The Netherlands pursues an active policy of excluding and prosecuting potential perpetrators of international crimes. In recent years hundreds of people have been excluded from taking part in the asylum procedure. Bringing cases to court, however, has proven to be very difficult in practice. Most excluded persons reside illegally in the Netherlands or elsewhere in Europe. A good overview of the grounds upon which persons have been excluded and with what types of crimes they are associated is currently lacking. The Netherlands – actually the international community as a whole – still struggles with a number of legal and ethical issues. International law, for example, does not provide an adequate solution for some convicted excluded asylum seekers after their release.

One of the defining characteristics of so-called ‘loverboys’ is their exploitation of victims in any possible way, including forcing these exploited women to commit crimes. In this way, victims become criminal offenders. After a critical review of the use of the term ‘loverboy’, the first part of this article discusses the responsibility of the Dutch probation service in addressing the problem. The second part describes various ways in which probation officers come into contact with this particular group of offenders and how this contact could then be maintained.

Early this year, a bill was introduced proposing mandatory minimum sentences in the Netherlands. Despite harsh criticism from within the legal complex, the bill has not been withdrawn, instead its scope has been broadened. This article states that the reasons given for the introduction of mandatory minimum sentences have no empirical foundation and that the objectives of the bill will not be reached: mandatory minimum sentences will not contribute to the prevention of crime. The reason for the introduction of the bill is nothing less than a textbook example of penal populism.

Over de vraag of artikel 43 Wetboek van Strafvordering (‘strafvorderlijk kort geding’) zich ook uitstrekte over de executiefase bestond discussie. Inmiddels is het vaste jurisprudentie van het Gemeenschappelijk Hof van Justitie dat deze vraag bevestigend moet worden beantwoord. In het artikel geeft de auteur, tot juli 2011 lid van het Hof, een overzicht van de rechtspraak van het Hof in procedures ex artikel 43 Sv over kwesties die de executie van vrijheidsstraffen betreffen. De vraag wordt behandeld welke kwesties de executie aangaande door het Hof wel en welke niet onder de reikwijdte van artikel 43 Sv worden gebracht. Met name wordt aandacht besteed aan beslissingen aangaande voorwaardelijke invrijheidsstelling en elektronisch toezicht en de toetsing daarvan door de rechter. Ook wordt (mogelijke) toekomstige wetgeving op dit terrein besproken. De auteur komt tot de conclusie dat thans een duidelijk toetsingskader voor beslissingen aangaande executie van vrijheidsstraffen ontbreekt. Het Hof heeft een zekere lijn ingezet. Veel beslissingen aangaande de executie kunnen via de weg van artikel 43 Sv aan de strafrechter worden voorgelegd. Een duidelijk criterium voor de beoordeling welke beslissingen daarvan zijn uitgesloten, is er (nog) niet. Ten aanzien van de beslissingen die wel kunnen worden voorgelegd lijkt het Hof (steeds meer) een marginale, administratiefrechtelijke toets aan te leggen. Ten aanzien van beslis- en beroepstermijnen ontbreekt de nodige duidelijkheid. Met het oog op de rechtsbescherming en de rechtszekerheid van de gedetineerde dient ook aan de resterende onduidelijkheid zoveel mogelijk een einde te worden gemaakt.

In the past decades the social intuitionist approach to moral psychology has eclipsed rationalist models. The social intutionist approach considers emotions to be a driving force in moral judgement, while reasoning most often functions as a post hoc rationalisation of the initial emotion. This article argues that the social intutionist approach is also applicable to the choice and preferences victims make and have while navigating the criminal justice system. This is illustrated through two recent evaluations of victims experiences in the Netherlands: an evaluation of the Dutch victim-offender encounters and the oral and written Victim Impact Statements (VIS). It is shown that participation in the former programme is a function of low emotional impact, while participants in the VIS-schemes present with high levels of anxiety and anger, and exhibit signs of possible posttraumatic disorder. The implications of these findings are discussed and framed in terms of the social intuitionist model of moral psychology.

This article sketches some important tendencies in the attention for victims of crime, including in supranational regulation, with regard to the position of the offender and possibilities for restorative justice. The evaluation of victim policy in Belgium offers a view on this topic: victims have certain expectations towards the justice system and pose questions with regard to the offender. A third issue regards the place of restoration within the whole range of consequences of crime for victims: what is the meaning of ‘harm’ and what is the content of ‘restoration’ for victims? A last topic considers the openness of victim assistance programmes with regard to the offender dimension and possibilities of restorative justice. This article thus evaluates the possible link between victim assistance and restorative justice.

The position of victims of crime has shown marked improvement over the past 30 years. The rise of the victim has been associated with the growth of a unified ‘victim movement’; a social movement that strives to improve the position of victims of crime. However, it is questionable whether the victim movement should be viewed as a unitary phenomenon. Instead of one movement, there appear to be a number of victim movements. There are differences between the victim advocates in the United States, Victim Support in Europe, the violence against women movement and proponents of restorative justice.. In this article, reasons for these differences are sought in victim-endogenous factors: differences in victims’ characteristics and the idealtypes employed by the different movements are an important explanation for the divergent development in organisations representing victims interests, which in turn influences their policy preferences. It is argued that advocates of restorative justice would benefit from understanding both the reality and the distortion involved in the idealtypes, including their own. This would allow proponents of restorative justice to adapt their practices in a manner that is both suitable and convincing to the representative and target group of the different victim movements.

This contribution examines how the Directive 2008/52/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2008 on certain aspects of mediation in civil and commercial matters is transposed in various member states of the European Union, or how the discussion about the transposition is conducted or is still ongoing in some countries. The following seven countries are examined: Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, England, France, Germany and Austria.

In de koloniale samenlevingen staat de uitvoerende macht boven de rechterlijke macht. Deze bijdrage beschrijft de verzelfstandiging van de rechtspraak op Aruba tussen 1816 en 1919 op basis van de notulen van de rechtsprekende organen en omliggende archiefstukken. Tussen 1824 en 1848 had het Vredegerecht rechtsprekende, wetgevende en uitvoerende taken. In 1848 kwam een aparte wetgevende Adviserende Commissie tot stand en in 1869 een kantongerecht. Onafhankelijkheid van de rechterlijke macht werd ongedaan gemaakt door het gegeven dat de gezaghebber veelal aan het hoofd van de rechtsprekende organen stond. In 1919 kwam daarin verandering met de oprichting van het Gerecht in Eerste Aanleg.

Art. 402 van het Wetboek van Strafvordering bepaalt dat het vonnis op straffe van nietigheid de bewijsmiddelen bevat. In de praktijk werden de bewijsmiddelen opgenomen na instelling van een rechtsmiddel. Pas op 13 juli 2010, LJN BJ8669, oordeelde de Hoge Raad dat een vonnis dat bij de uitspraak niet de bewijsmiddelen bevat, nietig is. De schrijver verdedigt dat de tot 13 juli 2010 bestaande praktijk niet moet worden gelegitimeerd door een wetswijziging, maar dat art. 402 Sv moet worden behouden, maar dan alleen voor appèlvonnissen.

This article studies community notification of suspects, as in Crimewatch and its Dutch equivalent, Opsporing Verzocht, and on police websites. It explores how these messages frame crime, and how these frames change when police messages are copied by private websites. Publication of suspects by the police is characterized as responsibilization, because it legitimizes the authority of the police and reinforces existing relations between police and the public. The new media, however, undermine the frame of authority as it is presented by the police, either because publications aiming to detect suspects are transformed into news or entertainment, or because private websites select those publications that give room to the questioning of police performance. As for the presentation of the publications, this article compares the Dutch TV program Opsporing Verzocht and the website GeenStijl. Opsporing Verzocht centers around the victim, while GeenStijl presents the subject from an enforcement point of view. GeenStijl users are not addressed as the police’s helping hands, but as autonomous agents of social control, sometimes standing in for the police. Community notification of suspects therefore not only influences detection rates, but also the relation between the police, the public, and offenders in society.

The author describes new developments of criminal justice in practice

Signs that a more or less substantial group of people in Dutch prison experience problems as a result of an intellectual disability, suggest that it makes sense to track this group and subsequently offer them the support they need. The reason this does not happen in practice is a lack of knowledge on various fronts. As it is, it is not clear how large the group of people with an intellectual disability in Dutch prisons is, what problems they face, and what could aid them. This article highlights what we do know and what we do not know with regards to this group.

In this feature authors review recently published books on subjects of interest to readers of Beleid en Maatschappij.

The Dutch aftercare for former prisoners is strongly developing. This article describes lessons from international experiences with aftercare for former prisoners in three areas of life: alcohol and drug problems, work and housing. Moreover, it discusses which lessons are especially relevant for the Dutch system. The analysis of the literature shows to what extent and under which conditions voluntary aftercare can affect reintegration and recidivism. Conclusions are that various aftercare programs do affect recidivism to some extent, but that the level of success differs substantially across programs and across subpopulations of former prisoners. Both programs that start during detention and continue after release and programs that combine multiple services (e.g. housing services and drug treatment) are most successful. Work programs have the strongest effects for older individuals. In all three areas of aftercare studied in this article, the strongest program effects were found for subpopulations with the highest risk of recidivism. The review also shows that communication between organizations and the integration of services are very important for the success of aftercare programs.

In a column a journal editor or an author expresses his or her opinion on a particular subject.

Gold and silver coins were money for centuries. Since the early 17th century there was paper. The gold standard linked the value of the world reserve currencies, first the pound sterling and later the dollar, to gold. Both were ‘as good as gold’. In times of crisis, however, the link was broken. The coins dropped in value and gold rose, as the public continues to see gold as the ultimate money. To counteract this, Roosevelt even decided in 1933 and 1934 to nationalise and prohibit the gold held by the Americans. In 2011, amidst the biggest crisis since the Great Depression, we witness the next attack on gold. This time in the Netherlands, where the glass workers' pension fund (SPVG) was ordered by the Dutch central bank to sell the bulk of its gold assets. The DNB argued that gold is a commodity, but SPVG sees gold as a medium of exchange. What will be next?

De zeventig geleerden, de Septuagint, die te Alexandrië in de derde eeuw Tenach (het Oude Testament) vertaalden uit de Hebreeuwse grondtekst in het Grieks, vertaalden het woord ‘toráh’ als ‘nomos’.Torah betekenent in de vertaling van Martin Buber, ´Weisung´, voorschrift. De Torah is formeel en heilig, want door de Eeuwige vastgesteld. Jezus heeft het liefdesgebod echter daarboven gesteld. Door de vertaling als nomos heeft de Griekse betekenis van ‘regelmaat, rechtstoestand’ de oorspronkelijke betekenis ook beïnvloed. Maar op het diepere niveau, dat van wezenlijke waarden, klinkt nog altijd iets van ‘torah’ door in de wet.