The aim of this article is to determine the effect of short-term prison sentences on recidivism. The authors use data from the longitudinal Life After Release study to compare effects of short-term prison sentences versus non-custodial sentences on recidivism over a maximum period of five years. In order to control for differences between persons with a short-term prison sentence and persons with a non-custodial sentence, they used an ‘instrumental variable’ method. The study shows that this method can be used in the Dutch context to investigate causal effects of punishment on recidivism outcomes. The findings reveal that short-term prison sentences lead to more recidivism than non-custodial sentences, both in the short and long term.

This study examines the entire population of over three million young people living in the Netherlands and their entire networks of family members, household members, neighbors, classmates and colleagues. These networks are derived from administrative registers using a new method and depict formally registered relations. Young people have a higher probability of being registered as a suspect by the police if the proportion of suspects in their networks is larger. Previous studies have mainly been based on a small number of young people and network members and have focused on specific types of networks. This is the first time that the correlation in crime between network members and Dutch young people has been established on such a large scale.

This article presents a method to estimate the sanction ratio, i.e. the frequency of sanctioning of crimes by Dutch law enforcement agencies. This method is applied to data over the period 2000-2019 to sketch the development of the sanction ratio in these years. Crime figures declined, the sanction ratio showed over all a modest increase, but a decrease in the years 2008-2015.

Recent estimates show that about 470,000 people become victims of sexual violence annually. However, not every victim seeks help afterwards. Victims may experience barriers to help-seeking, such as feelings of shame and guilt. This chronicle provides an overview of national and international literature regarding the barriers that victims experience, and the deliberations they make, to seek or not to seek help after experiencing sexual violence. The chronicle shows that these decisions and deliberations are part of an intricate process, which is influenced by both internal and external factors. Finally, the importance of supporting victims in their decisions and deliberations is emphasized.