In this introductory article we introduce the subject of our thematic issue on ‘macro criminology’, and illustrate it with a short historical overview and examples of ‘typical macro criminological’ research. Successively we address the recent decrease in crime in many Western countries (the ‘crime drop’), the increased tendency to punish more severely in the last decennia (the ‘punitive turn’), and historical developments in homicide (‘history of violence’). After that we address an important theoretical and philosophical problem with regard to macro criminology: the balance between micro and macro factors in explaining macro phenomena. Finally, the contributions of this thematic issue are introduced.

This article presents a micro- and a macro-level analysis of predictors of delinquency in order to contribute to the discussion about the micro-macro problem in criminology. We use Coleman’s boat (1990) to situate our research question. Individual theories dominate the field of delinquency, there are few theories at macro level. Cross-level theoretical integration primarily takes place between individual (micro) and community (meso) levels, and hardly ever on (national) macro level. Our question is to which extent macro-level theory fruitfully may use concepts drawn from micro-level theory. We test a micro and a macro model using indicators from the domains of family, school, friends/peers and economy, using data collected by the Second International Self-Report Study of Delinquency (ISRD2), a cross-national self-report survey of delinquency and victimization among students between 12 and 16 years in 30 countries (n=71.436). Dependent variable at micro level is versatility (last year), at the macro level (national) we use contacts with the police for youths under 18. Results confirm the importance of including macro context (country clusters) in the analysis of individual delinquency. We further conclude that factors related to family and friends correlate at both micro and macro level with measures of delinquency; the role of school and economic factors is less clear-cut. The article concludes with the recommendation to give the micro-macro problem in delinquency theory a more central and explicit position in research programs.

In the Netherlands, from 2007 police census data show a sharp decrease in the number of suspects of crime among juveniles aged 12 to 25 years old. How to explain this decrease remains unclear. Constructionist theories suggest that changes in police census data are fully explained by changes in the law enforcement system. Normative theories argue that changes in police data can be explained by demographic, social or economic trends. In this paper, we systematically explored the (inter)national literature for macro factors that could explain changes in juvenile crime. Next, in an empirical case study of the city of Amsterdam, we explored which of these macro factors relate to changes over time in the number of juvenile suspects of crime and the types of crime they were suspected of. Due to multicollinearity of the macro factors multivariate analyses were not possible. Our results indicate that the decrease in police registered juvenile crime in Amsterdam should be explained by multiple factors. Some of these factors concern policy investments (such as focus on school drop-out and targeted law enforcement), other factors relate to socialdemographic developments which appeared coincidentally.

Some overestimation of crime risk is likely, but that does not mean that risk perceptions are not adjusted in line with changes in actual crime risk. Based on time series data, we show that crime risk perceptions are strongly related to rates of victimization. The conventional wisdom that the drop in crime since the 1990s did not result in an adjustment in risk perceptions can be easily refuted. The much discussed crime drop goes together with a much less discussed fear drop.

The explosive growth of the Internet has led to countless new possibilities, and it opened the way for societal progress and an extensive globalization and digitization. However, the original ambition of the Internet as a free, open and neutral medium has also led to new possibilities in the field of crime. The current paper illustrates how governments dealt with the development of the Internet and it gives an explanation for why and how unintended side effects have manifested in society. Using the phenomenon of digital child abuse, this paper offers recommendations for an effective government response and for an effective detection of and fight against cybercrime.

The Western world seems to be a secular one. Although secularization has long roots, from the sixties onwards the role of religion in public life has diminished. How did that affect the crime and security issue? Criminological literature learns that there is a two-sided relationship: (1) in a religious context there is an inhibiting effect of being religious; and (2) religion can also legitimize or neutralize criminal or violent behavior – for example in the case of Islam-related terrorist acts. Secularization did indeed contribute to the rise of crime; in nowadays secular context religion can – the other way around – legitimize criminal behavior. The author argues that secularization also has facilitated the growth of the security issue as such. Fear of crime was the driving force behind a process in which secularization resulted in securitization of Western society.