From a secondary analysis of data from a survey of victims of crime, commissioned by the WODC, it appears that more than occasionally the registration of the type of offence by the police, the Public Prosecution Service and Victim Support Netherlands does not match the victim’s own reporting of the offence. In this article, the differences between victims’ reports and registrations regarding the nature of the victimization are exposed and the background of the differences is explored. Some offences seem to have an increased chance of being classed by victims in offence categories which differ from those of the registrations.
Based on the secondary analysis, the authors conclude that it is important for the interpretation of future research among victims to identify the registered offence and explicitly verify this with the respondent. It is also good to consider what registration data is useful in samples to be able to identify differences between the registrations and the victims’ reports later. A practical implication of the discrepancy in the nature of victimization is that bottlenecks may occur in the connection between the support needs of victims and the supply.