In this paper delinquent development from age 12 to 29 of 498 juvenile sex offenders is analyzed. Fixed and random effects models are used to determine the effect of employment and of the stability of employment on the criminal career. We first show that juvenile sex offenders have limited access to the labor market, with stagnating participation rates from age 25 on, many different and short contracts. In spite of this, employment reduces offending, and having stable employment has an additional reducing effect on crime. We also looked at three types of sex offenders (child abusers, peer abusers and group offenders), who have a different background and for whom therefore effects could differ. We found no difference for offender types in the effect of employment on offending. The effects of employment stability, however, were due to only child abusers experiencing significant effects of continuity. We conclude that for juvenile sex offenders employment impacts similarly on offending as was found in previous studies among high-risk groups.

Much of developmental and life course criminological research addresses either the onset and escalation of antisocial behavior in childhood and adolescence, or the desistance from crime during the adult years. Far less attention has been paid to the years in which adolescents first make the transition to adulthood. Over the last 50 years due to increased educational demands this transition period has become prolonged and increasingly deinstitutionalized, resulting in a new life stage denoted as the emerging adult period. This introductory paper describes the ways in which this newly formed life stage between ages 18 and 28 is relevant for criminology, questions our knowledge on criminal career development during this period and explores new research avenues that may contribute to a full-fledged criminology of the emerging adulthood.

The link between being employed and delinquent behaviour is complex. This article examines to what extent having a job, the commitment to that job and the future prospects of that job are related to delinquency. We use data from the Utrecht Study of Adolescent Development (USAD), a six-year, three-wave longitudinal study, pertaining to a general population sample of 669 young adults between the ages of 18 and 28. Having a job is associated with an increase in delinquency for 18 and 19 year old males. The results for subsequent ages show a trend towards a delinquency decreasing effect at subsequent ages. The effect of work characteristics – commitment, future prospects – is less clear.

Over the last 60 years, attention has been drawn periodically to offenders in different age categories, such as young children, adolescents and young adults, and tor services and programmes that should be available for these groups. In 2011, the State Secretary of Security and Justice proposed a penal law for adolescents and young adults aged 15 to 23. Such a proposal requires a (empirical) view of young adult offenders (aged 18 to 24) and the penal sanctions they receive in comparison with adolescent (aged 12 to 17) offenders and adults (aged 25 to 30). Crime statistics show that prevalence, type and seriousness of crime committed by young adults are different from that of adolescents and adults. Self-report studies show fewer and smaller differences, but this may be explained in part by the more serious nature of offences committed by young adults, which are usually not addressed in self-reports. Outcomes support the idea that a separate approach and specific interventions for young adults are needed. Similarities with adolescents with regard to neurobiological development justify a focus on a more pedagogical and behavioral approach, which is also a key feature of penal justice for juveniles.

Rooted in forty years of history and experience a new concept is developed in empowering victims of domestic violence. Sheltering is not the solution to stop the violence; domestic violence is a social problem instead of an individual issue. The Orange Houses is a Dutch women’s refuge shelter with a new approach: ‘sheltered in the open’. The Orange House is visible and recognisable and one of the consequences is working with all family members in order to stop the violence.Family Group Conference as a decision making model appears to be effective for families to make their own plans. When given responsibility of the situation and the solution, families, also in situations of domestic violence, create, according to themselves and professionals as well, safe and creative plans that fit.Illustrated by a personal story it becomes clear that family can and will make the positive difference for members of them in trouble.Research is an important key to ensure that civilians in comparable situations – for instance elderly abuse, abuse by professionals, divorce – do have the choice of making their own plans and decisions before or instead of professional intervention.

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.