Organizing dog fights is prohibited in the Netherlands. In such fights, two dogs have to fight each other, sometimes to the death. The animal suffering behind this is enormous. Little is known in the Netherlands about the phenomenon of dog fighting, both from a scientific point of view and through criminal cases. In this contribution, we outline the world behind dog fights by describing how dog fights work, who are part of the entourage and within which criminal infrastructure the dog fights take place. Finally, the problem is discussed and the current approach by the appropriate authorities is discussed and which gaps can be discovered.

This article is a summary of the recently published study of Defence for Children - ECPAT: Sentencing of Sexual Exploitation of Minors: an analysis. The aim of the research was to provide insight into the penalties imposed in 2015-2019 in cases involving the sexual exploitation (human trafficking) of child victims. Another aim was to gain a better understanding of how the sentence was determined. A total of 145 convictions were analysed. This article first describes (the reason for) the research. Subsequently, the crime of human trafficking is briefly discussed. The findings of the analysis are then presented in a summarized version. Finally, the conclusion and recommendations follow.

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.

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.

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.

Prison visitation is important for protecting against social isolation during imprisonment. It is also essential for maintaining contacts that are important for life in prison and after release. It is therefore not surprising that both nationally and internationally important policy measures and scientific research have been undertaken on the topic. Nationally, however, limited scientific research is available regarding how many, how often and from whom prisoners receive visits, how visits are experienced and the possible effects of visitation, thus leaving many questions unanswered. Meanwhile, in the past ten years great changes have been made to visitation in Dutch prison policy and practice. Given these recent developments, both scientists and practitioners could benefit from an overview of the current state of affairs of visitation. This article aims to bridge the gap between research, policy and practice by summarizing findings from the Life in Custody study. This study includes a description of how visitation is organized legally, at the policy level and in practice, a thorough review of prior research on visitation and an analysis of the most recent national data on the prevalence and frequency of visitation, while considering important differences between prisoners and prisons.

Cooperation by professionals dealing with cases of stalking by former partners is complex. First and foremost professionals should focus on a shared ambition in order to stop stalking. But in order to achieve that goal partners in safety and security should be in the clear regarding practical matters: how do they consult each other? What appointments are made? How is invested in the development of a mutual relationship and the understanding of each other’s tasks?

Recently a project was started that aims to systematically describe and explain the developments in the Criminal Code for the period 1886 - 2017. This article presents the first results of this new project, called the Historical Criminal Code (HWvSr). An overview is given of the long-term developments in the structure – the ‘external’ structure – of the Second Book of the Criminal Code since 1886. The analyzes show that its scope has been substantially expanded over the last 130 years, but also that various articles and article parts have been deleted. The article describes the most important changes in terms of both quantity and content.

Teen sexting is an increasingly common phenomenon. It is doubtful whether primary teen sexting – when minors take sexually pictures of themselves and share these voluntarily with peers – should fall within the scope of the Dutch offence description of child pornography. The German Penal Code contains an exception clause for primary teen sexting, whilst the Dutch Penal Code does not. In this article is argued, through comparative law research, that the Netherlands should also adopt an exception clause. This way not only the right of the child to protection against sexual abuse and exploitation, but also the right of the child to sexual development is safeguarded sufficiently.

There is casuistry, where on the one hand it is the turn of the professionals from the investigation, enforcement and prosecution and on the other hand the turn of the social workers from the social domain. This is the case, for example, when domestic violence occurs in circles that are also involved in organized crime. In theory it is possible that the professionals involved work together, but it is also not impossible that they will get into each other’s waters because they have a different vision of the problem to be tackled and, of course, also have to fulfill other roles and tasks based on their positions. A professional must be able to handle complex situations of this kind.

In the early years of kickboxing in the Netherlands, a number of fighters got involved in criminal activities. Literature typically focusses on social learning, but as the inner city of Amsterdam in the eighties provides a specific setting, this article particularly describes a historical process. In the qualitative data from interviews, observations, and various documents, three questions: Who were these kickboxers? Where did they enter the criminal circles? Why did they go along with what happened there? It turns out, successful fighters easily came in contact with people from the underground, as they met in the gyms and in the night life where many fighters worked as bouncers. In a friendly atmosphere, the risks of seduction were hard to recognize for inexperienced fighters.

As part of the project aiming to modernise the Dutch Code of Criminal Procedure the regulation on pre-trial detention is being revised. The proposal is to replace the conditional suspension of remand detention for both adults and juveniles with a new modality of provisional restraint. Furthermore, the proposal in its current form implies the exclusion of the alternative enforcement and the possibility of night detention. In this article, the consequences of the proposal on juvenile suspects are being discussed.

By the end of 2020, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) will be operational. The EPPO will be tasked with investigating, prosecuting and bringing to judgement criminal offences against the EU budget. The substantive competence of the EPPO could in the future be extended to terrorism and other serious cross-border crimes. This article will first describe the background, structure and competences of the future EPPO. Then the procedural guarantees will be discussed and the problem of ‘forum shopping for evidence’. This problem entails that the choice in which Member State to conduct an investigative measure could be made on the basis of the less stringent rules in that Member State regarding, for example, the right to privacy. The article will end with a proposal on how to prevent forum shopping for evidence.

This article merely outlines the methods of Teylingereind with respect to youth and young adult suspects who are difficult to examine, based on five cases. By collecting and combining data about this group from a range of different perspectives, better insight about the specific person was obtained in each of the cases as described. When it is possible to describe specific behavioural patterns, statements could be made about freedom of behavioural choices, danger of recidivism, and advice about the most appropriate legal framework. In this way, when there are serious concerns about the developmental course of youth and young adults who are not willing to cooperate in diagnostic research pro Justitia, clinical observation is of added value to the judge.

The Life In Custody-study is a large scale, prospective panel study, aimed to examine the quality of prison life in The Netherlands. This paper describes the LIC-study by giving a detailed overview of the data collection procedure, and strategies to optimize response, and presents the first nationwide results on prison climate in The Netherlands. Results show that the data collection procedures utilized were successful in obtaining a high response rate (which was an exceptional 81%) and reaching a representative group of prisoners. Furthermore, results show that the perceptions of prison climate vary across prison regimes, and to a lesser extent across age groups and time spent in detention.