At the end of 2000, a pilot project began in Flanders (Belgium) to offer family group conferencing for juvenile offenders. Since June 2006, this restorative practice – together with victim-offender mediation – has been inserted in the new Youth Justice Act, making conferencing available in all judicial districts in Flanders. Five years later, however, the mediation-services had to conclude that the number of referrals for conferencing remains rather limited. This observation inspired the mediation services to take actions to bring conferencing more to the attention. This article reports on the findings of a study that was part of this process. Based on (1) an analysis of all conferencing-files that were referred between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 31, (2) focus groups with youth court social workers and criminologists working at the level of the public prosecutor and (3) surveys conducted with youth judges, the study aimed to identify and discuss barriers and obstacles within the current referral practice of conferencing in Flanders.

This article sketches an experiment initiated by a local mediation service in Flanders (BAL) with regard to the role of a supporting volunteer in the context of family group conferencing. Engaged as researchers in this experiment, the authors reconstruct the conceptual challenges of this project and the solution proposed by the team of mediators. One of these challenges revolves around finding an appropriative account of restorative justice that fits with the aims of the Belgian conferencing practice and clarifies the role of the supporting volunteer. Another comes down to distinguishing this role with the essential tasks of the moderator, and formulating deontological devices. In the last part of this contribution a few learning points are formulated with regard to the process and results of the experiment. One of these points is the need to rethink how successfully offering the possibility of engaging a supporting volunteer to the stake holding parties.

The number of Internet users who reported they have come into contact with cybercrime is substantial. This article examines three forms of cybercrime, namely: hacking, cyber stalking and cyber threats. Because cybercrime is relatively extensive in the life of Dutch citizens, it is important to gain insight into factors that influence victimization. By means of a secondary analysis of data from the first Dutch national cybercrime victim survey (N=9,161), it is assessed to which extend online behaviours affect victimization. In particular, online behaviours involving the use of communication applications affect victimization of the three aforementioned cybercrimes. The article provides suggestions for further research into cybercrime victimization.

Scientific research on cybercrime has mainly focused on its technological aspects. There is a lack of knowledge regarding the human factor in cybercrime. In this article we focus on the human factor and address the question to what extent crackers (criminal hackers) are similar to other criminals. We analyse socio-demographic characteristics as well as criminal careers of crackers in comparison to those of other criminals. We employ Dutch police data on criminal suspects from 1996-2009. Our results show that hacking suspects are quite similar to other criminals with respect to both socio-demographic characteristics and their criminal careers.

Identity fraud is a rapidly growing problem, as shown by recent volume estimates from victim surveys. Little is known however about the amount of financial damage among victims of this crime, especially in the Dutch context. This article studies victims of unauthorized cash withdrawal from their bank account, which is one of the most common forms of identity fraud. For this, we use data on 180 victims from the representative LISS panel. The results show that the financial implications of this type of crime experience vary widely between victims. While many victims are disadvantaged for only a small amount of money (for almost 40 per cent is about less than 50 euros ), a quarter of this group suffers from substantial money loss of more than 500 euros. Nevertheless, the vast majority (85 per cent) are completely reimbursed by their banks. Eventually, only in rare cases victims suffer significant permanent money loss. Remarkably, the low educated are significantly less often reimbursed by their banks.

It is assumed that the online world creates new possibilities for criminal behaviour. Only recently criminologists started the debate on the applicability of traditional criminological theories to cybercrime offending. Data retrieved from the national Dutch survey Youth & Cybersafety indicate that cyberbullying behaviour is not only strongly interwoven with traditional bullying behaviours, but is also affected by the distinct features of the online environment. The findings give support to the suggestion that the aetiological schema to explain cyberbullying should postulate the interaction between individual characteristics, distinct features of the online environment and the interaction between offline and online social realities.

This special issue introduces the topic of cybercrime to Dutch criminology. First, it raises the major substantive issues that computer technology involves for criminology, in terms of crime volume, people involved in crime, and the ways that crimes are committed. Also, it deals with research literature on cybercrime on various topics, such as survey methodology, crime prevention and Internet applications open to justice professionals in the fight against crime. Overall, the article concludes that much research remains to be done in this relatively new field.

In 5 Grams: Crack Cocaine, Rap Music, and the War on Drugs Dimitri Bogazianos, an assistant professor at the departement Criminal Justice of California State University, discusses the cultural links between the American ‘war on drugs’ and the creative contributions of those directly affected by its destructive effects. At the centre of his analysis is the parallel between what the author calls ‘the crack game’ and ‘the rap game’. On the one hand Bogazianos examines the profound symbolic consequences of America’s reliance on the paradoxical punishment structure of crack; on the other hand the author focuses on the multiple ways crack appeared as a symbolical reference in the lyrics of rap artists.

Various disciplines have a longstanding tradition of studying musical genres and the various functions of music, but few criminologists focus on music in their scientific work. This article discusses various relationships between music, crime and culture. We discuss the hypothesis of ‘criminogenic’ music genres, and countless examples of criminalisation of music. We point at the stilistic importance of music genres for subcultures and social movements, and we raise ethical aspects: music can also be used as an instrument of (symbolic) violence, as a punishment or even as torture. Finally, we discuss other functional uses of music: as a vehicle for human emotions, for therapeutic purposes, to influence the behavior of employees and consumers, to enhance feelings of public safety, and to prevent crime and nuisance.

In this article on the social production of the book Outsiders, I will situate its production in the daily practice of the social worlds in which Becker was involved. Therefore I focus on the relations, interactions and situations which were relevant for the form, content and success of Outsiders. For data, I use fragments from my email communication with Howard Becker, the collected interviews and other publications which show that Becker seeks to demystify Outsiders. My main contribution is that I use Becker’s own words to demystify the ethnographic practice of Outsiders and describe its mundane backstage reality, which is described by Fine as ‘the underside’ of ethnography (1993).

In this essay the nature of crime and death in opera is dealt with, focussing on a select number of operas, such as Verdi’s MacBeth, Wagner’s Die Walküre and Strauss’s Salome and Elektra. It appears that crime in opera is pervasive and appears in many different forms, as well as in a wide variety of contexts. An attempt is made to analyse the way composers manipulate the circumstances of killings – lenghtening or shortening or replacing scenes – in order to get maximum results in terms of emotional content.

This article deals with the performance of ‘street credibility’. A dramaturgical analysis of the lyrics and videos of 15 rap artist from The Hague sheds light on the various ways they try to achieve a credible street reputation as rappers. In their frontstage presentation they highlight their street knowledge, strike violent poses, and claim affiliation to certain infamous local gangs or neighborhoods. Backstage, however, these performances are being deconstructed by other actors who participate in the local street culture and who form a critical, metaphysical audience of the presentations of the rappers.