Since it has become apparent that so many Western women have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join Islamic State, there is a relentless stream of publications dealing with the motivations of these women to join the terrorist organization. Most of these publications, based on ‘open sources’, are focusing on the motives spread by the women via social media. These social media reports, however, only provide a distorted view of the women’s motives. This article is based upon ethnographic research focusing on 28 Belgian and Dutch families, whose daughters have left for Syria to join the armed struggle.
Although the existing literature shows that the feelings of exclusion in Western societies by Muslim women is seen as an important motive for their departure to Syria, the conversations with the families rarely supported this. Moreover, religion and ideology have played a minor role in the departure of their daughters from the perspective of the families, compared to what literature suggests. According to the families the departure of their daughters was mainly driven by romantic motives and the problems they were dealing with in their daily lives.

Eleven Teams against Child Abuse Images and Transnational Child Sex Offences (TBKKs) are operating within the Dutch National Police Force. This study provides an in-depth analysis of the resilience of criminal investigators working in these teams and how they perceive and cope with daily work stressors. Observational studies within five TBKKs and 35 semi-structured interviews with child pornography investigators revealed that managing their heavy caseloads, classifying abusive images, dealing with suspects and conducting home searches can sometimes be (very) challenging. Despite these demanding work aspects, investigators experience low levels of stress. By employing emotional detachment, self-reflection, workload regulation, social support and meaningfulness, they overcome the stress of investigating internet child exploitation. However, successful implementation of these resilience-enhancing strategies depends on the availability of several individual and organizational resources. To reduce the risk of health problems and to stimulate positive functioning, these resources require permanent investment from police management and investigators themselves.

Both in punishment theory and sentencing practices, the subjective sentence severity is an important yet neglected area of research. This paper aims to explain differences between inmates in their subjective severity of imprisonment and to contemplate these against the background of important sentencing goals and sentencing principles. Two models commonly used to explain adjustment to prison life were applied: the import and deprivation model. Data from the Prison Project, collected among Dutch inmates staying in pretrial detention, reveal that both import and deprivation characteristics are related to the subjective severity of imprisonment. No support is found for a moderation effect of personality.

For the past few weeks, young Muslims from Belgium and the Netherlands leaving for Syria to join the armed struggle against the Assad regime have been dominating the local news. This is especially remarkable in light of the fact that it would appear that, until very recently, jihadists from Belgium and the Netherlands were far and few between. The armed struggle is a topic that is widely discussed among young Muslims on social media such as Facebook. During the research on which this article is based, we conducted an analysis of conversations between young Muslims on Facebook and held interviews with a number of them. The key question was: why is it that so many young people use social media to profess their willingness to sacrifice their lives in armed struggle while at the same time most of them are not prepared to put action to their words? Despite all the media reports, the fact remains that of the large number of young Muslims who are potentially ready to go into battle, the vast majority prefer to stay at home for the time being. When we confronted the participants in these discussions with this inconsistency, they offered a number of reasons and considerations as to why martyrdom was not yet granted to them. The way in which these considerations shape their lives and the role played by their religious convictions form the subject of this article.

Annually hundreds of victims make use of their right to speak in court. Victims often expect this will result in more punitive sentences. According to judges this is unlikely. This experiment among law students examines the influence of victim impact statements (VIS) on the sentencing outcome. Furthermore the effect of how the statement is delivered is examined. Is there a difference between the VIS as document in the case file and one delivered by the victim in court? Does it matter if the victim still has visible injuries? Study findings indicate that neither the presence of a VIS, nor the mode of delivery and visible injuries affect sentence length.

During the 1990s the Serbian government entered into a symbiotic relationship with criminals and paramilitary units which led to a normalization of crime and violence. While society usually inhibits people from criminal behavior, in Serbia this process was reversed. Propaganda contained the neutralization techniques that allowed people to condone and even approve of violent and criminal behavior. The reversal of the moral order became part of Serbia’s popular culture in which criminals who had committed many atrocities during the war, like Arkan, were honored. In this way, Arkan served not only a military and strategic purpose but also a political one, by generating support for the war.

This study examined whether variation in victimization among train ticket inspectors can be explained by the Social Information Processing (SIP) model which underlies the process of interaction. The study (N=125) shows that the amount of victimization is associated with encoding and emotions. Ticket inspectors who perceive more ‘neutral’ than ‘hostile’ cues report less victimization. Emotions have an indirect relation with the amount of victimization. The seriousness of the victimization is related to encoding, response generation, and response evaluation. Less serious victimization is found when neutral rather than hostile cues are observed, less aggressive responses are generated, and when aggressive responses are evaluated negatively and social responses positively. The results suggest that two types of victimization exist among ticket inspectors: the victim who is a relatively frequent victim and the victim who is victim of more serious forms of aggression.

Previous research in mainly white Western samples has shown that temperament and conscience are important explanations for antisocial behaviour. In the current cross-sectional study among 2,185 children of the four largest ethnic groups in the Netherlands, namely, 684 Dutch, 702 Moroccan, 434 Turkish, and 365 Surinamese children, it was examined how these factors together explain antisocial behaviour and to what extent these relationships are valid regardless of ethnicity and gender. Teachers completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire for children from grades three to five of elementary school. The temperament dimension self-regulation was negatively related to antisocial behaviour for boys and girls of all ethnic groups with the exception of Turkish boys. Temperamental fearfulness was negatively associated with antisocial behaviour only for Dutch girls. Irrespective of gender and ethnicity, empathy, an important aspect of conscience, was negatively related to antisocial behaviour. Self-regulation moderated the effect of fear on antisocial behaviour only for Dutch girls and Moroccan boys.

Little is known about children when the mothers are imprisoned. Especially in the Netherlands, hardly any empirical research has been conducted regarding the whereabouts and psychological well-being of children with incarcerated mothers. We visited and collected data from four female prisons. Via the mothers’ consent we contacted the children and their caregivers. First, we conducted a semi-structured interview about the wellbeing of the child during the separation through detention of mother and child. Second, we asked mothers and caregivers to complete checklists of behavioral problems. The caretaking situation turned out to be diverse. Generally, the children experienced both internalizing and externalizing behavioural problems and specific problems associated with the detention of their mothers. The well-being of the children seems to be partially related with the incarceration of the mother. However, it also turned out that quite a few risk factors such as a broken home and neglect is present for the child being raised. Results are discussed as well as some recommendations for future research.

This article presents an overview of the main determinants of radicalization and terrorism. Experienced discrimination plays an important role, and can be seen as threatening. This could amplify the importance of ideology and religious convictions, and these both unify the group and direct the behavior of the group. Perceived threats also result in emphasizing group identity and increases the cohesiveness of the threatened group. This may lead to polarization between groups and radicalization. This radicalization is also affected by cognitions, such as perceived inequity and injustice, as well as emotions such as anger and contempt. In a later phase of radicalization group processes, such as groupthink, and support from the wider social group may further strengthen radicalization. Justification processes, like dehumanizing the opponent, are also likely to play a role. Finally, the transition from radicalization to terrorism is discussed.

Filicide, the murder of a child by a parent, is a dramatic event. The gravity increases when the perpetrator resorts to committing or attempting suicide. It is assessed to what extent filicide-(para)suicides can primarily be understood as homicidal or suicidal behaviour, or as a separate category of lethal violence. Parents committing filicide-parasuicide differ from filicidal parents and other suicidal parents in sociodemographic, individual and offence-related characteristics. Filicide-(para)suicide seem to constitute a category of lethal violence, different from both filicides and parasuicides.