The victim’s position in Dutch criminal law has been strengthened. There has been an emancipation of the victim in criminal law. However, not much attention is being paid on the role and position of the victim in the Dutch administrative procedure. This article explores the scope of what is called ‘Administrative victimology’. Administrative victimology is an empirical science that deals with the position and legal role of the victim in the administrative procedure. It is expected that this ‘new’ type of victimology will become more important in the years to come.

Incidents involving persons with ‘confused behavior’ are an important and topical theme in Dutch society. The police are often the first to be involved in these incidents because they are the only public organization that has a 24/7 presence on the streets. In 2019, the police registered 96,000 reports of persons who showed confused behavior. It is therefore not surprising that the police have repeatedly drawn political-administrative attention to this situation and indicated that the limits have been reached. That raises the question of how police officers deal with a situation that has actually grown above their heads in daily practice. In this research, based on the theory of street-level bureaucracy introduced by Lipsky, it was investigated how police officers in The Hague use their discretion to cope with this difficult reality.

In 2014, the Dutch government abolished its ban on blasphemy, which had laid dormant in its criminal code for decades. Similar laws have been abolished in nine other jurisdictions in the West since an international campaign to this end started in 2015. This article first describes the tension between blasphemy laws and the freedom of expression. It then examines the Dutch position on blasphemy in its international context. This article argues against bans on blasphemy and specifically against a potential reintroduction of a de facto ban on blasphemy in the Netherlands. Moreover, it argues in favour of applying political pressure to abolish bans on blasphemy around the world as well as giving diplomatic support to those affected by these laws.

Rehabilitation of hospitalized offenders is a stepwise process ideally achieved through four consecutive types of leave: supervised, unsupervised, extra-institutional and a probational leave. However, in reality this sequence may often be deviated from. The current study was undertaken to examine the most common deviations and the relationship with how the treatment ended (e.g. positive/negative). File information of 422 offenders previously admitted to a high-secure forensic hospital was used. Deviations from the standard sequence are relatively common. Probational leave is often missing, and one in ten sequences contains a suspension of leave. The relevance for forensic and legal professionals is discussed.

In previous observational studies among operational police officers, some officers stated that if a victim is not willing to (officially) report a crime to the police, they are not able to police these cases. This rather cynical and fatalistic statement raises several questions. What do police officers mean when they say this? What do they actually do in those cases and why? In this paper we try to answer these questions based on explorative qualitative interviews with several police officers in two police teams in the Netherlands. The results show that even though police officers recognize these statements among their colleagues, they do not agree with them and in practice police officers show a lot of effort and involvement in these cases. In fact, police officers have several possible strategies available to deal with these cases. Which strategy they opt for depends on various pragmatic, organisational and moral considerations.

At the level of local government, preventive and repressive measures are used within an integrated- personalized-approach to prevent disturbing and criminal behaviour. This integrated approach is only possible when the professionals involved can share data of subjects in order to get good insight of the existing problems and to find possible solutions. The Startbaan study, which focused on the collaboration within such an integrated-approach on young adults with multiproblems and justice contacts, shows that privacy regulations are perceived as being obstructive by professionals. More knowledge about the GDPR, its legal bases and domain specific regulations is necessary for an integrated-approach.

Interprofessional collaboration in the treatment and supervision of clients in forensic mental health care is of great importance. However, collaboration between professionals within and between settings is not always easy. In this article, different forms of collaboration within the forensic mental health care system are described as well as the most important pitfalls and success factors. Finally, some recommendations are provided for practitioners, organizations and policy-makers to design and facilitate collaboration in forensic mental health care.

Issues regarding domestic violence and abuse of children are considered to be complex phenomena. Often ecological models are used in order to explain that on different levels – societal, group and individual – factors that are of influence. With some of these aspects can be dealt, while others are more complex to influence. In practice professionals with different disciplinary backgrounds need to collaborate in order to be of assistance to families in need. As a model for collaboration so-called Family Justice Centers (FJC) have been developed. This concept originated in the United States and is nowadays also adopted in Europe. In the Netherlands there is a lot of interest in these FJC’s. In this contribution the impression of two visits two FJC’s in neighboring region Flanders (Belgium) is described. What can we learn from their experiences? What are the challenges of international comparisons of forms of policies and collaborations regarding the care for families and children?

Professionals from various organisations within Dutch local governments are working together in an integrated-personalized-approach in order to prevent disturbing and criminal behavior in multi problem young adults. The Startbaan study, which focused on the collaboration within such local integrated-approaches, shows that multidisciplinary collaboration is hard to reach because of the amount and versatility of organisations involved as well as the complexity of problems in multi problem young adults. Results from the Startbaan study combined with findings from literature show that a functional mix of organizational conditions and specific professional abilities is needed in order to work together successfully.

Increasing digitization and datafication lead to an increasingly important role of data in our society and to changes in the way institutions work and decisions are made. Although it can lead to changes in the type of crime (e.g. cybercrime), datafication also facilitates shifts from visible and registered crime to crime that has not (yet) been measured and registered, like manifestations of organized crime. Analyzing so-called big data can help to recognize new forms of crime, predict risk factors, and decrease the dark number of these forms of crime.
In this study, we illustrate which indicators determine the stage of an industrial area regarding the occurrence of organized crime. Our supervised machine learning analysis shows that a number of indicators actually have predictive value for the degree of organized crime. These indicators could be used in the future to distinguish which industrial areas run an increased risk of organized and subversive crime.

Previously we have published an article about misunderstandings regarding trauma and PTSS. In this contribution we deal with other popular beliefs regarding trauma. We focus on trauma among professionals as a consequence of their work. It is explained that a professional does not have to witness violence or another severe case directly in order to develop some form of trauma. Next to that we focus on the misconception that professionals suffering from trauma can receive treatment without support of their loved ones and social network. It is explained that social support is not only relevant but necessary in treating trauma effectively.