Intimate partner violence (IPV) changed from a private problem to a public concern over the last decades. It has become subject of various discourses in different domains. In the social sciences the gender-based discriminatory nature of IPV is contested by some researchers who claim a gender equality in IPV. They call for a gender-neutral approach to IPV as a family problem, de-contextualized from gender-based inequalities. In the Netherlands this degendering is reflected in current policy discourse. However, in the international legal human rights domain, IPV is unequivocally considered to be an issue that affects women disproportionately as a form of women's discrimination that is the result of unequal power relations. Both international binding human rights law and recent ruling of the ECHR impose binding duties to acknowledge this. This article addresses the paradox that is reflected in these two positions and how to get beyond it.

Many public prosecutors see a link between domestic violence and violence in the public sphere. In the beginning of this century the fight against domestic violence was integrated into the national security policy of The Netherlands. The growing attention for domestic violence combined with better registration has led to an enormous grow of criminal justice cases of domestic violence. The article analyses the public prosecution policy towards domestic violence. Nowadays even without a report suspects can be brought to trial if the charges can be proved. On the one hand the public prosecution aims to lay down a standard, on the other hand perpetrators are confronted with a set of conditions forcing them to accept professional help in order to bring about a change in their behaviour and prevent recidivism. In this way an effective use of criminal justice could contribute to a reduction of domestic violence and crime in general.

Social (re-)integration is such a complex phenomenon that it is not possible to make a direct link between restorative justice and social reintegration of offenders. If one considers restorative justice, not in its utility for maintaining the law but as a praxis of social work, one could get the impression that restorative justice runs the risk of individualizing the social problem of crime by making offenders responsible and of losing sight of the structural dimensions causing or contributing to criminality. The same structural dimensions may appear to be a blockade for effective emancipation of offenders from their often marginal and powerless positions. Considered as a praxis of social work, restorative justice should be able to promote (the awareness of) accountability and the mutual exploration of the many roads that can lead to effective emancipation and reintegration.

The backgrounds of the female vagabonds and beggars at the end of the 19th century show that contrary to their male counterparts, these females originated almost exclusively from the lower echelons of society. Their professions and those of their parents and husbands were low and ill-paid. Disease was prevalent, mortality was high and many of them had physical or psychological problems. Most of them were single and 25 percent had children out of wedlock. 20 Percent was convicted for mostly minor crimes. Because of their behaviour it is likely that they were not accepted by their family and received no support from the church or other institutions for relief of the poor. To beg and get convicted to RWI-placement may have been their only remaining survival strategy once they were old and ill.

This special issue focuses on the role of sex/gender in Dutch and Belgian criminological and penological research and theory. This introductory article draws the history of thought and research within Dutch-language criminology and explores international developments, in particular the influence of feminist critique on theory and research.This framework serves the positioning of the other contributions, on the one hand research exploring the differences in crime between men and women and on the other hand empirical and theoretical articles focusing on (the social construction of) gender. Finally some innovative methodological findings will be discussed, also with regard to future criminological research.

Op 9 maart 2010 stelde de NMa haar Richtsnoeren voor de zorgsector vast. Dit is alweer de derde versie van deze richtsnoeren die de NMa publiceert. De NMa wil graag tegemoet komen aan de onzekerheden die in de zorgsector over toelaatbaarheid van bepaalde afspraken en andere praktijken bestaan. Een belangrijke kwestie in dit verband is welke rol publieke belangen spelen. In de onderhavige bijdrage staat daarom de vraag centraal of de NMa in de Richtsnoeren de verhouding tussen het mededingingsrecht en de publieke zorgbelangen heeft verduidelijkt.

De aanbestedende dienst kan bijzondere voorwaarden verbinden aan de uitvoering van een overheidsopdracht. Deze voorwaarden kunnen verband houden met milieuoverwegingen (art. 26 Algemene richtlijn, art. 26 Bao). Voor de wijze van beschrijven van milieueisen en het gebruik van milieukeuren geldt de bijzondere regeling van artikel 23 lid 6 Algemene richtlijn. Voor dergelijke bijzondere voorwaarden geldt ook dat deze verenigbaar moeten zijn met de beginselen van gelijke behandeling en transparantie en dat ze in verband moeten staan met de opdracht. Duurzaamheidseisen kunnen dus een onderdeel vormen van de aanbesteding. Ten aanzien van inrichting van de openbare ruimte en bebouwing kunnen duurzaamheidseisen in de vorm van technische en gunningscriteria worden opgesteld. Europees recht gaat voor Nederlands recht. In bepaalde gevallen zou dat dan ook artikel 122 Woningwet moeten overtroeven.

Two types of legalization can be distinguished. In type 1 legal relations between parties are changed, without consequences for others. In legalization type 2 a change in legal positions does have consequences for third parties. The gradual change in the legal position of patients, managerial measures and the transition to ‘demand driven care’ have changed the relations between patients and doctors, nurses etc. But they had also profound external effects. They have influenced especially other interests than the quality of medical care, like equal treatment of patients and professional discretion. Decision making about the granting of rights should incorporate these external effects.

The last decade the wearing of face hiding clothes has come up as a rather new phenomenon in the Netherlands and surrounding countries. Although not that many people wear them, a rather wide aversion exists against this phenomenon and is directed especially against the Islamic burqa. A rather intensive public and political debat is going on concerning the allowance of those clothes. In different countries, among which the Netherlands, France and Belgium, the legislator is drafting laws which aim to forbid the wearing of these clothes. This article gives an overview of the debate on this issue in especially the aforementioned countries and reflects upon it, with a special focus on the freedom of belief and religion.

Op 1 juni 2010 en 15 juni 2010 heeft het Hof van Justitie van de Europese Gemeenschap (hierna: Hof van Justitie) twee belangrijke arresten op het terrein van het vrije verkeer en de zorg gewezen. Op 1 juni verscheen het arrest Blanco Pérez en op 15 juni zag het arrest Commissie tegen Spanje het daglicht. Bestaande rechtspraak van het Hof van Justitie wordt door deze twee arresten in een nieuw perspectief gezet. In de arresten van juni 2010 werkt het Hof van Justitie zijn benadering met betrekking tot zorg en vrij verkeer verder uit en nuanceert het ook de uitkomsten van reeds bekende rechtspraak.

In zijn hoedanigheid van voorzitter van De Letselschade Raad heeft Aleid Wolfsen op 16 juni 2010 het eerste exemplaar van de nieuwe ‘Gedragscode Openheid medische incidenten; betere afwikkeling Medische Aansprakelijkheid’ (kortweg: GOMA) aangeboden aan demissionair minister van Justitie Ernst Hirsch Ballin. Naast de al bestaande Gedragscode Behandeling Letselschades voor de afwikkeling van schades ten gevolge van – met name – verkeersletsels (kortweg: GBL) bestaat er daarmee nu ook een breed gedragen code voor de wijze van handelen bij incidenten, klachten en schadeclaims in het kader van een medische behandeling.

In een column geeft een redacteur of auteur zijn of haar visie op een bepaald onderwerp.

In this essay the author looks back at ten years of rule of law foreign assistance in Afghanistan. She first surveys the elements that make Afghanistan particularly challenging as a development. This is followed by a brief outline of foreign donor-assisted efforts at rule of law reform in the last decade. The features of law and legal systems in Afghanistan that are salient for would-be foreign reformers are analyzed. The concept of judicial independence serves as example of well-intentioned rule of law interventions that have not fared well in this complex environment. The author argues that better prepared international advisors with a better grasp of legal history and comparative law may have produced stronger outcomes. Ultimately, however, a pre-post-conflict setting constrains conventional rule of law programs in important ways and calls for more realism about what can be achieved, within what time frame and with what degree of sustainability.

In de zoektocht naar meer doeltreffende en doelmatige arrangementen van overheidstoezicht, gooit ‘systeemtoezicht’ de laatste jaren hoge ogen. Binnen de rijksoverheid en Inspectieraad heeft zich in de afgelopen jaren in korte tijd een generieke beleidstheorie van systeemtoezicht ontwikkeld. Systeemtoezicht is gepresenteerd als ware het de Haarlemmerolie waarmee kwalen behorend bij overheidstoezicht zouden kunnen worden verholpen. Maar is het dat ook? In dit artikel betogen wij aan de hand van empirisch onderzoek in een zestal sectoren dat de beleidstheorie van systeemtoezicht zoals die zich ontwikkeld heeft vooral is gestoeld op verwachtingen in plaats van op empirie.