Drug use not only causes social unrest, but social unrest has also led to the formation of the current Dutch drug policy over the past fifty years. Time and again we see how unrest at local level encourages people to look for solutions outside the standard repressive approach, with the ultimate goal being the same: restoring public order. The current social unrest surrounding drugs is therefore not something new, although there is increasing emphasis on the side of drug trafficking rather than on drug use itself.

In the mid-1970s, the Dutch government aimed to halt labor migration and limit immigration due to economic shifts, particularly the oil crisis, which marked an end to decades of growth. Yet migration surged, driven by family reunification of Turkish and Moroccan workers and migration from newly independent Suriname. The article examines how the state’s interest in migration evolved, spurred by economic concerns and a narrowing view of national identity. Despite anti-immigration sentiment, Europe’s declining native workforce heightens dependency on migrant labor. The future of social stability hinges on tackling labor exploitation and reframing immigration’s role in political discourse.

The great international waves of terrorist violence did not pass the Netherlands by. This article traces the development of terrorism and counterterrorism through time, from the establishment of the centralized nation-state around 1800 to the present time (with an emphasis on the postwar period). That development is characterized in the Netherlands by the tension between fear of non-state terrorism on the one hand and an (over)reaction of state terror on the other. Both aspects still need to be contained.

This contribution explores the influence of societal unrest on the size and composition of the Dutch prison population. Drawing on previous empirical analyses and key works in penology, it analyses the evolution of various categories within the prison population (including detention of mentally ill offenders in forensic institutions (tbs) and immigration detention) over the past fifty years. In the Netherlands, discussions since the mid-1980s have often focused on vulnerable groups and offenders (or suspects) of less serious crimes, such as ‘drug couriers’, ‘repeat offenders’ and ‘high impact crimes’. Notably, this focus leads to policy and legislation that is linked both to the sharp rise in the prison population between 1985 and 2005 and its significant decline between 2005 and 2016. This analysis aims to contribute to a rational solution for the current ‘crisis’ in the prison system.

Justitiële verkenningen was founded in the period when the image of a humane criminal justice climate in the Netherlands began to change. Since then, youth who crossed the line have been punished more severely. This article describes that after a decades-long increase in registered juvenile crime there is a sharp decline since 2007, but also that there appears to be a very small group of young persistent recidivists. After briefly discussing current phenomena such as cybercrime and sexting it is pointed out that young people with a migration background appear more often in juvenile justice statistics, after which it concludes with a look at the role of the media.

How will social unrest in the Netherlands evolve in the coming years? What consequences and opportunities will arise for the government and the security system? These questions are central to this contribution. As comedian Wim Kan once remarked during the years when the foundation for this journal was laid: ‘Nothing is as difficult as predicting, especially when it concerns the future.’ The development of the future is, after all, a prime example of chaos theory, urging caution and humility. This article, therefore, is no more than a small thought exercise, partly based on recent work on social unrest and the current state of the security system.

Technologies are evolving increasingly faster. Criminals are equally fast to exploit technological change. Unfortunately, the law keeps lagging behind and seems unable to pre-empt these threats. The law is usually reactive, as it often responds to known problems rather than anticipating future ones. Moreover, lawmaking processes are notoriously slow. Therefore, new laws seeking to address emerging crime problems may be outdated by the time they come into effect. This article reviews some techniques to ‘future-proof’ the law by making it more proactive and resilient to change, with a view to setting a broader research agenda on this problem.

As humanity looks to the stars, space brings both hope for a better future and practical benefits like satellite technology. However, space is also a potential new frontier for crime. Despite official data suggesting no space crime exists, scenarios like astronaut misconduct or space debris as environmental crime are conceivable. The exponential growth of space tourism and missions necessitates criminological attention. Although space law is underdeveloped, criminology has the opportunity to anticipate space crime through tools like extended reality and analog astronaut missions. This proactive approach can foster empirical insights, guiding legal frameworks for addressing future crimes in space.

The increasing water scarcity in the Netherlands, caused by drought, pollution, and rising demand, poses complex societal challenges. This situation is a ‘tragedy of the commons’, where individual actions lead to collective harm. Conflicting interests between citizens, industry, agriculture, and nature conservation exacerbate the problem at the macro, meso, and micro levels. Governments need to develop proactive, multidimensional policy measures, while societal groups may resist and cause social unrest. To effectively tackle this crisis – in addition to technical interventions – focus on the profound social consequences is essential.

This article examines developments concerning ‘online-driven public disturbances’ and their impact on the role of the mayor. In the future, such disturbances will occur not only offline but increasingly online as well. Mayors possess significant authority in public order management, yet they lack pre-emptive online intervention powers. The article first reviews the past fifteen years and then discusses two future scenarios. In the first scenario, the mayor has no online powers and depends on other agencies. In the second scenario, the mayor is endowed with the ability to combat online troublemakers. The future of public order management, both online and offline, will influence the mayor’s authority and overall public safety. Upcoming decisions will also affect the balance between privacy and security, and the influence that major tech companies exert on local governance.

In this contribution, the authors outline current threats against politicians and policymakers in the Netherlands and consider it unlikely that these threats will decrease in the coming years. Subsequently, they describe the development of the protection and surveillance framework into a new framework. The authors recognize the significant pressure on this frameworks’ capacity and regard it as a last resort for threats that they consider unacceptable. This requires a twofold response: on the one hand, investing in the frameworks’ capacity, and on the other hand, reducing the threat. It is commendable that the Public Prosecution Service sets boundaries and that individuals who pose threats are being punished. At the same time, the authors emphasize the importance of public support for our representatives and policies to deal with the threat itself.

‘Our world is suffering from pollution and poisoning of air, soil and water. The earth is slowly dying.’ These threatening words were spoken by former Queen Beatrix in her Christmas speech in 1988. This problem is more urgent than ever and is a threat to our safety. Climate change, environmental pollution, and loss of biodiversity are among the greatest safety risks of today and the future and are causing social discontent and unrest in society. Tackling and preventing these crises and responding to their consequences is therefore police work. This requires the police to focus not only on maintaining stability in the present, but also on protecting future generations and nature as its own entity.

As dependence on technology increases, questions arise concerning the future of the police profession, particularly in relation to community policing and the human aspects of policing. With increasing digitalization, essential elements of the police profession are at risk of being lost, including personal involvement and the value of local expertise. This raises the question of whether technology and a strongly locally oriented police profession will still coexist in the future.

Our society is in constant change, due to a variety of social developments. This presents a significant challenge for the police organization. It is essential that employees, the organization, and leaders can handle this challenge in a resilient and vital manner. What does this require from police leadership, both now and in the future? There is a need for leaders who are focused on society and who connect with colleagues on a personal level. Leaders can enhance or diminish the well-being, work engagement, and performance of employees through their intrinsic motivation. They can do so by inspiring, facilitating, developing, and connecting with them, or by hindering them in these aspects. Research shows that to enable leaders to exhibit this type of engaging leadership more frequently, various organizational conditions are important; such as span of support, workload, role clarity and autonomy of leaders, and the degree of centralization within the organization.

Inevitably, criminal judges will yield to the continuous pressure to improve the reasoning underlying punishment meted out by them.

This article examines different levels of deprivation of liberty, exploring the varying degrees to which individuals may be restricted in their freedom by legal systems. It addresses both physical confinement and broader forms of control that limit personal autonomy, such as surveillance and house arrest. By analyzing these differing levels, the article highlights the complexities within legal and criminological perspectives on freedom and punishment. The discussion emphasizes the importance of understanding how these degrees impact individual rights and the broader implications for justice systems.

The 50th anniversary of Justitiële verkenningen (Judicial explorations) is an occasion to reflect and look forward with Hans Boutellier and Marit Scheepmaker. Both served as editors-in-chief while working at the Scientific Research and Documentation Center (WODC) and played a key role in shaping the journal’s direction. In this in-depth double interview, they discuss their personal experiences, the journal’s objectives, and its readership, while also reflecting on its evolution, its value to policy and society, and innovative ways to keep the content relevant in the future.