The relationship between debts and delinquency is still unclear and knowledge about the prevalence and scope of debts among delinquents, which is needed to systematically explore this relationship, is lacking. The present study contains a systematic and scoping literature review on this relationship and analyzed data from risk assessment and client files (N = 250) from the Dutch probation service. Results show that debt and crime are strongly related and that debts among probation clients are highly prevalent and complex and underline the importance of inquiring more knowledge about debts as a potential risk factor for relapse during supervision.

An exceptionally high prevalence of financial debt problems can be found among prisoners, but criminological knowledge on the link between debts and crime is limited. Previous studies are hindered by a lack of information on types of debts, informal debts and background characteristics. This article provides first and detailed insights in the types and amount of debts during and after prison in the Netherlands. Based on data from the Prison Project we show that the majority of prisoners report having debts during prison, show how different types of debts are related and how these debts change six months after release.

This article addresses the role of parents and girlfriends in the process of giving up crime. It presents findings from a longitudinal study of 81 young recidivists examined over 15 years. It concludes that parents played a pivotal role in this process, since the young men began to realize what misery they had caused them. However, these young men did not change their path in life because of their parents. We conclude even stronger than with the parents that it does not seem likely that a young recidivist would desist because of his girlfriend. Nevertheless, it would seem that both parents and a secure, lasting relationship could indeed have a positive influence in this process, particularly in the motivation to stick to a new path towards a more pro-social lifestyle once it has been set out on.

In the ‘participation society’ it is expected that citizens actively contribute to solving societal problems, including health care, immigration and security issues. A somewhat similar responsibilisation culture is visible in prisons, where prisoners are held responsible for their own rehabilitation. This article problematizes the way in which prisoners’ agency is promoted in Dutch prisons, considering prisoners’ constrained agency and the normative expectations that are tied to the approach. This critique is advanced through discussion of the promotion/demotion system that has been used in Dutch prisons since 2014. This system, comparable to the Incentives and Earned Privileges system in England and Wales, espouses both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ behavioural norms. The soft behavioural norms reflect a citizenship ideal that extends beyond compliance with the law. It is argued that these normative expectations tied to agency have a limiting effect on prisoners’ autonomy. This article argues in favour of a shift from the citizenship ideal to an autonomy ideal, which applies the principle of minimum restrictions. Furthermore, access to education, reintegration courses and contact with family should be treated as a right, rather than a privilege, in order to maximise autonomy and minimise the harmful effects of imprisonment.

Exodus is an organization aimed at assisting prisoners at their transition to society. In the Exodus halfway houses participants receive help in finding a house and a job, in improving relationships with family and friends and in giving meaning to life. This study uses a quasi-experimental design to investigate whether participating in the Exodus program reduces reoffending: the observed reoffending rate is compared to the reoffending rate that was predicted based on characteristics of the participants. The findings show that two years after leaving Exodus, 46.5% of the participants reoffended. This is 4.1 percent point less than the total population of former prisoners and 4.6 percent point less than the predicted reoffending rate.

In 2002, the Dutch Ministry of Justice introduced the programme ‘Reducing Recidivism’ to reduce high recidivism rates among ex-prisoners. As part of this programme, a special project called ‘Follow-up care for former detainees’ was launched late 2004. Until then, little attention had been given to this topic and there had not been any organised form of cooperation between municipalities and penal institutions. In many cases the basic conditions for reintegration were not well arranged. The main aim of the project was to establish a connection between prisons and municipalities by which the basic conditions for social reintegration could be settled. First, cooperation at working level practice was established. In 2007, this practice was confirmed at a political administrative level. In doing so, a unique form of cooperation between prison services and municipalities for follow-up care for former detainees has been realised in the Netherlands.

In the fight against human trafficking it is very important that victims are willing to report incidents and otherwise cooperate with the criminal proces. In practice there are serious problems with the attitude of the victim towards the suspect and with the consistency and solidness of the testimonies of the victim. In a study to explore this problem we found that the perspectives of the victims were not on the same wavelength with the perspective of the criminal law. In order to illustrate this great gap, in this article we present a case-study.

To reduce recidivism of former prisoners, the Ministry of Security and Justice aims at improving the reintegration of former prisoners into free society. The objective is to ensure that former prisoners have, among other things, an income and accommodation at the time they are released from prison. The article studies the changes in the extent that prisoners have an income and accommodation during imprisonment. Results show that before imprisonment 83% of the prisoners have some form of accommodation, 76,2% have a legal income and 70,2% have debts. During imprisonment 28,8% of the prisoners lose their income, and 5,5% of the prisoners lose their accommodation.