In this article, the author reflects on the impact of COVID-19 on policing, the relations among police officers and the interactions between police and citizens based on systematic social observations in small to semi-sized local police forces during the pandemic. The article discusses the nature of police work during the crisis and new types of interventions that police officers are confronted with (e.g. curfew controls). Additionally, the impact of the pandemic on the internal and external relations is discussed. Internally, the COVID-19 measures may have an impact on police officers’ possibilities for personal, social interactions among colleagues, which may potentially challenge the solidarity within the police force. Externally, tensions may arise in relations with citizens, partly because of unclear regulations or variable interpretations of those regulations. Those unclear regulations, but also uncertainties concerning one’s own competences and questions regarding the police’s role in enforcing the pandemic regulations, put pressure on the police’s (self-)legitimacy.

This article examines the use of citizen participation in urgent missing person cases. The Theory of Planned Behavior was used to examine which specific considerations investigators have in this regard and which have the greatest influence on the choice of whether or not to involve citizens. The findings suggest that this choice is primarily attitude-driven. Detectives are predominantly positive about participation, but see harm to the investigation as the main risk. A practical implication is to focus collaboration primarily on professionally organized groups of citizens to reduce (perceived) risks.

Domestic violence is a prevalent and persistent problem in society. To be able to effectively intervene in cases of domestic violence, protect victims, and reduce the costs of domestic violence, several initiatives have been implemented in recent years with the aim of improving the response to domestic violence. A multidisciplinary and systemic approach to tackling domestic violence has been introduced, which is especially important in complex cases. Police work together with different partners, among others, the organisation ‘Safe at Home’ (Veilig Thuis) and the public prosecutor. Police play a particularly important role in achieving immediate safety in cases of domestic violence, and work together with partners to accomplish more structural safety for all family members. The development towards a more holistic response to domestic violence in which the police work together with other organisations is important to be able to tackle domestic violence more effectively. Although the importance of collaboration between different organisations has been recognised, the multidisciplinary response is still in development, resulting in some problems in practice.

In recent years scientific interest in various aspects of prison climate has increased exponentially. At first, such research was being initiated and undertaken predominantly within Anglo-Saxon penology but, more recently, research into prison climate is also increasingly taking place elsewhere, including in the Netherlands and Belgium. In this article the authors offer an overview of Dutch and Belgian research on prison climate. They discuss the literature from two broad angles: first, the characteristics of prisons and incarcerated individuals that determine the quality of prison climate; and, second, research on the impact of prison climate on inmates themselves.

Dutch prisons are not exempt from incidents. Despite the negative impact of violence on the safety of inmates and the chances of successful reintegration, not much is known about the prevalence of victimization in Dutch prisons and the characteristics of victims. Additionally, previous research has pointed out the overlap between victim status and offender status. In this contribution, the authors will discuss the prevalence of self-reported victimization among Dutch inmates and the characteristics of victims and victim-offenders. Data from 3,485 participants from the Life in Custody Study are used for this purpose.

Although reward systems are utilized in prisons worldwide, evaluations regarding their intended use are lacking. This contribution reconstructs the policy theory of such a system: Promotion and Demotion, as implemented in Dutch prisons in 2014. With a policy scientific approach the intended target group, means, goals and causal mechanisms of the system were delineated. The policy theory assumes three means, ten goals and 24 causal mechanisms. The policy theory is insufficiently empirically substantiated on a number of points and takes limited account of (cognitively) impaired prisoners. This accurate reconstruction offers a unique insight into the assumed functioning of a part of Dutch detention policy and provides starting points for international considerations of behavioral change in detention.

Criminology has traditionally focused on urban areas where crime visibly concentrates. However, since the 1990s, attention for ‘rural criminology’ has steadily increased. First, rural areas are confronted with partly different and less visible crime problems, such as environmental crimes. Second, public actors such as enforcement and other agencies are less present and ‘available’ in rural areas, and people on average trust the government less to provide support when necessary. This chronicle presents an overview of international and Dutch research in the context of rural criminology. The paper addresses cultural differences between urban and rural areas, high-volume crimes, gender-related violence, alcohol and drug abuse, environmental crime, and enforcement in rural areas.

In this paper we describe the first results of a recent cohort study conducted at Ghent University and focus on the applied study design. Existing cross-sectional studies regarding sexual victimization are not able to make causal statements about its risk and outcome factors. This cohort study aims to answer these questions. Results of this study confirmed that students are often confronted with sexual assault and seldom consult existing support services. This paper emphasizes the advantages of a longitudinal design within victimological research including the possibilities and difficulties that accompany it.

For co-victims of severe traffic offenses in the Netherlands, peer support is offered. However, no research into the meaning of peer support for this specific group of victims has been conducted. In this study, nineteen narrative interviews with co-victims of traffic offenses were collected. These interviews show that through dialogue and the sharing of experiences, as well as the care and support for each other, peer support offers the possibility to work on the meaning-making of the traffic offense and its aftermath. The article ends with policy implications and steps for follow-up research.

A well-established body of epidemiological research suggests that the prevalence of mental health problems (mental disorders, psychological distress, and substance use) in prisoner populations far exceeds that of non-incarcerated people in the surrounding community. Poor mental health in prisoners is associated with multiple adverse outcomes, including suicidal behaviour. In the past decade, novel data in Belgium and the Netherlands have been published on this topic, which have not been synthesized to date. The aim of the current systematic literature review was to provide an up-to-date overview of the mental health of prisoners in Belgium and the Netherlands. Based on 24 empirical studies conducted in 1997-2018, the authors conclude that people with mental health problems are overrepresented in Belgian and Dutch prisons, providing both a challenge and a public health opportunity to address the mental health care needs of a vulnerable and hard-to-engage population. Investing in the prevention and treatment of mental health problems not only benefits the prisoners concerned, but equally, society at large.

This study explores the influence of police detention centres environments on police suspects’ psychological wellbeing and sleep problems. Results showed that suspects detained in a police cell experience a decreased psychological wellbeing, that they sleep poorly, and that their psychological wellbeing is related to sleep problems. Implications for police detention in relation to suspects’ psychological wellbeing and sleep problems, as well as directions for future research on police detention centre environments, are discussed.

This paper empirically investigates whether the Flemish local income tax base yield in 306 Flemish municipalities is sensitive to changes in the local crime level between 2000 and 2014. There are two underlying assumptions. First, in a Tiebout world, rational voters holding the local government accountable for the safety of its citizens move when the local level of security becomes too greatly alienated from what they want it to be (first assumption). If migration is due to crime, the wealthier citizens are expected to move first. Consequently, the average income per capita and thus the income distribution will be affected, which in turn will influence the local income tax base yield (second assumption). By confirming both assumptions, evidence is presented for a relation between changes in local crime rates and the income tax base yield of Flemish municipalities, occurring through household mobility.

Collective violence around football has been a topic of research since the 1980s. In the Netherlands, in recent decades the size and severity of this problem have decreased sharply and the number of incidents has stabilized due to measures taken. At the same time, these measures have resulted in an increase of football-related incidents outside stadiums and on other days than match days. Confrontations based upon prior mutual agreements, so-called arranged confrontations, are an example of this. Based on multiple research methods, in this article the underlying causes of arranged confrontations and processes influencing individual participation are addressed. Results show that this type of collective violence and partaking in it has various causes and explanations. These fit with extant research literature in the area of group crime and collective violence and are incorporated in the recently developed initiation-escalation model.

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.

This paper looks at how Dutch newspapers dealt with mental disorders and gender in their crime reports in 1930. The Psychopath Acts, which allowed special restriction orders (‘TBR’) to be imposed on mentally disturbed delinquents who were a danger to society, had just come into effect then. The newspapers did not present such TBR criminals as dangerous or mentally disturbed. Instead, the papers used ‘madness’ to explain apparently motiveless crimes such as killing one’s own children. Female perpetrators were no more likely to be labelled mentally ill than male perpetrators.

Some overestimation of crime risk is likely, but that does not mean that risk perceptions are not adjusted in line with changes in actual crime risk. Based on time series data, we show that crime risk perceptions are strongly related to rates of victimization. The conventional wisdom that the drop in crime since the 1990s did not result in an adjustment in risk perceptions can be easily refuted. The much discussed crime drop goes together with a much less discussed fear drop.