The security landscape has changed rapidly. New or revived threats have emerged, such as terrorism and cybercrime, bringing new or revived fears and anxieties as well. Actors in security policy feel a need to address these fears, but do not know how. Can the criminological subdiscipline of fear of crime studies provide the knowledge and understanding that is needed? A quick scan of the state of the art in this research domain, gives two reasons why it cannot: (1) fear of crime studies have yielded much knowledge on operationalization, measurement and determinants of fear of crime, but far less in mechanisms, trends, effects and influenceability, whereas insight in the latter issues is what is mostly needed in security policy; and (2) fear of crime studies are still mainly focused on the ‘traditional’ fear of crime, while fear of new crimes and threats remains under-researched. A shift of focus in fear of crime studies is urgently needed.

Studying terrorism and radicalization is quite problematic because of a lack of reliable sources. Finding out what motivates terrorists often boils down to educated guessing. The author describes the search for an academic definition of terrorism and summarizes the development of this discipline since the 1970s, thereby distinguishing research on three levels: macro, micro and meso. While before 9/11 few academics were involved in this research field, it ‘exploded’ thereafter. Important factor contributing to this expansion is the greater availability of government funds and relevant data for this type of research. However, the growth of this discipline isn’t just good news, researchers should be aware of a number of pitfalls identified as the proximity to government power, too much self-confidence (hybris) of researchers pretending to have designed a ‘unified theory’, the abundance of funds for this type of research, resulting in a lot of low-quality research, and finally the politicization of the subject, which could limit the academic freedom.

In order to understand why people can turn to violence to achieve political or societal changes, it is important to examine factors that can trigger a process of radicalization. In this article the authors outline such a model of trigger factors. In this model they specify trigger factors at the micro level (individual level), meso level (group level), and macro level (societal level). In addition, the authors argue that it is important to take into account personal characteristics, such as age, gender, and the type of motivation, behind a radicalization process. With respect to these types of motivation, the authors distinguish between sensation seekers, justice seekers, identity seekers, and meaning seekers. This model enables to discern triggers in the radicalization process of specific people in specific contexts.

In this article the author explains his optimistic view of humanity. He argues that a judge, like he was before, should always keep in mind that defendants and convicted people deserve a positive approach, even if this seems to be contrary to the general experience of recidivism. Criminal judges should never adopt an attitude of cynicism and being merciless. However, criminal justice has to take into account the interests of society in general, of victims and of accused and convicted people. Sometimes severe punishment is required in order to underline the rules we have to obey. But even then the judge has to consider whether there is hope. Pondering all the interests concerned is necessary. Sometimes pardoning is appropriate.

While reflecting on gender issues transgender persons and their issues are often neglected. Government institutions on various levels don’t know how to handle their gender nonconformity as neither male nor female. Also they are often targets of inappropriate police and judicial measures. Transgender persons are often sceptical and cautious when interacting with those professionals: a fair and respectful treatment is not to be expected. In this article the author takes on to explore this blind spot. She presents the results of a survey on the transgender discrimination and violence by police and judicial institutions in Germany. The author points out that this is a result of the ongoing structural discrimination of gender non-conform persons in a binary gender system. This topic is part of her PhD thesis on the experience of discrimination and violence of gender non-conform persons in general. Her qualitative study is based on narrative interviews and a group discussion with gender non-conform persons in Germany.