This article describes and judges the complex and often contradictory dynamic by which boundaries are constructed and transgressed. This dynamic reveals much about power, meaning, and the political economy of crime and control. The author describes the project undertaken by Critical Mass riders and precarity activists. These projects explore the possibilities of drift as collective experience and collective transgression. The pervasiveness of drift in contemporary society, paired with the subversive cultures of drift emerging around new social movements and alternative spatial practices, point toward a new kind of global collectivity.

This article discusses tropical deforestation from a cultural criminological perspective, by using qualitative methods such as ethnography and interviews, and by emphasizing the difficulties, dangers and dilemmas of ethnographic research. Case studies include timber smuggling from Indonesia to Malaysia and deforestation for bauxite, soy and timber in Brazil’s Amazon. Also described are meetings with (Dutch) timber traders, policy makers and law enforcers. Tropical deforestation is responsible for a great deal of harm, crime and violence, mainly committed by ranchers and loggers. Victims are humans (including humanity’s oldest societies), future generations (considering the impact on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change) and non-humans (with risks of extinctions).

In the introduction to this first issue of the Dutch Journal on Culture and Crime, the editors first examine the history of cultural perspectives in criminology and the reasons why this approach is particularly relevant to analyse crime in our globalised consumer societies. Cultural criminology’s social-constructionist perspectives on the key-concepts, culture and crime, are elaborated next, followed by an exposé of the new imaginative meaning of media-studies in our age of information. In the last paragraph the claim is made that, although ethnography plays a key-role, there is a wide variety of research methodologies that can be applied in cultural criminological framework.

Atlas of the Conflict by Israeli architect Malkit Shoshan presents a fascinating historical analysis of a difficult relationship between Jews and Palestinians. It shows, in maps and diagrams, a great discrepancy in perceptions of both people on such issues as borders, land, heritage, water and settlements. Visual research methods, which are used in this project, are important and innovative to get a deeper insight in the nature of this conflict. However some questions about misuse, propaganda and manipulation of information and symbols remain open and can lead to an important discussion in cultural criminology on the relationship between conflict and culture.

Cultural criminology has been criticized for not taking enough notice of classical anthropological debates on the concept of ‘culture’. This article responds to that. It analyses anthropological conceptualization from an initial essentialist to a social constructivist approach of ‘culture’. The constructivist approach can prevent cultural criminologists from focusing too much on ‘exotic subcultures’ and neglecting broader socio-cultural developments. The article treats the structure-agency debate and its relevance to cultural criminology. In conclusion, cultural criminology from a dynamic constructivist concept of culture is best equipped for studying crime and reactions to crime in the current era of globalization.

This article studies community notification of suspects, as in Crimewatch and its Dutch equivalent, Opsporing Verzocht, and on police websites. It explores how these messages frame crime, and how these frames change when police messages are copied by private websites. Publication of suspects by the police is characterized as responsibilization, because it legitimizes the authority of the police and reinforces existing relations between police and the public. The new media, however, undermine the frame of authority as it is presented by the police, either because publications aiming to detect suspects are transformed into news or entertainment, or because private websites select those publications that give room to the questioning of police performance. As for the presentation of the publications, this article compares the Dutch TV program Opsporing Verzocht and the website GeenStijl. Opsporing Verzocht centers around the victim, while GeenStijl presents the subject from an enforcement point of view. GeenStijl users are not addressed as the police’s helping hands, but as autonomous agents of social control, sometimes standing in for the police. Community notification of suspects therefore not only influences detection rates, but also the relation between the police, the public, and offenders in society.

Neighbourhood mediation has been practiced more than fifteen years in the Netherlands. In 2010 there was neighbourhood mediation in 160 municipalities. More than 7000 cases were handled. Volunteer mediators try to break through communication blockades and teach their neighbours to make agreements. They are successful in two thirds of the cases. This means that about 20.000 directly involved family members are participating in successful cases. The authors discuss some conditions, results and the central principles of Dutch neighbourhood mediation: communication on an equal basis, impartiality, responsibility to solve conflicts, autonomous action and the enhancement of security and quality of life.

Seemingly a difficult concept, participation in restorative justice can be understood better once the notion is broadened and operationalized. Therefore a proposal will be made here to first broaden the meaning of participation beyond participation of stakeholders and ‘community’ in the process as it is generally understood in restorative justice literature, and second break down the concept of participation into five different levels: (1) involvement of the stakeholders and the ‘community’ in the restorative process; (2) participation of citizens as volunteer mediators/facilitators in the process; (3) self-referrals from citizens; (4) voluntary participation of experts in restorative justice organisations; (5) promotion from ex-victims of crime and ex-offenders. Based on this approach, in the end, the author opens up the discussion on the meaning of active citizenship for restorative justice in continental Europe. Before discussing how the broadening of the concept of participation is concretely envisioned, the author argues on the importance of prioritizing the notion of citizenship instead of ‘community’ in the continental European restorative justice discourse.

In 2008 the prevention office of Leuven started the project ‘neighbour mediation’. Also in Flanders mediation is done by volunteers. The authors stress that mediating conflicts is difficult and demands a lot of energy. Regularly volunteers quit so continuous recruitment is necessary. The volunteers have an added value, not only for the project, but also for neighbours. The insights, life experience and engagement of individual volunteers cause residents to feel good in their proximity. They build bridges, incite residents to reflect, help people to communicate respectfully with each other, stimulate social contacts. In one formula, their attitude mirrors itself in the larger society.

This article aims at grounding and defining the role of volunteers in restorative justice practices. It starts from the observation that processes of institutionalization tend to make the role of volunteering citizens in restorative justice programmes doubtful and superfluous. These doubts are strengthened by the fact that the link between restorative justice values and the importance of working with volunteers is too easily assumed. Can we offer some well-founded arguments to back up this assumption and to outline what key roles volunteers can play? Several conceptions of restorative justice might be explored. This contribution examines the maximalist view, as developed by Lode Walgrave in his latest book Restorative Justice, Self-interest and Responsible Citizenship. The article critically asks if and how his conception demands an active role for volunteers within restorative justice practices. The paper develops its arguments on the basis of three key concepts in Walgraves model: (1) his definition of restorative justice; (2) his notion of crime; and (3) his socio-ethical intuition of common self-interest.

Since 2001, the Netherlands have broadened their array of antiterrorism legislation and policies. However, there is hardly any insight into the level of public support for them. This article assesses the Dutch public opinion on four measures that were recently made effective: enhanced possibilities for stop-and-search, broadening of possibilities for special investigative resources, increased obligations for identification, and body scans in airports. Two randomly selected, comparable groups were asked different questions about these issues: attitudes or willingness to pay. The results show that respondents have positive attitudes towards newly introduced antiterrorism measures, yet simultaneously, they have low willingness to pay. Both groups were also asked how they would allocate an imaginary fixed budget to various criminal justice policies and tax rebate. These results show similar relations for both attitudes and willingness to pay, suggesting they both measure the relative importance assigned to antiterrorism policies. A right political orientation predicts both positive attitudes and high willingness to pay. Furthermore, people with high income have higher willingness to pay. The results underline the necessity to pay attention to the subtleties underlying public opinion on crime control.

The Dutch aftercare for former prisoners is strongly developing. This article describes lessons from international experiences with aftercare for former prisoners in three areas of life: alcohol and drug problems, work and housing. Moreover, it discusses which lessons are especially relevant for the Dutch system. The analysis of the literature shows to what extent and under which conditions voluntary aftercare can affect reintegration and recidivism. Conclusions are that various aftercare programs do affect recidivism to some extent, but that the level of success differs substantially across programs and across subpopulations of former prisoners. Both programs that start during detention and continue after release and programs that combine multiple services (e.g. housing services and drug treatment) are most successful. Work programs have the strongest effects for older individuals. In all three areas of aftercare studied in this article, the strongest program effects were found for subpopulations with the highest risk of recidivism. The review also shows that communication between organizations and the integration of services are very important for the success of aftercare programs.

In this contribution the author reviews: Risico’s en redelijkheid. Verkenning naar een rijksbreed beoordelingskader voor de toelaatbaarheid van risico’s, by I. Helsloot, R. Pieterman & J.C. Hanekamp.

In this contribution the author reviews: Integrale veiligheid als reflectieve praktijk, by Sjaak Khonraad.