The gold industry in the (former) Soviet Union has always been vulnerable to criminality, such as large-scale smuggling from the gold mines in the north of the country, to the sale of fake gold by Russian migrants in Western Europe. Gold and golden jewels are smuggled and counterfeited; corrupt customs and police officials participate directly or indirectly in gold-related criminal activities. Customers in Russia and other former Soviet republics are constantly being warned about the risk of buying counterfeit gold jewellery, which is sold even in legal shops. This article describes the ‘criminal gold market’ in Russia and analyses the motives and modus operandi of the offenders.

After a quiet and fluent start, the EU wide environmental policy instrument CO₂ emissions trading has now become a target of hackers and other criminals. The Dutch Emissions Authority (NEa) published a report regarding the fraud. Several fraud types occur, like VAT fraud, hacking and identity fraud. The author analyses the vulnerabilities of the emissions trading system and describes the measures that have been taken to prevent abuse. The emissions trading is in the middle of a transition from a paradise for fraudsters to a safe and secured fortress. It has appeared that cooperation between several expert fields is crucial in order to prevent and solve fraud.

Criminals sometimes use so-called financial facilitators to invest their ill-gotten gains without drawing attention to themselves. These facilitators are experts at getting round anti-money laundering procedures. Because of their expertise and unique capabilities they play an important role in criminal networks. It therefore stands to reason that law enforcement focuses on them. That focus often translates in prosecution when laws are broken. However, what can we do to prevent financial experts in breaking the law? In this article the focus lies on the method of removing excuses. This technique is employed in every day crimes but has not been put to the test in the context of organized crime. Interviews with police officers show that the technique of removing excuses could work under certain conditions. However, it turns out that an important differentiation lies in the sort of activities financial facilitators undertake. Not all financial activities take place in the legal financial-economic system. Instead of distinguishing between the three classical phases of money laundering (placement, layering, integration), a two-pronged focus is proposed on those who are involved in cash based transactions and those who construct smokescreens on paper.

Offenders can be deprived from their profession or office by a court. The Dutch legislator has recently increased possibilities for the judge to disqualify offenders who committed certain crimes within their professional occupation. This article discusses a study on the penalty of expulsion from a profession or an office. It appears that this penalty is not often imposed. Most cases concern sex crime cases and fraud cases. Although it is a penalty, the prosecutors and judges general aim at preventing new crimes when considering a disqualification. It is not known whether convicted persons comply to this penalty. The prosecution does not actively supervise observance. Respondents in this study fear that relapse into new crime within a profession happens, but figures are lacking on this point. Positive and negative sides of the disqualification are discussed in the article.

Teenagers between twelve and eighteen years of age are protected by Dutch criminal law against sexual encounters that cannot be qualified as non-consensual. If these teenagers are approached without force they are thus protected against such a contact, but they could have played a sexual active role nevertheless. This paper deals with how officials of the police and justice departments value sexual contacts between youngsters as lewd and in what circumstances these interactions are possibly permissible. What is the motivation for initiating criminal law and how to explain the distinction between the alleged offender and the alleged victim? The juridical valuation of the professionals dealing with criminal law is analysed followed by some critical remarks regarding the protection of sexual active youngsters against other sexual active youngsters as well as the act of sex as transgression.

What does a religious perspective imply for the justification of the state imposing punishment on perpetrators of criminal offences under criminal law? As religion is experiencing a revival, it is not a strange idea to examine what a religious perspective can teach us in relation to criminal law. What religious fundamentalism and conservatism have to offer in this respect seems quite clear, namely retributive action by the state, as God's representative on earth, against conduct contrary to the dogmas of the Holy Scriptures. Nevertheless, research shows that conventional believers also often recognize the value of forgiveness and reconciliation. What is not clear, however, is what mysticism has to offer in relation to criminal law. In contradiction to conventional criminal law, from a mystical perspective there is no call for intentional infliction of pain in responding to crime. To avenge evil with evil is dismissed for both moral and practical reasons. Encouraging the spiritual awakening of man forms the alfa and omega of a mystical approach to crime.

In 2007 the option of videoconferencing for the hearing of witnesses and the questioning of accused persons in criminal proceedings was introduced in the Dutch Code of Criminal Procedure. So far videoconferencing has only scarcely been used in criminal proceedings, mostly because of a lack of technical means. This however should change rapidly, because of the installation of videoconferencing facilities in all criminal courts and prisons. It remains to be seen whether judges will be convinced that scrutinizing witnesses and accused persons through an audiovisual connection is an acceptable alternative to face-to-face proceedings. If so, the use of videoconferencing can be applied in a wide range of situations, varying from decisions on the pre-trial detention of accused persons to the hearing of witnesses in a criminal trial.

This article offers an analysis of the side effects caused by the increased counterterrorism measures adapted in Dutch law and public policy after 9/11. Taking clues from Foucault's thinking on securitisation and Beck's risk society, it is argued that focus, referent subject and object of security measures and deployment of counterterrorism laws have shifted from the concrete individual to society and risk prevention as a whole (1), that this shift induces function creep (2) and a much quicker deployment of measures, resulting in an increasing suspect population (3). Rather than arguing against the legality and legitimacy of these measures, the authors analyse the epistemological shift in reasoning and unpack the various probabilistic arguments (as opposed to evidence-based arguments) behind the wave of securitisation after 9/11 - resulting in a lack of knowledge about, transparency and accountability of the generated side effects.