In this article we show how the concept of ‘institutional work’ can be used to study citizen participation in the field of security arrangements. Institutional work starts from the perspective of actors trying to influence security institutions, and not from the perspective of government (as concepts like the ‘participation society’ and ‘ladder’ do). As such, this dynamic concept can be a useful addition to the conceptual arsenal of security experts. By applying the concept to the case of the Voluntary Fire Brigade in nineteenth-century Utrecht (1879-1890) we show how institutional work can work in practice. Finally, we reflect on the contribution that institutional work can make to our understanding of citizen participation in the field of safety.

Criminological research has emphasized the importance of procedural justice of authorities during encounters with citizens. Theory and prior research propose that the procedurally just treatment by the police influences, possibly via legitimacy, citizens’ willingness to cooperate with authorities in the criminal justice chain. This article tests the hypotheses of procedural justice theory using Dutch data of the European Social Survey (N=1,616). The results show an association between the procedurally just treatment of citizens by the police and cooperation with criminal justice authorities. However, this association has not been explained by the legitimacy of the police.

This qualitative study examines how criminal careers in cybercrime start and can be explained. Based on offender and expert interviews, the authors conclude that traditional factors linked with the initiation, such as a maturity gap (for juvenile offenders) and opportunism (for adult offenders), in combination with different types of (online) disinhibition – social, technical, situational and psychological – can explain the start of a criminal career. Features of the digital context appear to play a major role in the development of a criminal career and this requires more online supervision and education about – among other things – legal alternatives and the risks and boundaries of the online environment.

This article contains the results of a crime script analysis regarding the processes of human trafficking and human smuggling in Curaçao. The crime script analysis was conducted using data from five criminal investigations of human trafficking and seven criminal investigations of human smuggling. The results show that human trafficking in Curaçao consists of labor exploitation and sexual exploitation in bars, cafes and clubs. Young women are recruited from Colombia, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic to work as waitresses, trago girls and/or prostitutes. Once they arrive on the island, the women are dependent on the perpetrators and are subjected to exploitation In this research, two types of human smuggling have been witnessed. The first type consists of Venezuelan smugglers who transport fellow Venezuelan nationals to Curaçao by boat in exchange for payment. The second type of smugglers are Curaçao locals who rent out rooms to Venezuelans that reside on the island illegally.

The media are a main source of information on crime for citizens. Prior research shows that media and fear of crime are not independent of each other. Since fake news is spread through (social) media, the question arises what the relationship is between (perceived) fake news and fear of crime. To date, no large-scale representative research has been conducted on this topic. This study is based on a representative population survey (n = 1566) from 2019. This exploratory study shows a small but significant relation between the perceived prevalence of fake news and fear of crime.

Crisis teams from waterauthorities want to have insight into the current risks for the area. The ‘Continuous insight’-method is used by them to monitor the risks of drought and high water and to draw up what-if scenarios for training and exercise. Various cases have now shown that Expert Judgement can be used to gain a clearer picture of the effectiveness of measures and to take a more balanced decision. The Expert Judgement method has been tested and applied by a group of international experts as part of the EU project DRIVER +. During an extreme situation, the crisis team may encounter dilemmas. The engaged group of experts follows a fixed procedure to provide advice to reduce flood risk evacuate to prevent loss of life.
Each expert makes his own assessment of the effect and impact of the measure envisaged. Each expert provides an explanation of the individual assessment. Then, under the guidance of a process supervisor, the experts discuss individual assessments and exchange arguments. This can lead to new insights. Each expert makes his own assessment again. The result is a probability distribution of estimates and an expected value. This expert assessment of the measure is taken to the crisis team, so that the chance of success and the assessment of the consequences of the proposed measure can be adjusted. The crisis team can take the decision immediately afterwards.
By following this procedure risk information is made visible. By linking expert knowledge with observations, a better substantiated expectation can be drawn up. According to the participants in the international meetings, the Expert Judgement method in combination with ‘Continuous insight’ helps to make better informed and faster choices. The method fits within the existing crisis management structure. The next step is to implement this method in the day-to-day affairs of crisis management.

In this paper, we present a mathematical model for the prediction of chimney fires using data collected by the Twente safety region over the years 2004 up to 2015. The explanatory variables used are the number of inhabitants per areal unit of 500 by 500 metres, the daily mean temperature and an indicator variable for October. Spatially and temporally correlated noise is added to be able to capture latent factors such as human behaviour. The model is validated using the data over the years 2016 and 2017. The model is implemented as a dashboard on a public website and yields as output a hazard map for chimney fires in Twente based on the weather forecast for the coming six days. This way, the dashboard can be used for prevention and planning purposes.

Prisoners often encounter multiple barriers when returning to society, resulting in higher risks of recidivism. To overcome these barriers, prison-based and community-based professionals assist with preparation for release. Prison-based professionals, such as the case manager and mentor, screen and monitor the problems regarding work and income, housing, healthcare, financial debts and valid identification. Community-based professionals, such as municipal officials, parole officers, healthcare professionals and volunteers, can provide additional and specialized help. First, this research discusses the current policy of the Dutch Custodial Institutions Agency (DJI) and the role of different types of professionals. Second, it presents a nationwide picture of the extent to which prisoners report contact with prison-based and community-based professionals, and to what degree prisoners appreciate this contact. The results are specified for various types of regimes and time served and are based on 4308 prisoner surveys of the Dutch Prison Visitation Study (DPVS), part of the Life in Custody Study (LIC-study). It turns out that most prisoners seem to be in close contact with prison-based professionals and that prisoners positively value this contact. However, contact with community-based professionals is limited and prisoners are somewhat dissatisfied about their contact with parole officers and municipal officials. Furthermore, the amount of contact differs across various types of regimes and time served. In particular, individuals who recently entered prison report less contact. To conclude, policy implications will be discussed.

This article provides a case description of the development of an integrated safety monitor for the governance on policy goals. The governance on these safety goals took place in cooperation between eight municipalities and Police, Justice, Fireworks, Health Care providers for addiction or domestic violence and partners in incident and crisis management. Two problems were adressed. The first problem is that the evidence on process and results of monitoring from data to interpretation and policy choices in cooperation with different safety partners, is scarce. The second problem is that monitoring of a wide range of indicators on integrated safety is also scarce. In our case, the gathering of data and the interpretation of these data together with all the partners formed a cyclical process. This corresponds with the theory of governance developed by Ansell and Gash in a meta-analysis in 2008. The starting conditions were made clear. The design of the monitoring process was translated into themes of working sessions with a group of policy advisors, giving them a structure for the governance on the policy goals. This group developed a layered set of indicators. These set of indicators was broken down in the four policy goals as well as in different steps in the safety chain. Indicators from different registrations of the safety partners were combined with indicators about the perception of safety measured by a representative sample of the residents. The layered set of indicators was supportive in the discussion about a well balanced monitoring on prevention, signals, interventions and effect. The data were interpreted together with the safety partners. This was helpful in creating a joint perspective on safety problems and in the discussion about meaningful policy actions. The challenge now is to persevere in the cyclical process from data to interpretation and shared understanding about policy goals.

Policy coherence in the area of safety and justice – A longitudinal analysis of service delivery per euro spent in the S&J sector during the period 1980-2016

In the safety and justice policy area, there is a strong intertwining between performances of the various sectors, such as police, judiciary and prison system. The question is whether policy takes these interdependencies into account sufficiently. Are the resources used – from a broader wealth perspective – optimally allocated amongst the various safety and justice provisions? The authors answer this question on the basis of an integrated time series analysis of the productivity development of the Dutch safety and justice system in the period 1980-2016. The analysis shows that productivity of safety and justice services has hardly changed since 1980. At best, in 2016, citizens will receive as much value per euro of taxpayers’ money as in 1980, but probably slightly less. It is striking, however, that the S&J system as a whole operates more efficient than the sum of its parts (the individual sectors). There have been substantial changes in the allocation of resources over time. Obviously money from the police was transferred to the judiciary and municipalities.

In this study we examined the developmental trajectories of hackers, based on their self-reported web defacements. During a web defacement, the content of a website is altered without permission. In total, 50,330 defacements of websites with a Dutch extension (.nl websites) were analyzed, which were executed by 3,640 defacers between January 2010 and march 2017. Using trajectory analysis, six different groups of defacers could be distinguished: two chronic groups of attackers and four groups who only defaced websites during a limited time period. These groups also differed in their motivations and modus operandi. The high frequent chronic attackers consist of less than 2% of the hackers, but were responsible for more than half of all defacements. It would therefore be most efficient when future interventions focus on this small group of chronic offenders. For future studies it would be an interesting topic to examine the content of the web defacements.

The aim of the present research was to gain insight into the topic of ‘task-related rule-breaking behavior’ (TRB) among Dutch police officers. TRB is a more refined alternative for the concept of noble cause corruption and has been defined as: police officers breaking rules or formal agreements for the purpose of acting in a manner that contributes to the lawful police task. Qualitative research has been conducted within one of the ten regional police forces in the Netherlands. Results show that TRB appears to be a relatively common phenomenon during policework. Behaviors are categorized in sixteen categories and five overarching outlines. In addition, attention is given to several important factors that could be related to TRB being distinguishable between police officers’ individual responsibility and organizational factors. To handle TRB, it is recommended to pay attention to the police officers’ approach of judging and rationalizing their own behavior, their level of knowledge, and social skills. Furthermore, organizational structure (i.e., spam of control) and police leadership may, among other factors, play an important role in encouraging TRB. Especially the way supervisors deal with police officers’ professional autonomy needs specific attention in order to reduce TRB. Autonomy needs guidance in the form of clear orders followed by feedback and coaching. Also, an active form of ethical leadership is needed. An action framework is presented that could be helpful to supervisors to judge and thereby reduce forms of TRB.

Little is known about (former) partners of 1%motorcycle club members. Social professionals working with victims of domestic violence in shelters have regular encounters with these mostly female (ex-)partners. In this exploratory contribution we wonder what is known about domestic violence amongst people with (ex-)partners of 1%motorcycle club members and the consequences of the involvement of a motorcycle club for tackling this violence. Based on thirteen semi-structured interviews with social professionals working in a shelter, external professionals and (ex-)partners, the link between domestic violence and membership of a motorcycle club could not be verified. What this research does show is that safety is the number one priority in working with these (ex-)partners. Furthermore, it shows how complex it is to assess the seriousness of potential threat coming from these 1%motorcyle clubs. Further research on domestic violence in environments associated with organised crime and the cooperation between the judiciary system and social professionals is needed to improve safety and wellbeing for this specific group.

In this article, we analyze which aspects of performance theory and the procedural justice-based model are explaining the trust of shopkeepers in the police and local government. Utilizing a survey of 156 shopkeepers and 94 semi-constructed interviews with shopkeepers, which are located at the South Shopping Boulevard in Rotterdam (The Netherlands), the study finds that shopkeepers have a relatively high trust in the police and local government. This is surprising because various attempts in the past 30 years to revive the high street by the government have failed to improve its bad image, as dwindling visitor numbers, poor turnover, limited range of retailers, empty shops and high crime and offence levels show only too plainly. The findings also highlight that ethnic minority respondents have more trust in local government than Dutch shopkeepers. The explanation therefor is sought in the dual frame of reference theory.

Traditionally, the mayor has an important role as a citizen’s father and as a maintainer of public order. In the context of the so-called ‘undermining’ criminality, the mayor has been increasingly empowered with new legal instruments to combat undermining criminality. Some mayors see themselves as a sheriff. However, in the Dutch Municipal Act, the mayor only has a task of maintaining the public order. How does this task relate to combating undermining criminality? What is the role of the mayor in the combat of undermining criminality? Nowadays, there is no legal basis in the Dutch Municipal Act to equip the mayor with crime-fighting duties. This article proposes to equip the mayor with a legal duty as a crime fighter.