Surinamese and Dutch Caribbean migrants have been overrepresented in (official) Dutch crime statistics for years. From Hirschi’s Social Control Theory and the Theory of African-American Offending, this study investigates to what degree racism based on skin color is related to self-reported offending among Surinam and Dutch Caribbean migrants in The Netherlands. A total of 91 online questionnaires were filled out regarding skin color, experiences with racism, and offending. Results show that darker-skinned respondents experienced more racism and that more racism was reported by the respondents who committed more offenses; especially regarding violent and drug-related offenses.

In the fight against terrorism, administrative measures are increasingly applied. This is called the administrative approach on terrorism. A recent bill seeks to the withdrawal of the Dutch citizenship of those who are suspected of certain terrorist activities abroad and when such is needed in the context of national security. Under this bill it is made possible to withdraw the Dutch citizenship of those who voluntarily join a terrorist group abroad. The idea behind this proposed administrative measure is to protect the national security of the Netherlands, by banning those who voluntarily joined a jihadi organization and pose a threat to national security due to their return. The bill has several major drawbacks: the limited legal protection of the persons concerned, the possible criminal nature of this measure and doubts about its effectiveness.

Academic researchers in the Netherlands working on organized crime often make use of police files. This produces a lot of knowledge and helps building and testing theories about organized crime. However, it is also known that police files have their limitations. This article uses the concept of ‘street-level bureaucracy’ to explain some of these limitations. For instance, routines and biases can influence the way an investigation is conducted, i.e. avoiding or not following up certain lines of enquiry. Researchers who make use of case file analysis should therefore keep in mind the extent to which an investigation team functioned as a street-level bureaucracy.

This article discusses the importance of reflection for prison staff. Their work is both physical and emotionally incriminating. That increases risk on turnover, burn-out, psychosomatic diseases and negative experiences with prisoners. To render all challenges in their work it’s important to build up resiliency. One of the means to stimulate resilience is organized reflection. It is described how guided by experts, reflecting on own experiences can contribute to resilience of prison employees and strengthen their learning capacity. That is done by literature study and a description of experiences with organized reflection in PI Vught.

One of the most widely implemented behavioral programs for adult offenders in the Netherlands is a cognitive skills training called CoVa. The training is an adapted version of the Enhanced Thinking Skills program (ETS). This paper reports on the findings of several impact studies on the effectiveness of CoVa and ETS. Special attention is paid to a recent study on the measured change in cognitive skills before and after the training and a recent comparative recidivism study. The majority of studies on CoVa and ETS show positive indications of the effectiveness of the training programs. In the Netherlands the effect sizes are small, but some English studies on ETS reveal large effects. The paper discusses possible explanations for this outcome and examines the relevance of the research findings for the present version of the CoVa-training.

A mentally ill patient who commits a violent crime may undergo forced forensic psychiatric admission. Without treatment, he remains dangerous. Sometimes still takes place rehabilitation even though he is not treated.
The guidance should then be firmly focused on the continuing dangerousness, in order to prevent a recidivism.
Taking the responsibility for the offense by the inmate, the adherence of him to surveillance and the risk of recidivism must be weighed and confronted together when taking the decision on continuation of the forced admission.