In contrast to the societal debate, the topic of religion and crime is only scarcely present in contemporary criminological research. A special issue on this theme hence seemed very relevant. Even though the editors launched an open call, the submitted proposals were almost always related to Islam. In this introduction we therefore reflect on questions and themes that, in our opinion, should be included in this special issue on religion and crime. First, we give a short overview of Belgian, Dutch and American research on the missing theme of sexual abuse in the church. Second, we discuss the complex concept of ‘religion’. Third, we assess the complex relationship between religion and crime and reflect on the question of whether and when religion leads to more or, on the contrary, less crime. We end this introduction with a brief overview of the selected contributions for this special issue.

For the past few weeks, young Muslims from Belgium and the Netherlands leaving for Syria to join the armed struggle against the Assad regime have been dominating the local news. This is especially remarkable in light of the fact that it would appear that, until very recently, jihadists from Belgium and the Netherlands were far and few between. The armed struggle is a topic that is widely discussed among young Muslims on social media such as Facebook. During the research on which this article is based, we conducted an analysis of conversations between young Muslims on Facebook and held interviews with a number of them. The key question was: why is it that so many young people use social media to profess their willingness to sacrifice their lives in armed struggle while at the same time most of them are not prepared to put action to their words? Despite all the media reports, the fact remains that of the large number of young Muslims who are potentially ready to go into battle, the vast majority prefer to stay at home for the time being. When we confronted the participants in these discussions with this inconsistency, they offered a number of reasons and considerations as to why martyrdom was not yet granted to them. The way in which these considerations shape their lives and the role played by their religious convictions form the subject of this article.

Irregular immigrants were disproportionally present in jihadi movements in the Netherlands between 2001 and 2005. By analyzing closed police files and interviewing imams and personnel from Asylum Seeker Centers and Detention Centers, this paper claims that the attractiveness of jihadi movements can be explained by a combination of pragmatic and ideological factors. Jihadi movements are able to fulfil the needs of the irregular immigrants in a pragmatic way, in which crime is an important feature. In addition, the results show that irregular immigrants are searching for meaning, which the jihadi movements can offer. Nonetheless, the salafi-jihadi ideology does not seem to be the core factor to most of the illegally residing immigrants that expresses the attractiveness of the jihadi movements.

How can police officers make use of citizens’ religious beliefs when dealing with cases of honour-based violence (HBV)? In this article religion is addressed regarding motive and legitimisation of violence and as a social network of people and institutions for communities of believers. We focus on Islamic religion, because most cases of HBV handled by the police take place within Islamic communities and because the Dutch public debate on religion revolves around Islam. We interviewed police officers with expertise on HBV. These officers have an instrumental vision on religion. It helps them to gain insight in motives for violence and it offers opportunities for conflict mediation and coping with the aftermath of HBV.

Dutch law solely recognizes civil marriage. According to law, religious marriages can only take place after these civil marriages. Over the last years there have been several indications of rising numbers of ‘informal marriages’ which conflict with the law. These informal marriages were presupposed to take place primarily in Muslim circles. Amongst politicians and media the worries were expressed that these marriages pointed to an aversion with regard to the state of law and to radicalization of the young people involved. They were also seen as a risk to the security of society. In this explorative study we did not find any evidence for this securitisation link.

Spiritual care is connected with one’s identity and is linked to the religious or worldview background of the detainee. The spiritual caregiver’s religious or worldview serves the question of care. This care does not have any ‘care targets’; the basic characteristics for this care are availability and presence. The positive effect of his or her efforts on the well-being of the detainee and his contribution to a humanitarian penal system, resocialization in general, and maintenance of order have already been proven. Despite the legal protection spiritual care cannot escape the discussion on the role of religion and worldview in a strongly secularized society. This article suggests that spiritual care weathers this questioning.