In this article, an ongoing Flemish qualitative research on life histories and criminal careers of women in prison is discussed. We conducted autobiographical interviews with 40 female prisoners aged between 20 and 69 years. Considering our target group, we didn’t always succeed in conducting an autobiographical interview. In practice we often conducted a classic open in-depth interview. By means of file analysis, we reconstituted the criminal career of every interviewed woman. Thanks to the retrospective approach we could reveal a diversity of trajectories. We identified three pathways: (1) youth offenders, (2) early adult-onset offenders and (3) late adult-onset offenders. Remarkably, quite a lot of women are late starters. Three risk factors – to a greater or lesser extent – play a role in these pathways: a problematic educational situation in childhood, drugs and negative love affairs.

Gender, in criminological research, often refers to women. Although ‘masculinities’ and crime have been intertwined internationally for more than two decades, this isn’t so for Dutch research. Based on this international critique, this article introduces the masculinities approach in Dutch penology. Prisons are generally considered as hypermasculine settings (Toch, 1998), but this hypothesis is seldom explored within a gender framework. Nevertheless, ‘doing masculinity’ is an important coping strategy for male prisoners (Jewkes, 2005). This gap is tackled on two levels: (1) the conceptualization of ‘hegemonic masculinity’ and (2) a critical, masculinity-oriented analysis of the existing knowledge on prison life, prison culture and prison hierarchy. It aims to tackle prison masculinity stereotypes, since traditional penal insights aren’t necessarily valid from a gender point of view (Evans & Wallace, 2008). Therefore, we conclude by analyzing the value of masculinity studies for penology.

Two explanations can be found for the unequal geographical concentrations of avoidance behaviour: (1) the demographic composition of residential areas, and (2) the social and structural contextual effects of residential areas. Different studies all over the world have shown that women report more fear of crime than men. In this article we study contextual as well as individual determinants of avoidance behaviour for men and women separately to gain a better insight in the explanation of individual differences in avoidance behaviour. The theoretical framework of this study is derived from the collective efficacy theory. In the present study a contextual model was tested on a 2009 survey of 2,080 residents from 40 municipalities in Flanders (Belgium), by using block-wise multilevel analyses on data from the Social Cohesion Indicators in Flanders Survey (SCIF-survey), the Security Monitor and the registered crime statistics. The results indicate that economic disadvantage in the residential area increases the risk on avoidance behaviour both for men and women, because these areas often have high disorder and violent crime rates. With regard to the social ecology of crime this study shows that more research is needed on the differences in contextual effects of structural area characteristics on avoidance behaviour.

The Netherlands fire safety regulations require certain types of buildings to have a direct connection between the building fire alarm system and the dispatch centre of the fire brigade. These automatic fire alarm systems are mandatory for example in premises where inhabitants such as small children or elderly people have limited self-evacuation capabilites in case of fire. These automatic fire alarms aim at saving lives by a faster response of the fire brigade. However, the fast majority of these automatic alarms are false. As a result these calls constitute a considerable and undesirable drain on the fire brigade resources. These calls cause unwanted direct costs (salaries) and indirect costs (road accidents due to fire brigade mobilisation) apart from the regular maintenance costs. Up to now no data is available for the costs and benefits of the system of automatic fire alarms. This article describes the results of a study of the automatic fire alarm system in the region Twente. The yearly social costs are calculated at about € 3 million. In order to calculate the benefits all incident reports from automatic fire alarms during a period of 29 months have been investigated. In this period no call form an automatic fire alarm system has occured in which the fire brigade had to deploy its resources for a live saving or evacuation action.

Unlike the physical abusers of children, little is known about downloaders of child pornography. The key questions in this article are: who are the downloaders, what are their backgrounds, why and how they download child pornography, how they behave offline and online and what types of downloaders can be distinguished? A simple answer to these questions is currently impossible to give. There is more, preferably longitudinal, research needed on risk factors for downloading child pornography and the various types of downloaders. Combating the downloaders requires a lot of the police in terms of international cooperation and up to date knowledge and expertise. This also served the treatment practices, which is partly dependent on a properly conducted police investigation.

Consumer fraud seems to be widespread, yet little research is devoted to understanding why certain social groups are more vulnerable to this type of victimization than others. The present paper deals with internet consumer fraud victimization, and uses an explanatory model that combines insights from self control theory and routine activity theory. The results from large-scale victimization survey data among the Dutch general population (N=6,201) reveal that people with low self-control run substantially higher victimization risk, as well as people performing ‘risky’ routine activities, such as online shopping and participation in online forums. Though a minority share of the self-control-victimization link is indirect – because people with low self-control are more involved in risk-enhancing routine activities – a large direct effect on internet fraud victimization remains. This suggests that, within similar situations, people with poor impulse control respond differently to deceptive online commercial offers.

In the Netherlands, police can request a physical examination of victims of domestic violence. These examinations can be either carried out by the physician who has treated the victim, or, alternatively, by a forensic physician. From a medico-legal point of view, an examination by a forensic physician has several advantages, as forensic physicians are independent and trained in examining victims of violence and reporting to the police. The aim of the current study was to (1) describe the structure of forensic services for victims of domestic violence in the Netherlands, (2) establish with whom the police request physical examinations of victims (forensic physician vs. physicians who have treated the victim), (3) explore the underlying reasons for the choice made and (4) elaborate how the current cooperation of police and forensic physicians can be improved in favour of victims of domestic violence. For this purpose, interviews were carried out with police professionals and forensic physicians throughout the country. The results demonstrated that victims can access forensic services almost exclusively on referral by the police. Furthermore, the police in most cases request physical examinations from physicians who have treated the victim and not from forensic physicians. Reasons for referring victims to treating physicians instead of forensic physicians are costs and lack of information on forensic services. Reports provided by treating physicians are criticized by the police for being illegible, incomprehensible, and lacking information on aspects which are of importance for the legal procedure. In short, the legal position of victims could be strengthened by requesting physical examinations from forensic physicians instead from treating physicians. A major obstacle to change is a lack of funding. Furthermore, forensic services for victims of domestic violence in the Netherlands could be improved if victims could access forensic services without referral of the police.

Evaluative studies show that victims are generally satisfied with their participation in a restorative intervention, even when concerning violent crime. Therefore, we don’t have to ask whether restorative justice should be offered to victims of crime, but how it should be offered. Using the victimological literature, we explore the appropriateness of two opposing models with regard to the offer in violent crime cases. The protective model, as for instance endorsed by victim support services in Québec, is based on the concern for the protection of vulnerable victims. The proactive model, as inscribed in the 2005 law on the general offer of mediation in Belgium, is based on the informed consent principle. Both models respect the needs of victims, while ranking these needs differently. The available empirical and theoretical observations on the subject do not unilaterally support or reject either model. We, therefore, present a complementary, albeit theoretical model, i.e. the integration of the invitation to a restorative intervention within victim support services.

Discussions in the movement of restorative justice about the fundamental question, whether its interventions are alternatives to punishment or alternative punishments, have become repetitive and seem to be in a dead end. The author reviews the arguments against the background of the ‘last resort’ principle in Husak’s work. Husak distinguishes between last resort in terms of sentencing and last resort in terms of criminalization. Since the restorative justice movement does not fundamentally reject the primary criminalisations, but accepts the definitions of certain forms of conduct as crime, it merely strives to offer alternatives to punishments that would otherwise be imposed. If protagonists of restorative justice want to avoid this, they should consider an abolitionist option to strive for decriminalization.

Legislation affects restorative justice in four ways: existing legislation may allow it, new laws may enable it, laws may limit it, or restorative justice may be the norm. Examples from different countries are given and specific questions about the relationship of restorative justice to the criminal justice system discussed. It is suggested that, broadly speaking, safeguards should be legislated and practice regulated by an independent body. It is concluded that restorative practices, have the potential to transform society’s response to harmful behaviour.

The coordination in public safety has been assigned to the municipality. The central question in this article is whether the municipality is equipped to fulfil this task successfully. In this study we investigated a metropolitan security network against drug and alcohol nuisance. Questionnaires were administered among 36 organisations dealing with these nuisance problems. The social network analysis shows that the municipality is predominant in the security network. On the other hand there are several other organisations, such as the Police, health organisations and Housing Associations, that also take up a central position in the network. We also found that the municipality’s informal network is less well developed than its formal network. In contrast, the Police and several local health organisations often liaise informally with other organisations that ‘fight’ drug and alcohol nuisance within the network. Quite a number of organisations are in the position to obtain important information and to exert influence when organisations are unwilling to cooperate. Consequently, several organisations other than the municipality are suited to successfully complete the coordination in a security network.

Municipalities play an increasingly important role in the fight against organized crime. Following Italian and New York examples, the Netherlands have developed several instruments for an administrative approach to organized crime. This article describes these instruments on a local and a national level and discusses its theoretical foundations. A critical assessment is made on the reach of this administrative approach considering the perception and nature of organized crime in the Netherlands. Further, methods for assessing the effectiveness of such an approach are discussed. Has organized crime successfully been targeted and how could this be established?