way, a pilot was carried out. The evaluation of this pilot suggests that the information meets a need, but that the information processing is vulnerable in certain parts. Following the evaluation the process will be adapted and may be rolled out nationwide.