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.

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.

In law enforcement animal assisted interventions have become popular. Unfortunately in evaluation studies often animal welfare is not included. The question rises to what extent this work might be harmful for participating animals and what alternatives we may offer. In this contribution we describe how robots have been introduced and are being used in the world of care. Might robots be a good alternative for animal participation in risky situations in law enforcement? We conclude by raising a number of pertinent questions for further research.

People like to make comparisons between humans and other animals when they think a comparison helps them to make a point (e.g. that some human behavior can or cannot be considered to be ‘natural’) or to have a laugh when animals act in ways that are seen as funny or cute. There are a lot of misunderstandings about the feasibility of these kinds of comparisons and this chapter deals with the way in which meaningful use can be made of studies into animal behavior, using research into chimpanzee behavior (and specifically research into chimpanzee conflict regulation) as an example. The conclusion is that there are three ways in which ethological studies into non-human animal behavior can be relevant for an increased understanding of human behavior: by using ethological methods of systematic observation, by asking relevant research questions and by generating new hypotheses.

Racism is related to the process of ‘othering’. Individual people or groups can be described as ‘other’ by depicting them as ‘beasts’. In another form of othering accusations of maltreatment of other than human animals play an important role: awful people abuse innocent animals. Next to that concepts like ‘genocide’ and ‘slavery’ are nowadays used in order to describe the way humans treat other animals. All of this influences the debate on racism.

Criminological literature shows that criminals involved in organized crime benefit from positive images in the media. By opening a hospital or donating funds for the development of a football field they try to present themselves in a cordial way and as good citizens to the public. Using the media to present themselves as animal lovers is a very effective manner to go for public admiration and sympathy. In this contribution is investigated how this mechanism works and why it is so effective.

Executive functions (EF) are higher order brain functions that are crucial for self-regulation, which may be negatively influenced by an impoverished environment. Since prison can be characterized as an impoverished environment, we studied whether EF and self-regulation decline during imprisonment. While EF are already often impaired in antisocial and criminal populations, we found a decline in attention and self-regulation after three months of imprisonment. We discuss the implications of our findings regarding recidivism and propose to aim for an improvement in executive functions during imprisonment, by enriching the prison environment.

In the media one notices items on mistreatment of animals on a regular basis. These can cause intense agitation in the society. Think of the many horses that have been abused throughout the country in 2012. This case remains unsolved to this day. The question is: who does this, who are the animal abusers, what are their characteristics and backgrounds? After a long search in several registration systems of many institutions the characteristics and backgrounds of 97 animal abusers have been found. The data of the institutions have also been used to create an image of the nature and extent of animal abuse. Subsequently there have been interviews with several experts from different organisations to record their knowledge and experience and to indicate the results. The characteristics and backgrounds of the animal abusers are diverse. Their ages range from 7 to 85 years. The offenders are an average of 34 years old at the time of committing the animal abuse. Animal abusers are not notorious criminals. Half is reported to be the first offender according to police data. The other half commits all forms of crime. This includes the share of capital offenses (34%) and violent crimes (23%). Dogs are most often abused. The motives are diverse. Disappearing anger and frustration seems to be an important reason to abuse animals. Only nine people found that there was domestic violence in addition to animal abuse. An initial classification of types of animal traffickers in, amongst others, group planners, loners and sadists, has to be empirically substantiated.

Cruelty to and neglect of animals are criminal offences. In the criminal prosecution of perpetrators of cruelty to and neglect of animals, the court may impose an injunction on the offenders to keep animals for a specific period of time. In the Netherlands, this so-called ban on keeping animals (‘houdverbod’) can be imposed by the criminal court in the form of a special condition imposed in combination with a suspended sentence. In this article we present the results of a study into the frequency with which and the manner in which the ban on keeping animals is applied nationwide in the Netherlands. The study provides insights into the prerequisites for adequate application of the ban on keeping animals. In practice, the implementation of the ban on keeping animals in its current form faces some problems. The question is how the effectiveness of the ban on keeping animals may be improved and whether there are alternative ways to apply the ban on keeping animals that may serve the purpose better. The issue of the most effective form in which to implement a ban on keeping animals – also in the longer term – is a thorny one.

The public prosecutor should act as the knight fighting in court for a victim. A much more communicative strategy instead of one aiming at a juridical discourse will reframe what is happening in court and make it understandable for victims and public in general, Examples are given of how to do so. A discussion on the effects of such a strategy is presented.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is deeply rooted in the Chinese culture. Although thousands of animal and plant species are used for medicines legally, some medications contain more sinister elements; illegal animal or plant ingredients of protected species. What is the origin of this demand for rare species as medicine, who are involved in the trade and why is law enforcement complicated? This article will show that the illicit trade in TCM is a form of crime that transcends the borders of China and manifests itself in Western Europe. Various aspects of the trade are highlighted, including criminalization of the use of endangered species, western anthropocentrism and the cultural use of medicine, to understand this relatively invisible crime.

The relationship between domestic violence and animal abuse is called the ‘cruelty link’. In this article, this relationship is discussed from different perspectives. First, the literature on the cruelty link is reviewed. Second, victims of domestic violence and animal cops are questioned. Finally, the experience of experts in the field of animal welfare and domestic violence is discussed. The research findings support the relationship between domestic violence and animal abuse, but interpretation of these results should be drawn with caution. In order to come to a more detailed insight in different aspects of this relationship, further research will be necessary.

Animals appear to be increasingly incorporated in pet assisted activities and in pet assisted therapies in detention. But if one reviews the literature on these projects, it becomes clear that not much attention is being paid towards methodological issues. In this contribution, a set of questions is presented in order to help those that are interested in starting such a program to construct a more thoroughly thought through project. In such a project, animal welfare should be one of the key features.

This paper reviews the status quo of immigration law in the Netherlands in regard to the human rights of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Based on a thorough reading of the literature, Dutch detention law and policies aimed at immigrants are reviewed in relation to articles 3, 5 and 6 ECHR and 9 ICCPR to see whether they are compatible and whether a breach of human rights takes place in Dutch detention centres. Even though the ECHR has not yet ruled that Dutch immigration detention breaches drawn conclusions as to a potential breach of human rights, the writers of this paper argue that Dutch policy does potentially violate some of them.

In 1922 werd in Nederland binnen de rechterlijke macht de interne competentieverdeling aangepast. De enkelvoudige kamer onder de naam ‘politierechter’ werd ingevoerd. In de eerste jaargang van het Maandblad voor Berechting en Reclassering van Volwassenen en Kinderen (MBR) werd deze ontwikkeling enthousiast ontvangen. Negentig jaar na dato blijkt de politerechter nog steeds een levend instituut te zijn. Dat neemt niet weg dat er wel veranderingen op til zijn. Zo wordt ter vergroting van doelmatigheid en slagvaardigheid van het strafrecht onder meer met snelrecht gewerkt en inmiddels wordt aan het Opnebaar Ministerie ook een zelfstandige sanctiebevoegdheid toegekend in de vorm van een strafbeschikking. De toekomst moet leren hoe dergelijke ontwikkelingen het functioneren van de politierechter binnen de strafrechtspleging zal gaan beïnvloeden.

There is an impressive body of literature dealing with the so-called ‘cruelty link’. Two directions can be distinguished: animal abuse as a part of domestic violence and cruelty against animals as a predictor of a penchant for violence in later life. Related to these topics are a lot of methodological problems, for example regarding research designs, definitions of (domestic) violence and animal abuse, practices of cultural bias and prejudice regarding the position of animals in society and problems regarding the recognition of abuse. This contribution deals further more with the problematic claims of correlation and causation between violence against humans and animals. What is the risk of identifying ‘false positives’, that is making uncritical assumptions and accusations of (a penchant for) violent behaviour based on the (mis)interpretation of certain behaviour against animals?