First line police officers need a certain amount of discretion as they have to deal with various and complex situations on a daily basis. In this article the author examines the extent to which police officers have room for discretion in their use of force. We start from Mastrofski’s proposition that in case of decisions to use deadly force (use of firearm) police officers’ discretionary space must be restricted as much as possible. In case of less intrusive use of force, police officers may have more room for discretion. We used data from a small survey in three local police forces in Belgium to examine whether police officers have similar opinions on the decision to use their firearm – in comparison with the decision to use lower levels of force (non-firearm/non-lethal). Furthermore, we compare police officers who are highly trained in the use of force, with less trained police officers. Our results indicate that police officers are indeed more univocal when it comes to decisions to use their firearm, especially in case of more trained police officers.

Although group workers in juvenile correctional facilities (JCFs) are restricted in their actions by many rules and regulations, they still have the opportunity for tailor-made actions. Based on Lipsky’s (2010) theory of ‘street-level bureaucracy’ this article explains what this discretion means for group workers in JCFs and how they deal with it. Based on 24 interviews with group workers, this article outlines how they exercise discretion in a context where group dynamics and dealing with emotions affect their actions to an important degree. In addition, this article describes how group workers deal with dilemmas they encounter.

The External Monitor of Forensic Psychiatric Patients (EMT) aims to increase the knowledge of forensic psychiatric patients and the effectiveness of mandatory forensic treatment. In the EMT, five judicial organizations merged their anonymized digital data on (ex-)patients for research purposes. Data originated from the databases of the NIFP, DJI, AVT, 3RO and WODC. By merging this data, a larger part of the trajectory of a forensic psychiatric patient becomes known. Results show that it is possible to combine data from the digital databases of separate organizations for research and analysis purposes. To illustrate the opportunities of the use of merged data, an explorative study was conducted into a current subject. In this study, 218 ‘tbs-patients’ were included and several characteristics of patients of whom the mandatory forensic treatment has ended were compared with those of patients still under mandatory treatment. Suggestions are made for merging data files and for future research.

Last year the article ‘Episodic memory and interviewing witnesses. What do police interviewers know about this topic?’ (Odinot, Boon & Wolters, 2015, TvC, 57(3), 279-299) was published in this journal. The article describes a study that explored the knowledge of police interviewers about episodic memory. The researchers concluded that police interviewers had insufficient knowledge of episodic memory and that this was related to the lack of psychological terms in the manual of the curriculum of police training. In this article we describe the lack of scientific consensus about episodic memory and the consequences of this for doing research with lists with theses about this subject. Differences between interviewing witnesses and suspects will be discussed. We also question whether it is necessary that police interviewers have thorough knowledge of episodic memory. More important is what knowledge does police need when doing interviews and how are these conducted? Some factors have a negative impact on the quality of those interviews, so we end up with some recommendations for improving the quality of interviews in police practice.

In the past decades, organised crime internationalised rapidly as a result of increasing mobility and ‘open’ borders. At the same time developments in information and communication technology have led to modernisation of existing types of crime and the introduction of novel ones. Finally, criminals have benefited from increasingly diversified migration streams. In the Netherlands and Belgium, organised crime appeared on the agenda in the 1990s. For a long time emphasis was on ‘trade crimes’ i.e. trafficking in drugs and humans, as well as human smuggling, followed by the production of synthetic drugs and cannabis. More recently the Low Countries are confronted by more visible manifestations of organised crime, for example rapid growth of outlaw motorcycle gangs. Criminals also try to utilise their capital to invest in businesses and real estate and to influence local politics.

Although the Netherlands criminalised some forms of labour exploitation as human trafficking, many cases remain undetected. This is probably due to low self-identification among victims. Whereas research revealed factors obstructing self-identification among victims, it remains unclear how some victims do arrive at self-identification. Drawing on in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with victims and professionals, this qualitative study identifies two ideal-typical pathways to self-identification. In the first trajectory self-identification is gradually formed through information gathering and deteriorating working conditions. In the second trajectory self-identification is triggered by a sudden vital event.