In this contribution the current security debate in France is dissected as if it were a play in different acts. President Sarkozy, the political producer, has launched a public ‘schizophrenic’ discussion in which criminologists/sociologists act and quarrel on the edge of a knife. This debate can only be understood in reference to French criminological history, politics, structures and scientific particularities. The contents of this criminological theatre of war can enrich criminological discussion in the Netherlands and Belgium.

In this article the authors debate the subject fire alarm system.

In this contribution the author reviews: Politiewerk aan de basis: stevig en nuchter, by Edward J. van der Torre.

Teenagers between twelve and eighteen years of age are protected by Dutch criminal law against sexual encounters that can be described as ‘voluntarily’. If teenagers are approached without force or approach a person themselves autonomously they are thus protected against such contact, but they could have played a sexual active role nevertheless. How do the alleged offenders in these criminal cases make contact and how are the punishable interactions possible considering the facilitative role of the victim? This paper will deal with the way the officials of the police and justice departments value sexual contacts with youngsters in a diverse range of settings. The crucial question is how the professionals dealing with the protection of youngsters and at the same time safeguarding the legal rights of offenders come to their juridical deliberation.

In this article the author debates the subject fire alarm system.

In this contribution the author reviews: Idealen op drift. Een pedagogische kijk op radicaliserende jongeren, by M. van San, S. Sieckelink & M. de Winter.

In this contribution the author reviews: Verkenning cybercrime in Nederland 2009, by E.R. Leukfeldt, M.M.L. Domenie & W.Ph. Stol.

The ‘Shortlist troublesome youth groups’ is a compact survey that enables police-officers to categorize problematic youth groups on a general level. The ‘shortlist’ results in three categories. The least troublesome groups are labelled ‘annoying’, the more serious groups are referred to as ‘disturbing’ and the most serious ones are called ‘criminal’ youth groups. As a quick scan, the shortlist tool has originally been developed in order to prevent criminalization of youth. It has now become a compulsorily used instrument for all 25 police services in the Netherlands. The shortlist is seen as the central starting point that should ultimately lead to the implementation of multidisciplinary interventions to tackle the specific problems that the youth groups cause.This article briefly discusses the highly subjective judgements of perceptions of disorder in society. Against this background this article describes the aim, the benefits and limits to the use of the shortlist. This analysis is based on fifteen years of experience with the annual listing of troublesome youth groups by means of the shortlist at the Haaglanden police service.This contribution concludes that the shortlist is a useful instrument that enables police officers to efficiently categorize problematic youth groups. Several changes by the Haaglanden police service with regard to the content as well as to the procedure further optimized the use of the shortlist. However, its global characteristic hampers evaluation of local safety interventions on the group. Also, comparisons of results between police services are not possible just like that. For those purposes (evaluations and comparisons) additional, i.e. more detailed information on the groups are to be gathered. The shortlist-methodology consists of further steps that include more in-depth analyses.Having said this, the shortlist is a valuable quick scan tool that enables professionals to swiftly categorize problematic youth groups.

This editorial offers an introduction to the current issue.

The authors summarize the empirical findings with regard to restorative justice and crime prevention as presented in the report of the European project on the matter at hand. With regard to the offender, they studied empirical research on the reduction of recidivism. Data refer to characteristics of the offender, the view of the offender with regard to the restorative process, characteristics of the communication processes and the type of offence as influencing factors. Results in general seem to be quite positive, although there are some cases when recidivism is worse in comparison to the traditional justice process. Crawford indicates how preventative effects for the victims can be taken into account – the researchers refer to the different effects depending on the type of crime and characteristics of the victim; satisfaction, re-victimisation and post-traumatic symptoms; and the prevention of revenge. With regard to the societal preventative effects, research on restorative justice seems to be restricted to the theoretical level: empirical research in this regard is lacking.

This article departs from a crime prevention perspective following the definition of crime prevention as adopted by the European Union Crime Prevention Network (EUCPN). This approach handles a broad notion of community involvement in crime prevention, including non-judicial measures and models of intervention. Through its participatory approaches, restorative justice has the potential of mobilising and reinforcing social capital and, therefore, of contributing to effective crime prevention and control. The community oriented approach is illustrated by the model of crime prevention and its possible connection to restorative justice as being developed in Hungary and promoted through various actions of the EUCPN.

In this article, the authors summarize some important methodological problems that may be encountered when studying the crime preventative effects of restorative justice. Studies mostly focus on tertiary preventative effects, namely the reduction of recidivism. Empirical research is in that regard mainly dealing with the effects of victim-offender mediation and conferencing practices. Some problems include the definitional issue (what can be considered as a restorative justice intervention?), the (quasi-)experimental design, the small size of samples and issues of comparability between different studies due to differences in e.g. follow-period or criteria for measuring recidivism.

This article addresses the question whether restorative justice is embedded in the current policy and legal frameworks on crime prevention in several EU member states. Crime prevention is defined as all actions that are aimed to prevent involvement in crime (thus more than prevent re-offending only). Of course, the situation differs among the EU member states, but there is a growing awareness that restorative justice can play an important role in the prevention of crime, and is especially useful to meet the interests of victim and offender. Concerning the situation in the Netherlands, there are some promising developments and initiatives in which restorative justice approaches are advocated, for instance by a recent advice to the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Safety and Justice, in which restorative justice interventions are proposed within the juvenile justice system. Another relevant initiative is the joint effort to explore the boundaries of the Dutch diversion ‘Halt’ programme in order to apply this form of restorative practice more often, because of its estimated positive effects on victim and offender.

On the basis of current definitions and approaches of restorative justice and crime prevention, and making use of a two-dimensional typology of crime prevention, this article develops a conceptual framework and seeks to offer points of connections and departure at the theoretical level between restorative justice practices and different models of offender-oriented, victim-oriented and community-oriented prevention. In order to face some of the present limitations of restorative justice, in particular the missing link to causes of crime at the societal-structural level, the author widens the perspective of restorative justice to the broader notion of ‘community justice’. The challenge for restorative justice is, then, to integrate polycentric problem-solving approaches into its operational models.

This section contains announcements of upcoming lectures, conferences and other events.

This study focuses on the effect of having a first child on parents’ criminal behaviour. First we examine whether after accounting for stable between person differences, such a parenthood-effect still exists. Next we examine whether this effect differs for men and women, having a child in or outside of wedlock or having a child at a young or average age. This study is based on the individual criminal careers of 3,527 men en 339 women. A fixed effects model was used to control for selection into parenthood and crime. Results show that criminal behaviour declines after having a first child among men, but that having a first child has no effect on women’s criminal behaviour. The independent effect of having a child is larger among unmarried men than married men. When men have their first child at a young age, however, their participation in crime increases.

Previous research in mainly white Western samples has shown that temperament and conscience are important explanations for antisocial behaviour. In the current cross-sectional study among 2,185 children of the four largest ethnic groups in the Netherlands, namely, 684 Dutch, 702 Moroccan, 434 Turkish, and 365 Surinamese children, it was examined how these factors together explain antisocial behaviour and to what extent these relationships are valid regardless of ethnicity and gender. Teachers completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire for children from grades three to five of elementary school. The temperament dimension self-regulation was negatively related to antisocial behaviour for boys and girls of all ethnic groups with the exception of Turkish boys. Temperamental fearfulness was negatively associated with antisocial behaviour only for Dutch girls. Irrespective of gender and ethnicity, empathy, an important aspect of conscience, was negatively related to antisocial behaviour. Self-regulation moderated the effect of fear on antisocial behaviour only for Dutch girls and Moroccan boys.

This article offers an alternative view on litter as a sign of disorder (broken windows theory) by presenting qualitative research from the perspectives of juveniles on littering, and the various meanings they give to this behaviour. About 100 teenagers were observed in a variety of public places, such as parks and squares. A symbolic interactionist interpretation suggests that teenagers do not automatically break norms in a ‘disorderly’ environment as suggested by the broken windows theory, nor is this behaviour related to feelings of safety or lack thereof. Teenagers attach various symbolic meanings to litter and littering behaviour as these relate to their desired public identity. These results challenge the notion that litter is a reliable indicator of the experience of public safety, and calls for greater integration of symbolic interactionism within studies using the broken windows theory.