Children suffer differently from domestic violence as a witness of interparental violence than as direct victim of maltreatment or sexual abuse. In this article three different research samples of children as witnesses of domestic violence are compared with regard to the posttraumatic stress symptoms they show. One sample is a clinical population from mental health care for youth, one sample consists of children reported to a child maltreatment centre and one sample stems from a pilot study of referrals of domestic violence in families in the G4. In all three samples we find a much higher percentage of children with traumatic symptoms than in the normal population. The highest percentage of traumatized children (74%) we find in the clinical population. When we look at the parents we also find a high percentage of traumatized parents (31%), but more striking is the percentage of parents who themselves were involved (as a victim or witness) in domestic violence when they were children (60%). This leads to questions concerning the intergenerational transfer of domestic violence.

Homicides that take place in the family generally lead to shock and incomprehension in society at large. Even though in recent years the number of homicides in the Netherlands has decreased, domestic homicides still claim approximately sixty victims per year. This article aims to describe the nature and incidence of domestic homicide in the Netherlands by making use of both epidemiological data as well as detailed analyses of case reports of domestic homicides. In doing so, several types of domestic homicides are distinguished: intimate partner homicide, child homicide, parent and sibling homicide, multiple family homicide and finally, domestic homicide followed by suicide. The findings are discussed and put into perspective.

Large-scale violations of public order occur regularly in the Netherlands. The most startling riot of the last decade took place last summer on the beach of Hoek van Holland during the dance festival Sunset Grooves. In this riot as well as in other riots, hooligans play more and more a negative role. Put differently, they do not confine themselves to the riots at football matches, but they also show up at events, parties and in entertainment centres to disturb the peace. The article argues that the phrase ‘hooligan’ is in fact inappropriate. It is better to speak about notorious disturbers of the peace; people who are consciously looking for a stage and an opponent to disturb the peace.

Is the design of a city a decisive factor in the development of violent behavior by its inhabitants? The discussion following the 2005 riots in the French suburbs shows that many blame the concept of La Ville Radieuse and its most famous founding father, the architect Le Corbusier, for the social degeneration of the banlieues. For some critics, like the British author Theodore Dalrymple, this ‘totalitarian’ architecture symbolizes the evil of the welfare state with its social security, mass immigration, egalitarism and its elites with their blindness for the threat to the western Enlightenment values coming from these ‘black’ suburbs. However, the truth of urban development is that cities are fundamentally unpredictable. After several generations a building will be used in a completely different way than perceived, by people whose existence one wasn't aware of and in a social context one couldn't have predicted. This ‘natural’ development is labeled as the failure of a project, often leading to a policy of repression and demolition. However, local politicians, project developers and architects should realize that it's not their actions that determine the development of cities, but the way the inhabitants use and interpret their environment. They create their own city. Instead of replacing the inhabitants by demolishing their houses, we probably have no other choice than getting to know these quarters better and renovate these together with and for the local inhabitants.