De praktijk laat zien dat de huidige schadevergoedingsmogelijkheden voor slachtoffers van misdrijven tekortschieten. Als gevolg daarvan blijft een deel van de slachtoffers en nabestaanden van ernstige gewelds- en zedenmisdrijven met niet te verhalen schade zitten. Dit artikel bevat een samenvatting van recent onderzoek dat een kansrijke oplossing aanreikt waarbij slachtoffers van ernstige gewelds- en zedenmisdrijven en hun nabestaanden de schade vergoed kunnen krijgen via de aansprakelijkheidsverzekeraar van de dader.

The central question in this article is whether an empirical-legal approach of victimhood and victim rights could offer a sufficient basis for proposals of legal reform of the legal system. In this article, we choose a normative-critical approach and raise some objections to the way in which part of such research is currently taking place in the Netherlands, on the basis of two examples of research in this field, one dealing with compelled apologies as a possible remedy within civil procedural law and the other with the victim’s right to be heard within the criminal legal procedure. In both cases, we argue, the strong focus on the measurable needs of victims can lead to a relatively instrumental view of the legal system. The legal system must then increasingly be tailored to the wishes and needs of victims. Within this legal-empirical, victim-oriented approach, there is little regard for the general normative principles of our present legal system, in which an equal and respectful treatment of each human being as a free and responsible legal subject is a central value. We argue that results of empirical-legal research should not too easily or too quickly be translated into proposals for legal reform, but first become part of a hermeneutical discussion about norms and legal principles, specific to the normative quality of legal science itself.

This article describes the subsequent waves of contract killings in the Netherlands since the twentieth century. Contract killings appear to happen especially within ethnic groups which are newcomers to Dutch society. The Chinese community in Amsterdam fought two internal ‘wars’. The first one was from 1918 till 1935 and circled around the trade in opium and arms. The second one took place between 1969 and the mid-seventies and was fueled by conflicts about the heroin trade. Then Turkish criminals took over the heroin trade, which resulted in a wave of Turkish victims of contract killings throughout the second half of the seventies and into the eighties. The cocaine trade came up in the eighties and was run first by Chileans and later by Colombians, which resulted in several murders within the criminal circles of these communities. While contract killings of (by birth) Dutch criminals had always been very rare, this changed from the mid-eighties. These killings not only took place in Amsterdam, but also in the southern provinces of Limburg and Brabant, as well as in Rotterdam. Most Dutch criminals specialized in cannabis growing and trading. In the nineties the number of contract killings reached a peak. By then Yugoslavs had entered the criminal scene in the Netherlands. They cooperated with Dutch criminals and offered their services as hitmen. From 2000 onwards the number of contract killings has been dropping constantly and has now reached a more or less constant level of around twenty yearly. In the last couple of years many young Moroccan Dutch criminals have been killing and killed in conflicts on drugs trade. The author signalizes a lack of ‘professionalism’ in contract killers today and draws a parallel with the period when Chinese criminals were fighting their wars in Amsterdam. The hitmen are young, have little experience, are not intelligent and use far too many bullets to do the job.

Verzekeraars krijgen steeds meer te maken met fraude door een benadeelde met letselschade. Kan de verzekeraar in zo’n geval onderzoek naar de benadeelde verrichten? Zo ja, wat is dan de aard van dit onderzoek en hoe ver mag dit onderzoek gaan? En wat te doen als de fraude is vastgesteld? Deze bijdrage beschrijft de (on)mogelijkheden.

Door de Wkkgz vindt de buitengerechtelijke afwikkeling van medische schadeclaims plaats in het klachtrecht in plaats van het aansprakelijkheidsrecht. Zorgaanbieders moeten zelf proactief en oplossingsgericht schadeclaims onderzoeken en beoordelen. De rol van de patiëntencontactpersoon in het ziekenhuis, van de zorgverlener en de samenwerking tussen ziekenhuis en verzekeraar zijn daarmee ingrijpend veranderd. Dit overzichtsartikel bespreekt de eerste stappen naar implementatie van de Wkkgz, de aard van het klachtrecht, de noodzaak van triage, de werkwijzen van zelfregelende ziekenhuizen, de noodzaak van informed consent, BGK , de zeswekentermijn, de eerste resultaten van de Wkkgz-geschilleninstanties, en het wetsvoorstel tot wijziging van de Wet BIG.

In this contribution, the justification of restorative practices in prison is first discussed from a normative perspective. On the basis of Lippke’s retributive theory of imprisonment it is argued that modern, humane retributive sanctioning entails an obligation to provide prisoners with opportunities to engage in restorative practices. Second, restorative practices in prison are examined from the perspective of possible impacts on the empowerment of prisoners and their experience to move away from crime and do good. Finally, it is argued that in order to yield positive effects, restorative practices in prison need to be supported by a safe and healthy living environment.

Het aloude adagium in pari delicto wordt in de jurisprudentie maar zelden in expliciete bewoordingen gebruikt. Het heeft in Nederland echter wel degelijk betekenis. Onbetamelijk gedrag van de benadeelde zou zelfs vaker reeds bij de vestiging van aansprakelijkheid in beeld moeten komen, en niet pas bij de omvang van aansprakelijkheid.

In this article, we try to answer the question of how and why the stories of the victims of attacks by the guerrilla movements in the 1970s in Argentina are currently silenced in the public sphere. We analyse how this collective denial is negotiated in human rights discourse. In particular, we show how strategic and essentialist silences as well as denial (literal, interpretative, implicatory) feature in political debates about human rights and political violence.

IS propaganda is assumed to contribute to radicalization of Western Muslims. How IS propaganda reaches the hearts and minds of Western Muslims and consequently fuels radicalization is nonetheless an understudied topic. Through content analysis of all fifteen issues of IS-glossy Dabiq this article demonstrates how IS propaganda works in Dabiq. First, IS attunes in Dabiq to factors that foster radicalization according to the literature. IS does so by its discussion in Dabiq of injustice done to Muslims worldwide, the image of the Western enemy, and its positive presentation of the individual and group identity of IS fighters. Second, in Dabiq IS paves the way for embracing violent means, such as terrorist attacks on Western civilians through a discourse of ‘denial’.

In the introductory article of this special issue on the language of denial, some relevant concepts in relation to denial, speech act and discourse theory are explored. Stanley Cohen’s distinction between literal, interpretative and implicatory denial is illuminated, as well as the contribution of various scholars on the performative function of language. At the end of the article the relevance of these concepts for (cultural) criminology is explained.

This paper examines the relationship between imprisonment length and registered recidivism. The data come from a unique longitudinal and nationwide study of Dutch male prisoners, serving an average of 4.1 months of confinement (N=1,467). Ideally an experimental design would be appropriate to examine the influence of different sentence lengths on recidivism. In order to approximate such a design using observational data, we adopt a propensity score methodology to control for selection bias in the dose-response relationship. Using a six-month follow-up, we do not find significant differences in post-release recidivism between men who spent shorter or longer periods of time in confinement. We discuss the pros and cons of the methodology applied as well as potential implications of the findings.

De billijke vergoeding heeft sinds de invoering van de Wet werk en zekerheid een prominente plaats gekregen in het ontslagrecht. In deze bijdrage voorzien de auteurs de billijke vergoeding van een nadere analyse. Aan bod komen onder andere het karakter van de billijke vergoeding, denkbare begrotingsmethodieken, jurisprudentieanalyse en een kanttekening vanuit het oogpunt van artikel 6 EVRM bij de (mede) punitieve billijke vergoeding.

In the last decade history of social work gained a growing interest among social professionals, teachers, students and policy makers. They want to know more about the contributions the social work professions made to social welfare, community building and public safety. A website was launched, which today in 2017 presents the history of fifteen fields of social work: www.canonsociaalwerk.eu/.
Part of this is the history of Probation. In this article this history is told, following highlights as the inspiration from Great Britain, the start in 1823 and the first decades of volunteer work. Probation tried to compensate the negative effects of solitary confinement. Since the early twentieth century the role of the state was growing (Probationcharter 1910) leading to 100% financial support in 1965 and 100% control in the 1980s. The probation service was integrated in the juridicial system, but became not an stateservice. Performance was delegated to relative independant institutions, heirs of the private probation associations of the past, with strong traditions of work ethic. This history of probation shows the influence of social casework methods since the 1950s, the search for a balance between dependance and independance from the state, and the balance between punishment and resocializing. Since the 1990s the role of probation in alternative sanctions, the contribution of volunteer work to a highly professionalized probation service and the What Works-debate brought innovation and new inspiration to the field of probation service.

The probation in the Netherlands works more victim conscious since last year. Victim conscious working in probation is defined as: involving the perspective and interests of the victim when working with offenders. This broadly and to the extent it is justifiable from the primary task of the probation to reduce recidivism and promote the re-integration of probation clients/offenders. With this justification is both the moral level (right action) as being involved professional standards (effective action).
The article describes, among other, a study on how the victim consciously work has been implemented within the Salvation Army Probation Service in the Netherlands.