Illegal stay in the Netherlands is increasingly criminalized through new measurements and adaptations of the Aliens Law. In order to understand the incorporation of illegal immigrants in this restrictive political context, the ‘moral economy’ is introduced as a concept referring to the norms and expectations regarding justice and reciprocity that serve as guidelines for daily illegal live. This process of crimmigration minimalizes the opportunities of illegal immigrants and as an unintended consequence will push the illegal immigrants further towards charity, informal labour or crime. Paradoxically, illegal immigrants will become more vulnerable for exploitation instead of returning home as was intended.

In this feature authors review recently published books on subjects of interest to readers of Recht der Werkelijkheid.

In the opening section the author refers to the classical book of Dutch criminologist Willem Bonger on the links between poverty/social injustice and levels of crime. He then introduces his own work on the International Crime Victim Survey (ICVS) since 1989. The ICVS trend data on crime in Western countries during 1989 up to 2010 show a curvilinear movement peaking around 2000. The upward trend seems to track economic growth and to have mainly been caused by increased opportunities of crime. His analytical results concerning car theft and household burglary suggest that the international falls in crime since 2000 are largely caused by improved security. A comparative analysis shows for example that burglary rates have fallen in countries with high levels of home security such as Great Britain and the Netherlands and have continued to rise in low security countries such as Denmark and Switzerland. The author concludes that criminology has evolved both methodologically and theoretically since the publication of Bonger’s book in 1905. Some fundamental principles of the discipline, however, appear to have remained unchanged. Van Dijk’s own work is, just like that of Bonger, policy- oriented. It is driven by the motivation to assist governments in finding better ways to reduce suffering of human beings from crime, either as victims or as offenders.

In deze bijdrage wordt het wetsvoorstel besproken dat strekt tot wettelijke vormgeving van de regiefunctie betreffende de kwaliteit van zorg (Kamerstukken II 33 243). Het voorstel om die rol neer te leggen bij een centraal orgaan – het Kwaliteitsinstituut (onderdeel van het Zorginstituut Nederland) – verdient ondersteuning, maar bij de wijze waarop aan de regiefunctie wordt vormgegeven, zijn nogal wat kanttekeningen te plaatsen. Die betreffen naast uitvoeringsaspecten onder meer het opgerekte begrip professionele standaard en de te grote rol van anderen dan professionals bij de totstandkoming en erkenning daarvan.

Until recently, legal-dogmatic research stood at the undisputed pinnacle of legal scientific research. The last few years saw increasing criticism, both nationally and internationally, levelled at this type of research or at its dominant role. Some see this as a crisis in legal scholarship, but a closer look reveals a great need for facts, common sense, and nuance. Critics usually base their calls for innovation on a one-dimensional and flawed image of legal-dogmatic research. In this article, the author subsequently addresses the various critical opinions themselves and provide an overview of the innovations that are proposed. He concludes that there are a lot of efforts to innovate legal scholarship, and that the field is more multiform than ever, which is a wonderful and unprecedented state of affairs. This multiformity should be cherished and given plenty of room to develop and grow, because most innovative movements are still fledgling and need time, sometimes a lot of time, to increase in quality. It would be a shame to nip them in the bud now, merely because they are still finding their way. In turn, none of these innovative movements have cause to disqualify legal-dogmatic research, as sometimes happens (implicitly), by first creating a straw-man version of the field and then dismissing it as uninteresting or worse. That only polarises the discussion and gains us nothing. Progress can only be achieved through cooperation, with an open mind towards different types of legal research and a willingness to accept a critical approach towards their development. In the end, the only criterion that matters is quality. All types of research are principally subject to the same quality standards. The author provides some clarification regarding these standards as well.

The present study investigates the existence of independent effects of community level social processes on fear of crime. Attention is paid to social trust and informal control, two dimensions of Sampson’s famous concept of collective efficacy. The model is tested on three well-known dimensions of fear of crime: perceived risk of victimisation, emotional fear and avoidance behaviour. The results suggest an independent effect of neighbourhood social trust on all three dimensions, when control is hold for demographic background variables and individual levels of social capital. The effect of neighbourhood social trust is mediated by neighbourhood disorder.

Criminological research on perceptions and behavior in an environmental context, scarcely uses virtual environments. Such virtual environments are available on the Internet or can be created. They can be presented to research participants either online or in a laboratory setting. This article gives a brief overview of criminological studies employing a virtual environment and describes a case study that used a virtual environment in order to investigate disorder. Despite the pitfalls, there are certainly possibilities for (criminological) research in virtual environments. The spatial context provided by a virtual environment, seems suitable for research in environmental criminology in particular.

Since 2005 article 273 of the Dutch criminal code does not only qualify exploitation of prostitutes as a criminal act, but also exploitation taking place in other sectors. Seven years down the line not much is known about this type of human trafficking. Based on an analysis of files of the Dutch Social Security Investigation and Detection Service (ISZW-DO) this article describes in which sectors such exploitation takes place, the characteristics of both victims and (alleged) perpetrators and the modus operandi used. The article concludes and emphasizes that especially subtle means of coercion are used, but that these can transform into more serious types of coercion.

Human trafficking means exploitation; human smuggling is associated with illegal labour and a connection with exploitation is absent. Where a victim of human trafficking can appeal for legal protection, a smuggled migrant (illegally residing or with vulnerable legal status) overall has little rights because of the formal absence of the aspects of exploitation and coercion in human smuggling. In this article, the empirical analysis based on file analysis demonstrates that in several files of cases framed as human smuggling indications are found for exploitation of migrants, although this has not been recognised as such. Theoretically the authors tie this to the trend of crimmigration. Measures designed to combat human trafficking and smuggling are often concentrated on (criminal) law enforcement and criminal punishment, to the detriment of a human rights-based approach. The tension between immigration policy and the combat against human trafficking deserves more attention.

Knowledge about the effects of the architectural design of prisons is limited. This large-scale study examined the relation between prison design and inmates’ perceptions of their conditions of confinement. Data were used from the Prison Project, in which inmates held in all Dutch remand centers were interviewed (N=1,715). Multilevel analyses showed that the architectural design was related to inmates’ perspective: prisoners in panopticon designs experienced their autonomy, safety and relationships with staff less positive than prisoners in other designs. Specific characteristics of the prison design, like more gallery levels and a higher rate of double bunking, were also associated with less positive inmates’ perceptions.

International studies show that children of teenage mothers are at elevated risk for offending. This study investigates the effect of early and late parenthood of mothers and fathers on offspring delinquency. The results confirm results from earlier studies and show that early fatherhood does not add to offending risk over and above early motherhood. Factors like family instability, family size and parental delinquency do not account for the association between early motherhood and delinquency. The elevated risk of offending applies to all children of young mothers, not just to the first-born children. Late parenthood is not associated with offspring delinquency.

Deze studie beoogt empirische inzichten te verschaffen in de socio-juridische context van Vlaamse echtscheidingsovereenkomsten. Meer specifiek: er is empirisch onderzoek verricht naar de determinanten van echtscheidingsakkoorden (ex ante context), alsook naar de effecten die deze regelingen sorteren (ex post context). Door toepassing van de sociaalwetenschappelijke methodologie binnen het familierecht voorziet deze empirische analyse in brede kwantitatieve gegevens die als basis kunnen dienen voor toekomstige beleidsmatige beslissingen. Daarnaast kunnen de empirische bevindingen bijdragen tot de optimalisatie van de redactie van echtscheidingsovereenkomsten.
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This research aims to provide empirical insights into the socio-legal context of mutual consent divorce agreements. More specifically, this empirical-legal study investigates the determinants of divorce arrangements (i.e. the ex ante context)  as well as the effects of these arrangements (i.e. the ex post context). By using statistical techniques of the social sciences (i.e. regression analysis), this empirical analysis provides in broad quantitative data that serve as a basis for future policy decisions. This article concludes that this empirical findings contribute to the optimization of divorce agreement drafting.

Aansluitend op het betoog van Honing uit 1922 over de grens tussen strafrechtelijk volwassenen en kinderen wordt in deze bijdrage een drietal nieuwe argumenten gegeven voor een aparte strafrechtelijke reactie op criminaliteit van jong volwassenen. Deze drie argumenten zijn gebaseerd op sociaalwetenschappelijk onderzoek naar de leeftijdsgroep 18-25, op recent hersenonderzoek en op ervaringen in het buitenland

Kees Schuyt has written an extensive biography of the famous Dutch professor of criminology and literary polemicist of the 1960 in The Netherlands Willem Nagel. This colourful and controversial figure is dealt with as a fascinating mixture of Nagel’s life as lawyer, freedom fighter (against the German occupation during the Second World War), scientist and literary writer. Nagel’s original contribution to criminology is considered as somewhat less prominent than Schuyt would want to have it.

Er wordt in toenemende mate van financieel toezichthouders verwacht dat ze de effectiviteit van hun handelingen inzichtelijk kunnen maken. In de praktijk blijkt dit echter niet eenvoudig. Dit artikel onderzoekt de uitdagingen en mogelijkheden ten aanzien van effectmeting en levert een bijdrage aan de ontwikkeling van concrete indicatoren voor effectmeting in de financiële toezichtpraktijk.

Toezichthouders staan onder toenemende druk om duidelijk te maken hoe resultaten van hun toezicht zich verhouden tot de lasten die het veroorzaakt. In de praktijk blijkt echter dat informatie over de effecten van toezicht vaak ontbreekt. De oorzaak daarvan wordt meestal gezocht in de complexiteit van het meten van effecten van toezicht. In dit artikel wordt een aantal aanvullende verklaringen gepresenteerd, zoals spanningsvelden rond publieke verantwoording, de organisatiecultuur en het belang van toezichtspecifieke waardeoriëntaties. Gepleit wordt voor een responsieve aanpak van evaluaties (responsive evaluation) waarbij deze factoren meer aandacht krijgen. Op die manier kunnen evaluaties een zinvolle bijdrage leveren aan de verbetering en legitimering van het toezicht.

This article is directed towards two important lines of research in contemporary criminology, more specifically the growing attention for the period of young adulthood and the focus on the concepts of ‘structure’ and ‘agency’. This study examines in a quantitative manner the extent to which both ‘structure’ (operationalized in terms of social-economic status and objective transitions) and ‘agency’ (measured as the perception of personal agency and subjective transitions) are related to delinquency in the period of young adulthood. A representative sample of 1,477 Flemish young adults between the age of 18 and 25 years is used. The results of the analyses offer some empirical proof to integrate the concept of ‘agency’ in future theoretical models for the explanation of individual differences in delinquency and also lead to additional suggestions to further examine the interaction between ‘structure’ and ‘agency’.