The Dutch prosecutor’s office has set itself the goal of contributing to a safer and just society. This article investigates how a more proactive and innovative approach to the sanctioning of crimes can help towards realizing this goal. The authors take a close look at which types of sanctions could be ‘employed’ for this purpose, and when and how they ought to be executed, in the light of moral retributive and utilitarian theories on punishment. Specifically, the article considers community-sentencing punishments – punishments that are executed locally and in a way that is connected to context (perpetrator, neighbourhood) within which the crime was committed. The authors conclude that a visible connection between the crime and the punishment is vital to achieve the goals set out by the prosecutor’s office. However, at the same time various features of the execution of the punishment need to be considered in order to reach the right effect. This article does not purport to give a single answer these issues, but aspires to indicate where there is unexplored potential in the way community sentences are executed, and hopes to give a framework of what needs to be considered in order to do so effectively.

This paper looks at how Dutch newspapers dealt with mental disorders and gender in their crime reports in 1930. The Psychopath Acts, which allowed special restriction orders (‘TBR’) to be imposed on mentally disturbed delinquents who were a danger to society, had just come into effect then. The newspapers did not present such TBR criminals as dangerous or mentally disturbed. Instead, the papers used ‘madness’ to explain apparently motiveless crimes such as killing one’s own children. Female perpetrators were no more likely to be labelled mentally ill than male perpetrators.

A taboo serves the social order for it facilitates social control. This article will focus on taboos related to sexual contact by youngsters. The way authorities guard sexual taboos is indicative of the way authorities envision the organization of society. It is this organization through the control of youth and sex which will receive attention. In the classic study by Mary Douglas on pollution and taboo dirt is understood as ‘matter out of place’. The sexual teenager is an illustration of this ‘matter out of place’ because it is difficult to categorize sexual teenagers on the basis of asexual children and sexual adults as an organizing principle for society. In criminal law lewd conduct by youngsters refers to wrong sex at the wrong age. By criminalizing these sexual transgressions the proper place of youth and sex is once again restored. This is necessary for it will be argued that the interests of society are somewhat under pressure because of transgressions when it comes to children as asexual and when it comes to sex as something for within a relationship. The perpetrator of lewd conduct should be understood as a scapegoat reestablishing when and how sex should take place. By restoring the asexual child and the sexual relationship it is hoped sex and youngsters can once again offer some guidance in a social order lacking these clear markers.

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.

Voor de toelaatbaarheid en materiële geldigheid van uiterste wilsbeschikkingen geeft art. 24 ErfVo een aparte van de algemene verwijzingsregel van art. 21 ErfVo afwijkende verwijzingsregel. Die bijzondere collisieregel geldt op grond van art. 25 ErfVo ook voor de in het Nederlandse erfrecht niet voorkomende erfovereenkomst. Art. 26 van de verordening leert wat onder de materiële geldigheid van een uiterste wilsbeschikking moet worden verstaan.

De tuchtcolleges hebben afgelopen jaren de tuchtrechtelijke normen zowel ratione personae als ratione materiae fors opgerekt. Het tuchtrecht drijft daarmee af van zijn oorspronkelijke doelstellingen, te weten het bewaken van de kwaliteit van de beroepsuitoefening. In plaats daarvan lijkt het tuchtrecht steeds meer te verworden tot instrument om onwenselijk gedrag van beroepsbeoefenaren, zowel beroepsmatig gedrag als in de privésfeer, te kunnen bestraffen. Ook anderszins glijdt het tuchtrecht af naar een vorm van strafrecht light. Dit roept fundamentele vragen op.

Onder forensische zorg wordt de zorg verstaan die wordt verleend in het gevangeniswezen, de TBS-inrichtingen of aan personen die op strafrechtelijke titel in de GGZ verblijven. In deze bijdrage worden de bevindingen van de thematische wetsevaluatie gedwongen zorg ten aanzien van de forensische zorg besproken. Verschillen tussen de drie deelgebieden ten aanzien van de externe rechtspositie, mogelijkheden tot grensverkeer en de interne rechtspositie worden verklaard en beoordeeld. Daarbij wordt grotendeels de toekomstige regelgeving als uitgangspunt genomen.

Although there is evidence for a victim-offender overlap for various crimes, specific empirical research into a victim-offender overlap for intimate partner violence is scarce. The current study empirically examines the presence of a victim-offender overlap among 156 victims of partner violence recruited at Dutch service organizations. Results show a clear victim-offender overlap, especially for behaviors of psychological partner violence and to a lesser degree for physical partner violence. Implications of these findings for the Dutch law on temporary restraining orders are discussed.

Dutch policy makers, as elsewhere, have a strong belief in the effectiveness of asset recovery legislation. There are high expectations concerning the amounts of crime money to be collected, and the collection thereof would enable theauthorities to tackle serious, organized crime and fill the treasury. However, the results of the authors’ empirical research into the actual execution of ‘recovery orders’ show a different image. The majority of asset recovery cases concerns cases with low payment obligations (under € 5,000), indicating that mainly ‘smaller fishes’ are targeted. In general, the collection of crime money proves to be a difficult endeavour. Large amounts are not collected and there are long execution times. Policy makers who publicly announce high expectations, and who budget the expected incomes from asset recovery, do not practice evidence-based policy making and give leeway to false hopes which then require new (legislative) measures.

In this article the authors focus upon the measures taken as a reaction against scientific fraud against the background of the contemporary science policy that turns the practice of science into a knowledge economy. In the light of the availability but obvious underuse of reactive legal means, they question the recourse to proactive ethical control and regulation of the scientific activities. They contend that such science policy is not so much the expression of a reaction against exceptional cases of scientific fraud, than of an endeavour to discipline and control scientist to the constraints of the knowledge economy. For the authors, however, the latter is the problem to be solved: another science policy is needed.

Criminal law is embedded in a specific view of man and the world. This thesis implies that a change of the view of man and the world leads necessarily to a change of criminal law. Since our view of man and the world is constantly changing, the same applies for our law governing wrongful conduct. In this article is described how our view of man and the world has changed through the ages (during pre-modernity and modernity) and what changes have occurred under the influence thereof. Given the limited size of this article, a macro-perspective is utilized. At the end of the article, the author advocates a new (trans-modern) view of man and the world and a new corresponding law governing wrongful conduct.

Throughout history the way detainees were portrayed by society has varied. At first, until the Second World War, detainees were mainly seen as blameworthy objects. After the war they became a fellow human being with dignity in need of resocialization or psychological treatment. In the Seventies detainees became citizens with a legal status according to the rule of law. When in the Eighties criminal law became more punitive, prisoners developed into enemies of society. Since then the detainee is moreover seen as dangerous and as a risk. Consequently the desirability of resocialization is questioned. This has resulted in a more individual approach towards prisoners, who need to prove that they are motivated for resocialization programs. In the end this leaves the most vulnerable detainees to their fate and expresses a view of man which could be characterized as the lost human.

This article gives a historical sketch of a century of juvenile justice in the Netherlands. It focuses on the development of the concept of childhood from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present. Starting from the notion of degeneration and the idea of the neglected child, in the thirties a psychologization process emerged. Crucial was the notion of the childlike nature of the behavior of minor offenders, which was clearly inspired by new insights coming from pedagogy, developmental psychology and child psychiatry. The author argues that recently, after some decades showing a trend towards more toughness on crime, there are indications of a reemergence of the notion of the childlike nature of young delinquents, again inspired by knowledge and insights from the behavioral sciences but also from neurology and brain research.

The public prosecutor should act as the knight fighting in court for a victim. A much more communicative strategy instead of one aiming at a juridical discourse will reframe what is happening in court and make it understandable for victims and public in general, Examples are given of how to do so. A discussion on the effects of such a strategy is presented.