In deel 12 van de Studiereeks Nederlands-Antilliaans en Arubaans Recht (SNAAR), over het Nederlands-Caribisch huurrecht, werd opgemerkt dat een huurachterstand van ten minste drie maanden, waarbij op korte termijn geen concreet zicht bestaat op volledige afbetaling van het openstaande bedrag, doorgaans voldoende is om de huur te beëindigen. Een dergelijke vooropstelling komt men in de rechtspraak wel tegen. In de praktijk kan het door de verschillende procedures die aan ontruiming voorafgaan (doorgaans) meer dan drie maanden duren voordat de verhuurder weer over de woonruimte kan beschikken. Tijdens het wetgevingsproces zijn daarover in Sint Maarten vragen gesteld. Waar komt die driemaandentermijn vandaan? En is die (nog) wel gerechtvaardigd?

Protected living in some sort of gated community is popular. However Dutch protected living differs from, for instance, the living in American gated communities, the development tends to social discussions whether it is undesirable or not. Safety seems in the Netherlands not the first reason for protected living. Here, domestic and aesthetic reasons are much more important.

In deze bijdrage wordt het rapport: ‘Vestiging van detailhandel: de toepassing van verdragsvrijheden van het VWEU en de toepassing van de Dienstenrichtlijn’ van prof. mr. J. Struiksma, prof. mr. E. Steyger en mr. M.R. Botman op hoofdlijnen tegen het licht gehouden en worden de conclusies samengevat en op onderdelen voorzien van commentaar en opinie. Tot slot wordt een voorschot genomen op het vervolg en de vraag tot welke acties het rapport de minister aanleiding zou kunnen of moeten geven.

Since March 2013 a sizeable number of Belgian and Dutch youngsters have joined the armed conflict in Syria. According to recent estimates, Belgium has 438 foreign fighters in Syria, the Netherlands 160. Very little is known about who these people are and what made them decide to join the armed struggle. There is also a lack of information regarding their families. The research on which this article is based comprised interviews with twenty families with at least one member who has left for Syria. In addition, former teachers of these youngsters were asked to reflect on their students’ actions. The central questions of this article concern the views of family members on the youngsters’ decision to join the armed struggle, whether or not there were signs of radicalization prior to their leaving, and whether all of them actually did go through a process of radicalization.

Legislation as we know it is a recent phenomenon, and its quality has been under debate for 40 years. It is not surprising or problematic that the place and function of legislation evolve under the influence of societal changes. It is, however, important to change the mechanistic view of legislation. Instead of viewing it as an instrument of policy, we must search for structures and institutions that create room for diversity without breaking the unity of law. In our dealings with inevitable risks and damage to society, rules too often take the place of ethics or professional judgment. Rules are essential, but they should leave room to dissent from them if justified: rules as a point of departure, not rules that must be respected on pain of sanctions.

In this article we show what relationships may exist between sex workers and their partners. These relationships are diverse and sometimes complex by the presence of both intimacy and intimidation or violence. From the women’s perspective these relationships are not primarily defined as ‘violent’ and ‘involuntary’, they also provide them love, protection and security. From a governments perspective with a focus on human trafficking and exploitation of sex workers, these relationships are quickly mistrusted. In the latest measures to prevent exploitation, all sex workers are questioned about their relationships. Although this may be important for the identification of potential exploitation, in practice the opposite happens: women keep silent about their relationships towards government officials. In other words, an increasing focus on combating exploitation may enforce the stigma on relationships of sex workers.

In this introductory article we introduce the subject of our thematic issue on ‘macro criminology’, and illustrate it with a short historical overview and examples of ‘typical macro criminological’ research. Successively we address the recent decrease in crime in many Western countries (the ‘crime drop’), the increased tendency to punish more severely in the last decennia (the ‘punitive turn’), and historical developments in homicide (‘history of violence’). After that we address an important theoretical and philosophical problem with regard to macro criminology: the balance between micro and macro factors in explaining macro phenomena. Finally, the contributions of this thematic issue are introduced.