Since the publication of a special issue in TvC (the Dutch Journal of Criminology) on the spatial distribution of crime, about fifteen years ago, a vast number of developments have been observed in the field of social ecology and environmental criminology. During this period many studies have been undertaken in the Netherlands and Belgium. However, there still is room for progress, e.g. through the study of new contexts beyond the traditional boundaries of residential neighbourhoods and through the use of promising new methodologies and technological developments. This special issue provides some examples of such innovative research on environmental influences on crime. In this introductory article the authors provide an overview of the background of the theme, and discuss recent theoretical and methodological developments. They move on to discuss contemporary studies that have been carried out in the Netherlands and Belgium, and outline some desirable and necessary future developments. Finally, the authors provide the reader with an overview of the other contributions to this special issue.

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.

Nowadays the interest in and valuation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is impressive, but when it comes to the effective implementation of CSR in business practices there seems to be a large gap. In order to advance CSR, it is important to know what motivates executives to contribute to CSR. Religiosity may be a motivational driver of CSR. I investigated whether religiosity influences executives’ view of and contribution to CSR. Based on empirical research conducted among 473 executives, I find that traditional religiosity leads to a philanthropic orientation towards CSR and a significant higher contribution to CSR in terms of charity. Otherwise, I find that non-traditional religiosity leads to a financial orientation towards CSR and a significant higher contribution to CSR in terms of diversity.

In cultural criminology, we talk about crimes as secrets and secrets as crimes. There is a close relationship between criminality and secrecy. The unravelling of secrets can help us discover the meaning criminals attach to their actions and contacts. Secrets have always been a topical issue, as they are strongly embedded in our social world. Secrecy used to be functional in times of war and under dictatorships as a symbol of political and/or religious protest. Today, however, secrecy is most often associated with illegality and criminality. It is not easy to study secrets and secrecy, and for this reason criminological research requires specific, mainly ethnographic, research methods.