Every human being strives for the experience of a stable identity over time. In order to achieve this, the conscience constantly evaluates whether our self-esteem at a given moment fits that identity. When our self-esteem rises we experience pride, but when it falls we experience guilt or shame. Many of these evaluations are based on the ability to be empathetic, because empathy allows you to estimate how you relate to the other person. Another source of evaluation is being aware of values, norms and rules. In pro Justitia reports on delinquent young people, diagnosis of conscience is an important point of attention. How does the offense fit with his identity and what does it do with his self-esteem? To gain insight into this, the diagnostician focuses his attention on several areas of the young person’s life. Assuming the alleged ethnic-cultural specificity of criminal behavior is a pitfall that should be avoided.

The GGD report states that 99% of the Top 600 juvenile offenders have a lacunar conscience. But what is conscience from a clinical perspective, what type of information does the clinician or rapporteur gather and how is it described? The department of forensic ortho-pedagogy of the University of Amsterdam is developing an instrument with which behavioral scientists can make a descriptive diagnosis of the conscience in a structured manner. For the construction of the instrument the experiential knowledge of Dutch clinical experts in the field of conscience is collected. By means of qualitative research methods, a number of domains and methods were identified that are considered important for the diagnostics of conscience. Based on the current study and state-of-the-art scientific literature, a clinical structured judgment instrument is realized in which the clinician is describing the domains of empathy, self-aware emotions such as shame and guilt, and moral development a form a strength-weakness analysis of the conscience.

Children and adolescents with disruptive behavior disorders, including oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) or conduct disorder (CD), are known to show little compassion and empathy for others’ suffering, particularly those with callous-unemotional (psychopathic) traits. This contribution addresses the question of what we know about the nature and causes of empathy problems in youth with disruptive behavior disorders, and whether the problems are different among subtypes. The heterogeneity of disruptive behavior disorders is discussed, the complexity of the empathy process, and research on empathy deficits in children and adolescents with ODD/CD. To sum up, (1) it is proposed that different mechanisms may underlie empathy problems seen in children and adolescents with ODD/CD, with or without psychopathic traits, (2) the strength of the empathy response depends in part on stimulus characteristics, also for those with psychopathic traits, and (3) it is advised to use a multimethod approach to depict the empathy process at different levels of human functioning.

Juvenile delinquents appear to be delayed in their moral development, more specific the development of their moral judgment, empathy, guilt and shame. Moral development also appears to predict recidivism. It is therefore plausible that interventions that focus on the moral development of juvenile delinquents could have a beneficial effect on reducing recidivism. However, our systematic review (i.e., meta-analysis) shows that with these so-called moral behavioral interventions the level of moral judgment of juvenile offenders can be significantly increased, by 22%, but that such interventions have no effect on recidivism. It may be possible to increase the effectiveness of moral interventions for juvenile delinquents by simultaneously influencing several aspects of moral development instead of, for example, only moral judgment or empathy. In addition, problems of poor aggression regulation, often caused by a history of traumatic events, may need to be addressed first before moral-behavioral interventions can be effective.

This article explains the role and significance of ethnic and cultural traits in forensic psychiatric and psychological evaluations of defendants. These evaluations focus on the defendant’s criminal responsibility (legal insanity), the risk of recidivism, and advice about the sanction to be imposed. There is an overrepresentation of defendants with an immigrant background in the criminal justice system, while research indicates that cultural and ethnic traits play a significant role in behavioral evaluations of defendants. In this article is discussed to what extent cultural considerations are part of those evaluations, and how they play a role in the expert’s reasoning and the advisement of the criminal court.

This article considers the concept of ‘disposable army’ as a recent addition to the agendas of some policing units countering organized crime in the Western world. The idea of a disposable army comes from counterterrorism and national security languages, but it also echoes studies on disposable youth, their delinquency and vulnerability. The author sketches the main lines of arguments on both the securitisation of organized crime and the vulnerability of disadvantaged and disposable children and young people. Also, she reflects on the concept of disposable army in organized crime by presenting starting observations for a research agenda on this subject and by pointing out how unpacking this concept, and its implications, indeed means to understand how relationships, values, and resilience work in the so-called ‘underworld’.

To strengthen the approach to tackle serious and organized crime in the Netherlands, the Dutch government made additional financial resources available in the form of € 100 million incidentally and a structural reinforcement of € 10 million per year between 2019 and 2022. The funding was allocated through a bottom-up call for projects. Projects with a specific focus on drug-related crime, experimenting with new forms of governance, and projects stimulating public-private partnerships were eligible to apply for funding. In this way, the government aimed at stimulating a broad societal movement and increase resilience against serious and organized crime. This article reports the findings of an ongoing project that evaluates the implementation process of these initiatives and aims to identify best, good, and bad practices and successful collaborations between a wide variety of public and private partners. This project uses an action research approach which allows for providing feedback on the implementation process, while observing what happens in practice.

This article describes the recent developments in the nature of the phenomenon of contract killings by organized crime groups in the Netherlands. The crude and sloppy methods by hitmen of today can be explained in part by the inexperience of hitmen combined with the wide availability of heavy automatic firearms. However, the witnessed coarser methods of hitmen can also be attributed to the methods of the principals. Interviews and case reports illustrate a crude, intimidating approach by the principal and a sliding scale in the extension of deadly violence to a broader target group. The shift in deadly violence to wider circles outside the criminal underworld is a new development in the Netherlands. Contract killings of persons who are not involved in organized crime place a great amount of pressure on criminal trials. Attempts are made to influence participants in legal proceedings right up to the court hearings, both through the actual murder of actors and through threats and instilling fear within magistrates, lawyers, the media, and law enforcement.

In international organized drug crime, the Netherlands is an important transit country (especially for cocaine and, to a lesser extent, heroin and other drugs) and an important production country (of cannabis and synthetic drugs). Drug production and trafficking have serious consequences for society. For example, in addition to possible health damage due to drug use, criminal money flows become intertwined with the regular economy. There is also an increase in new perpetrators, facilitators and bystanders who become involved in illegal activities, murders, and other violence due to conflict between criminal groups and dumping waste from drug production. Organized drug crime increasingly has a far-reaching and subversive impact on the Netherlands and its rule of law. The murders of journalist Peter R. de Vries and lawyer Derk Wiersum are painful recent examples. Despite these severe consequences, the approach to organized drug crime has long been what we can retrospectively call ‘modest’, ‘naïve’, ‘incidental’, and ‘fragmented’.

The complexity of organized crime activities as compared to most common crimes makes that the offender types and involvement mechanisms differ from what has been described in traditional life-course studies. This article addresses two different involvement mechanisms for organized crime: family ties and work ties. Those who become involved through family or close friends are more likely to have an early start in crime, to intentionally search for opportunities for crime, and to situate themselves in a context where these opportunities are common. Those who become involved through work ties are more likely to have a late start in crime and to have no preconceived plan to involve in crime, but they are faced with an opportunity. Both types of offenders are interesting as crime groups benefit from a certain degree of heterogeneity, providing access to different contacts, knowledge, and skills.

This article starts with a brief exploration of the juridical and criminological meaning of money laundering. Subsequently, the author discusses two contributions that gained momentum in the Dutch debate on money laundering. This concerns, firstly, the statements of Roberto Saviano, an Italian journalist who claims that the Dutch tax regulations facilitate organized crime. Secondly, the author discusses Unger’s application of the so-called Walker model to estimate the size of money laundering in the Netherlands (and worldwide). Finally, he argues that, due to the limited, current level of empirical knowledge on criminal money flows, a question such as ‘How much money is laundered in the Netherlands?’, is in fact not suited as a research question.

This contribution reports on an ongoing study into the impact of the COVID pandemic on the rights of vulnerable litigants in the handling of court cases concerning supervision orders and custodial placements of juveniles. The research is based on interviews with judges, lawyers and other professionals in the youth protection chain and a survey among litigants. The central question is whether the handling of these cases should be considered acceptable from the perspective of procedural and fundamental rights. In addition, the procedural justice experienced by litigants is examined. The preliminary results, based on desk research and interviews, is that of varyingly successful improvisations with telephone and digital hearings, in which procedural and fundamental rights could not be fully realized. This is mainly due to technical problems and the complexity of judicial case management under these circumstances. The interviewees differed about whether the bottom of what is acceptable was reached and how often this was the case. The final report will take stock of this and draw lessons for the future.

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus in March 2020, there have been concerns worldwide about an increase in domestic violence and child abuse as a result of the measures taken to combat the pandemic. This article is based on a systematic study of the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the magnitude, nature and severity of domestic violence. A brief overview of the literature is presented as a basis for the assumptions made about a possible increase in domestic violence. The design of the study is discussed as well as the first descriptive results and trends. The authors come to the preliminary conclusion that there is no deviating trend compared to domestic violence reports in 2019, the year prior to the outbreak of the pandemic. The future direction of the research project is also discussed.

To mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the Dutch government has implemented several rules and regulations during the pandemic. Compliance with these rules and regulations is crucial for its effectiveness. In the current article, the authors give an overview of research findings from three different studies looking at compliance with the COVID-19 mitigating measures in the Netherlands. In these studies, both manual and computer-based video-analysis is used to give insight in the behavior of people on the streets of Amsterdam. Study 1 monitors compliance with the social distancing directive and stay-at-home advice, showing that people keep less distance when it is crowded on the street. Study 2 focusses on compliance with mandatory mask-wearing and shows that mask-wearing increases with the implementation of the mandatory mask areas, but crowding does not decrease. Finally, Study 3 looks at compliance of citizens during the curfew and shows that streets became far less crowded after 9 p.m. during curfew nights.

As a part of measures taken to contain the spread of the coronavirus, sex work was barred in the Netherlands between 23 March and 1 July 2020, as well as between 15 december 2020 and 19 May 2021. Shortly after the start of the first lockdown, many sex workers appeared to be in increasingly precarious situations. They lost their main source of income but were largely excluded from receiving financial support provided by the Dutch government. This article examines the situation of sex workers during the first lockdown and in the weeks after they were permitted to resume work.

The social abstinence imposed by governments in many countries in response to the corona pandemic raises interesting questions and research opportunities. One of those questions is how crime develops in times of forced stay at home and reduced social interaction. That question is the focus of this article. In their analysis, the authors use police data from the Corona Crime Change Monitor for twelve ‘corona months’ (mid-March 2020-mid-March 2021) and compare the development of crime in that period with the development in the same period a year earlier.

In the corona period, phenomena such as disinformation and conspiracy activism have taken on a greater and more disturbing significance. This article provides a first problem picture of current manifestations in the broader social context and offers tentative explanations. It looks in turn at who makes and distributes the fake news, what role conspiracy activism plays in this, what is known about social receptivity, and what the implications are for law enforcement and security. Finally, an action perspective is presented.