Samenvatting

In the Netherlands, approximately 40% of the judiciary come into post through a six-year on-the-job training programme for candidate judicial officers. This programme can be described as a socialization process. Interviews with candidates who have either opted out of the training programme, or who have been expelled, reveal that there are several mechanisms of social control. Among them there is the unique ‘floating’ position and role of the candidate within the judicial organisation, the complex relation between the trainee and his supervisor, a perception of having no say and a tendency towards depersonalisation. As a result, the trainees find themselves under considerable pressure to conform to the cultural and behavioural norms that prevail within the judiciary, or, alternatively, to leave the training programme. In this article, a detailed analysis is given of the mechanisms of social control underlying the socialization process. The levelling effects of the programme may result in the exclusion of non-average candidates at both ends of the scale. This ensures the continued existence of a judiciary whose members have moderate views and interests, whereas Dutch society may well be in need of more variation within its judiciary.