Prisoner’s agency is often marginalized in the Dutch history of the prison. This article concretizes how inmates could influence their own lives and the prison system in the first half of the nineteenth century. By focusing on interaction as an indicator of agency, it is possible to go beyond the traditional analysis of agency as a form of resistance. A multidimensional perspective, in which attention is paid to resistance, negotiation and cooperation enlightens the diversity in which prisoners’ agency is expressed. In this way, this article aims to disprove the persistent stereotype of the powerless prisoner in the historiography of the Dutch prison.

This article examines how the enforcement of dog biting incidents takes place in the Netherlands. Enforcement can be carried out using both criminal and administrative law. This practice is discussed, as well as where the bottlenecks in enforcement practice are. Finally, proposals are made to improve present practices.

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.

Human traffickers are usually depicted in public discourse as evil villains: the crème de la crème of organized crime. Although this image has also been dominant among scholars for a long time, it has become increasingly controversial. On the one hand, this debate is fueled by discussions amongst criminologists on criminal networks, on the other hand by the expansion of the legal definition of the crime since 2005. Apart from exploitation in the prostitution sector, various other forms of human trafficking are distinguished now, including labor exploitation. This article explores the question of which organizational forms play a role in labor exploitation. Through a review of the empirical research literature on labor exploitation, the authors show that in the field of labor exploitation, there is probably less involvement in criminal syndicates or criminal networks that maintain contacts with other criminal networks. In many cases, labor exploitation is committed by individuals or family businesses, or smaller loosely organized networks that are not necessarily embedded in other criminal networks. For researchers and policy makers alike, it is therefore advisable not to approach labor exploitation exclusively from the perspective of transnational organized crime.

In recent years, not only victims of serious crimes, but also their relatives received increased attention in criminal justice procedures. Victim Support Netherlands started a project in which paid professionals support surviving relatives of murdered victims. Through interviews and questionnaires, a group of 62 surviving relatives was followed for two to three years, to map out what their problems and needs are, how the case manager helped them and how they appreciated the help. Problems and needs include psychological, practical, social and legal matters. The appointment of a case manager appeared to be very valuable for the surviving relatives. Partly because of the case manager, they managed to get back to everyday life.

In this article we address the question of whether former prisoners are excluded by insurance companies when they apply for insurance. We found that, in several cases, ex-prisoners had been denied insurance in the Netherlands. This so-called ‘actuarial justice’ is accompanied by a great deal of discretionary power in the hands of insurance companies. Moreover, the results emphasize that former prisoners are still in an extremely vulnerable position in society. The article concludes by emphasizing that this form of ‘selective exclusion’ happens to a variety of risk groups in society.

The probation service has a legally firmly embedded mandate to guide the Tbs-patient (Forensic Psychiatric Patient, subject of a hospital order) during his return to society and to supervise this return. Also because of incidents with Tbs-patients who returned to society, a new way of guidance and supervision was recently developed, in which the treating clinic, the GGZ (general mental health care institutions) and the probation service cooperated and enhanced each other’s expertise, more than had been customary in the past. The aim was to reduce the risk of re-offending as far as possible. The first part of this article deals about Forensic Psychiatric Supervision and the problems regarding the links between the judiciary circuit and the GGZ. The second part outlines the role of the probation service and is concerned with the importance ánd the danger of risk assessment and risk control. Some conclusions are drawn.

Since 2005 article 273 of the Dutch criminal code does not only qualify exploitation of prostitutes as a criminal act, but also exploitation taking place in other sectors. Seven years down the line not much is known about this type of human trafficking. Based on an analysis of files of the Dutch Social Security Investigation and Detection Service (ISZW-DO) this article describes in which sectors such exploitation takes place, the characteristics of both victims and (alleged) perpetrators and the modus operandi used. The article concludes and emphasizes that especially subtle means of coercion are used, but that these can transform into more serious types of coercion.

The master thesis Meditation inside the prison system describes the role of mindful meditation practises inside the prison environment. This article shortly summarizes the positive effects of (vipassana) meditation on the mental well-being of prisoners as set out in foreign studies and elaborates on the potential context for meditation programmes inside the Dutch prison system. This context can be found in the legal aim of individual rehabilitation including more intrinsic notions of internal growth and in certain insights of criminological nature. Interviews with several prison managers reveal an open attitude towards the practical integration of meditation programmes.

Sinds 2000 doet de top van de Nederlandse politie allerlei inspanningen om de principes van intelligence-gestuurde politie (IGP) op het werkveld operationeel te maken. De centrale idee achter IGP is dat criminaliteitsanalyses en hun afgeleide producten aan de basis liggen van te nemen beslissingen. Door de beslissingen te stoelen op actuele geanalyseerde informatie hoopt de politie een betere efficiëntie en effectiviteit te bereiken. De bereidheid van de politie om informatie te delen met zowel andere afdelingen als haar ketenpartners is dus cruciaal voor de slaagkansen van IGP. In deze bijdrage onderzoeken we de vraag of de Nederlandse politieorganisatie een succesvolle implementatie van intelligence-gestuurde politie toelaat. Immers, de aard van de politietaken genereert een proces dat in de literatuur bekendstaat als sociale categorisatie. Dit proces vormt mogelijk een belemmering bij het delen van informatie en daarom bij de implementatie van intelligence-gestuurde politie.

Het aantal bejaarde gedetineerden is de laatste jaren sterk toegenomen en vanwege de vergrijzing zal dit aantal de komende jaren verder stijgen. Het detineren van bejaarden vormt voor het gevangeniswezen een uitdaging. In dit artikel wordt beschreven hoe het gevangeniswezen met deze populatie omgaat en hoe de bejaarde gedetineerden hun straf ervaren, met onder andere aandacht voor de veiligheidsbeleving, dagbesteding, contacten met medegedetineerden en PIW’ers, gezondheid en medicijngebruik.

Door de toenemende culturele diversiteit in Nederland is te verwachten dat steeds meer niet-westerse verdachten zich in een strafzaak beroepen op hun cultuur. Op basis van dossieronderzoek en interviews is onderzocht in hoeverre overige uitbuitingszaken (een vorm van mensenhandel ex art. 273s Sr) culturele strafzaken zijn en hoe rechters hiermee omgaan. De resultaten laten zien dat rechters worstelen met culturele verweren bij overige uitbuitingszaken: enerzijds willen zij rekening houden met de culturele achtergrond van de dader, maar anderzijds dient aan de hand van Nederlandse normen te worden vastgesteld of er sprake is van mensenhandel.