The author made a tour throughout the country to see how people fulfill their social responsibility in the process of creating a normal and stabile situation again after a criminal offence, after the use of (domestic) violence. Yearly 37.000 women are victims of serious to very serious forms of violence in the Netherlands. It turns out that several initiatives have been developed in the last few years in different parts of the country whereby networks of people are used to stop violence and to look for ways to continue relationships or contacts. The article contains descriptions of powerful conferences. For example, one between two Turkish families who had years of conflicts, partly through two 16-year-old daughters. It almost turned into blood revenge and serious violence. Talking to each other in an organized and well prepared setting however resulted in a positive situation for all parties. Social systems and networking turn out to be the key factors for restoration.

COSA (Circles of Support and Accountability) is an innovative approach to sex offender management in the community for offenders with a medium to high risk of recidivism. COSA was first developed in Canada in 1994 and aim at prevention of recidivism and re-integration of sex offenders. COSA are formed by local volunteers, who assist the sex offender by offering support, monitoring and accountability. They are supported by professionals. COSA has been introduced in the Netherlands in 2009 by The Dutch Probation Organisation (Reclassering Nederland) and the Centre of Public Safety of Avans University of Applied Science. The evaluation of the pilot shows that COSA can be successfully implemented in the Netherlands as well. Living up to the high quality standards is a complex task and involves continuous monitoring, evaluation and adjustment.

The Austrian social historian Christa Pelikan wrote in 2009 an article with the following title: On the efficacy of Victim-Offender-Mediation in cases of partnership violence in Austria, or: Men don’t get better, but women get stronger: Is it still true?
It contains outcomes of an empirical study which reads in short: The efficacy of VOM in cases partnership violence is to a large part due to the empowerment of the women victims, but partly, albeit to a smaller percentage, also due to an inner change, to insight and following from that a change of behaviour on the side of the male perpetrators. These achievements should be understood as part of a comprehensive societal change – a change of expectations regarding the use of violence in intimate partnerships. The research presented is to be perceived against the background of another study carried out 10 years before; its title was: ‘The efficacy of criminal law interventions in cases of partnership violence: Comparing The Criminal Trial and Victim-Offender Mediation (out of court offence compensation – ATA)’. Quantitaive and qualitative research is used, as well as a description of cases. In our journal a Dutch translation of this relevant (2009) article on RJ and domestic violence has been published.

This article discusses the results of a Dutch study that focuses specifically on victimization of various forms of cybercrimes among civilians. The survey addresses the cybercrimes hacking, fraud through selling and auction websites, identity theft and fraud and advanced fee fraud. The results are based on a validated questionnaire which was posted amongst a representative sample of 21,800 citizens, the response rate was 10,314 (47 per cent). In this article of each of these cybercrimes the prevalence is shown. Concerning prevalence, the victim survey shows that in the twelve months preceding the survey 4.3 percent of all Internet users were victims of hacking, 2.4 percent were victims of online scams (by paying for a good or service but not receiving them), 0.8 percent were victims of identity fraud and 0.2 percent of advanced fee fraude. Of all victims, 11.9 percent was victim of more than one of the cybercrimes we studied for this article. If we compare this with figures of offline crime we see that in the Netherlands in 2010, 1 percent were victims of assault, 1.2 percent of burglary and 1.5 percent of sexual offenses. In comparison with these offline crimes, the cybercrimes in our study have significant numbers of victims. Among Internet users, we see that victims of hacking and fraud by auction or selling sites are more often youngsters than older people (for hacking 15 till 35 years in fraud 15 till 25 years), people without a partner are at higher risk than people with partners and people with indicated that their most recently completed education were low are more at risk than people with high education. Especially with the online fraud this is remarkable, because it appears that people who make the most purchases over the Internet are higher educated and mostly in 25 till 45 years old.

Analysing large amounts of data goes to the heart of the challenges confronting intelligence and law enforcement professionals today. Increasingly, this involves Internet data that are ‘open source’ or ‘publicly available’. Projects such as the European FP7 VIRTUOSO aim at developing platforms for open-source intelligence by law enforcement and public security, which open up opportunities for large-scale, automated data gathering and analysis. However, the mere fact that data are publicly available does not imply an absence of restrictions to researching them. This paper investigates one area of legal constraints, namely Dutch criminal-procedure law in relation to open-source data gathering by the police. Which legal basis is there for this activity? And under what conditions can foreign open sources be investigated?
After sketching the context of the VIRTUOSO project and legal constraints of open-source intelligence in general, this paper discusses provisions of the Dutch Police Act 1993 and the Code of Criminal Procedure to determine which is the correct legal basis for gathering data from openly accessible and semi-open sources. Next, cross-border gathering of data is discussed on the basis of article 32 of the Cybercrime Convention. The paper draws the conclusion that investigating open sources by the police will often go beyond what is allowed on the basis of the general task description of the police (art. 2 Police Act 1993); hence, an order from the Public Prosecutor for systematic observation or intelligence is required. Moreover, the tools used must meet the non-manipulability and auditing requirements of the Dutch Decree on Technical Devices in Criminal Procedure.

Since November 2009, the regional police of Groningen facilitated their community officers with Twitter. According to the principles of community policing, they are enabled to shorten the distance between the police and citizens by giving them a direct connection. Such a connection should stimulate interaction, while at the same time it should make people feel more safe. In addition, Twitter also creates possibilities for the police to be transparent. Sharing of information should alter citizens’ perception towards the police.
A comparison has been made, by using an online questionnaire, between followers and two kinds of non-followers. The effects of following twittering community officers have been demonstrated by using statistical analyses, taking into account relevant control variables. On the basis of these analyses it has been demonstrated that following a twittering community officer did not positively or negatively alter the perception of safety of their followers. However, an enhanced information position has made followers much more aware of local disorder and crime. Thanks to shared information about police actions to sustain and improve local safety and livability, followers’ perception of safety has not been altered negatively.
Followers’ perception towards the police organization has been positively altered, thanks to the twittering community officers. Especially the sharing of information and involving citizens into local policing helps the police to alter the perception of citizens towards their organization. In addition, it has been shown that followers’ willingness to report has been improved. Thanks to the ease of use of Twitter and the shortened distance between the police and citizens, followers do frequently contact the police or a community officer to share some information, or to report some crime or disorder. However, it has been shown that Twitter should just be presented as complementary to existing ways to contact the police.

Virtual reality is increasingly used in our society. Also in the field of physical safety this technique is applied. In this article we give an overview of virtual reality applications that are used in the Netherlands in this domain. This overview is divided into the five phases of the integrated emergency management system of the Netherlands. Based on international studies from other fields we try to indicate where in the near future virtual reality also can be used.
Conclusion of this article is that virtual reality already plays an important role in the physical safety domain, especially because this technique can support the learning ability of the safety organizations in many areas. Because of constant innovation (in technique and application) that takes place, it is expected that in the future even more virtual reality applications in the field of physical safety are possible.

This article describes the findings of a national representative survey on online victimization. The survey was conducted in the Netherlands in 2011 amongst youth aged 10 to 18. Purpose of this research is to identify various risk factors related to cyber bullying, online sexual activities and online financial crime (e.g. e-fraude and commercial deceit). More than 9 percent of the youths had negative experiences with cyber bullying, about 5 percent with e-fraude and over 11 percent with commercial deceit. Also unwanted online sexual solicitations (6%) and unwanted exposure to sexually explicit internet material (12%) occurred with some regularity.
This research complements earlier research on youth victimization in two important respects. First, we paid explicit attention to determine whether the youngster experienced the online incident as negative, neutral or positive. Our strategy to address negative experiences ensures the identification of actual victims. Secondly, we made it possible to identify and compare risk factors on various types of online crime. Girls are more likely to be cyber bullied, to receive unwanted sexual solicitations and to be unwantedly exposed to online pornography, whilst boys are more at risk to be commercially deceived or scammed.
Internet use and behaviour are significant risk factors to comprehend online victimization. Above average use of instant messaging and clicking on (advertising) hyperlinks without restraint, are important predictors for online victimization. Finally, online disinhibition - a loosening of social restrictions during interactions with others on the Internet - and low self-control, turn out to be significant risk factors.
It is difficult to accept certain risks, especially when youth are involved. However, children have to learn themselves to assess risks, to deal with them and to learn from them. It is important youths built up resilience to adequately react on negative online incidents and to reduce online vulnerability.

This issue is concerned with what this introduction calls the production of secure space. It thematizes the relationship between subjective safety or insecurity and space. As a prism for the analysis of this relationship, the issue focuses on the phenomenon of (semi) gated communities. As most of the contributions show, subjectively experienced insecurity is often but one factor in the formation of gated communities and other ‘gated’ forms of living. In thus focusing on the motives of middle class residents for gated forms of living, this issue departs with the dominant strand in ‘administrative criminology’, which partakes in an increasing localization and depoliticization of issue of crime and safety.

Desire for safety, security, community, and ‘niceness’, as well as wanting to live near people like themselves because of a fear of ‘others’ and of crime, is expressed by most residents living in gated communities. The emergence of a fortress mentality and its phenomenal success is surprising in the United States where the majority of people live in open and unguarded neighborhoods. Thus, the rapid increase in the numbers of Americans moving to secured residential enclaves invites a more complex account of their motives and values. While their reasoning is largely the same as other middle class Americans, these seemingly self-evident explanations encompass deeper meanings and concerns. This article reviews the consequences of living in a gated community based on resident interviews, behavioral mapping, and participant observation field notes. I begin with a history of gating and then use ethnographic examples to summarize what I learned. I conclude with a discussion of ‘community’ as it is being re-conceived through a discourse of fear of crime in the United States through private governance and gating, and outline what we can do to ameliorate its negative aspects.

Drawing on in-depth interviews with more than forty White South Africans in a middle class neighborhood of Cape Town, this paper looks at the motivations to secure South African houses and neighbourhoods with perimeter walls, security initiatives and neighbourhood watches. The discourses of the residents make it clear that seemingly banal actions to secure the residential environment are motivated as much by the fear of falling property prices and the fear of losing psychological comfort as they are driven by the high levels of crime and fear of crime.

In the public spheres of the global cities, religion is getting more visible. However, this is not an independent process, but is linked to broader urban processes like segregation, security and (fear of) crime. With two different examples from Istanbul, this article explains how religious motivations become ways of expression for existing or emerging lines of urban segregation. While religious motivations appear as a tool used against urban gentrification in the area of Tophane; in the gated community of Basaksehir, religion, together with ‘fear of crime’ and ‘fear of immorality’, serves to differentiate a middle class living space from the ‘scary’ and ‘immoral’ environment of the big city.

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