Various disciplines have a longstanding tradition of studying musical genres and the various functions of music, but few criminologists focus on music in their scientific work. This article discusses various relationships between music, crime and culture. We discuss the hypothesis of ‘criminogenic’ music genres, and countless examples of criminalisation of music. We point at the stilistic importance of music genres for subcultures and social movements, and we raise ethical aspects: music can also be used as an instrument of (symbolic) violence, as a punishment or even as torture. Finally, we discuss other functional uses of music: as a vehicle for human emotions, for therapeutic purposes, to influence the behavior of employees and consumers, to enhance feelings of public safety, and to prevent crime and nuisance.

In this article on the social production of the book Outsiders, I will situate its production in the daily practice of the social worlds in which Becker was involved. Therefore I focus on the relations, interactions and situations which were relevant for the form, content and success of Outsiders. For data, I use fragments from my email communication with Howard Becker, the collected interviews and other publications which show that Becker seeks to demystify Outsiders. My main contribution is that I use Becker’s own words to demystify the ethnographic practice of Outsiders and describe its mundane backstage reality, which is described by Fine as ‘the underside’ of ethnography (1993).

In this essay the nature of crime and death in opera is dealt with, focussing on a select number of operas, such as Verdi’s MacBeth, Wagner’s Die Walküre and Strauss’s Salome and Elektra. It appears that crime in opera is pervasive and appears in many different forms, as well as in a wide variety of contexts. An attempt is made to analyse the way composers manipulate the circumstances of killings – lenghtening or shortening or replacing scenes – in order to get maximum results in terms of emotional content.

This article deals with the performance of ‘street credibility’. A dramaturgical analysis of the lyrics and videos of 15 rap artist from The Hague sheds light on the various ways they try to achieve a credible street reputation as rappers. In their frontstage presentation they highlight their street knowledge, strike violent poses, and claim affiliation to certain infamous local gangs or neighborhoods. Backstage, however, these performances are being deconstructed by other actors who participate in the local street culture and who form a critical, metaphysical audience of the presentations of the rappers.

The social history of jazz music in America since 1880 has been described as a movement out of the inauspicious background of night clubs and brothels in the urban underworld. In 1980 Ronald L. Morris has published a book, Wait until dark, fostering a contrary view (that should inspire criminology). Morris claimed that until 1940 the ‘mob’ had promoted jazz music as gangsters hired black musicians without concern for the law and the conventions of racial segregation. There is some evidence that even during the 1950s the jazz scene of New York City and Las Vegas had also been partly organized by the mafia.

In this article I will explore the concept of transgression within the realm of rock music using the biography of Lou Reed, known for such songs as ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ and ’I’m Waiting for the Man’. I discuss Lou Reed’s social transgressions as a reaction to and resistance toward institutions of social control such as family, media and the music industry, which stigmatized him as an outsider. This study, which is based on secondary material, such as biographies, interviews and songs, shows how Lou Reed transgressed social norms with respect to drugs, sex, and gender.

The article reflects on the conceptual work undertaken during the first year of ALTERNATIVE, a project coordinated by KU Leuven. The overall objective of the project is to provide an alternative and deepened understanding of justice and security based on empirical evidence of how to handle conflicts within intercultural contexts, mainly through the active participation of citizens. The paper focuses mainly on the relation of the concept of citizenship with restorative justice, especially as viewed and enacted in the four intercultural settings of the ALTERNATIVE project. Several issues are discussed: the concept of participatory citizenship in relation to crime and conflict; the claim of the discourse of restorative justice to the concept of participatory citizenship and democracy and the challenges in the restorative justice discourse that complicate its relationship to participatory citizenship. Next, insight is provided in the ways the ALTERNATIVE project tries to tackle some of these challenges, by exploring and strengthening the relationship between the concept of active citizenship and justice in Europe. By targeting the intercultural field the ALTERNATIVE aims to explore the potential of mediation services and restorative justice models to engage with macro societal conflicts that are not referred to these services by the criminal justice system, and on the other hand expand the way some of the crimes referred by the criminal justice system are handled by the mediation services alternatively by fostering alliances with various civil society organisations. Employing ‘action research’ methodology, it is argued that the concept and framework of ‘nodal governance’ (Shearing and Wood, 2003) can serve to support participatory modes of conflict regulation. Interactive settings are created, which allow for spaces between informal and formal justice, and between justice mechanisms at the individual and at the societal level (Aertsen, 2001, 2008). Arguments are provided in support of the need to promote broader models of restorative justice which are able to address social and systemic crimes and conflicts, and which will help the theory and practice of RJ to move beyond the individualisation of crime and its remedies.

The Eigen Kracht Centrale is striving for a society based on participation and mutual self reliance of citizens, where citizens remain in charge of their own life, especially when dealing with organizations and government bodies. It is important, in the Eigen Kracht Centrale vision, that everyone is part of society and everyone can participate, everyone has a say and remains in charge of his or her own life, everyone gets support from their own social network: family, friends, neighbors, etc.
Especially when problems arise that might lead to involvement of various (social care) institutions.
To implement this vision in daily life, the Eigen Kracht Centrale has introduced the Family Group-conference as a decision making model. This model appears to be effective for citizens to make their own plans. When given responsibility for the situation and the solution, citizens, in every situation thinkable, create, according to themselves and professionals as well, save and creative plans that fit.
In this article the FG-c for a group, district or neighbourhood is discussed and is illustrated by real life examples. Even when people don’t know each other, they can make a plan to solve conflicts in their street or neighbourhood: they all have a strong interest in living in safe, comfortable surroundings. Although the experience with this variant of FGC is limited in The Netherlands: what are they, what lessons can be learned?

In various neighbourhoods in Amsterdam tensions between their inhabitants are felt. Inhabitants are irritated by the behaviour of youths, polluted streets and nuisance from their neighbours. They are incapable or do not dare to address each other about this and to solve their problems by themselves. Instead they look towards the authorities for help, which are dealing with insufficient capacity. As a consequence it is getting harder and harder to address and correct each other. Small problems and conflicts develop into big and complex issues.
Amsterdam authorities use various policy tools, pointed at both increasing its own decisiveness and credibility and at mobilizing civilians. Those policies are the Bully-approach, Neighbourhood Safety Teams, Self-protective Neighbourhoods and stimulation of civic initiatives. The reality is stubborn, but also shows bottom-up examples which function succesfully and independently from government approaches and programs. In these examples civic force plays an important role.
These examples, knowledge and persons who play key roles can be brought together and are useful in the search for solutions of problems in other situations. This is most effective when civilians attack issues and are integrated with worthy instruments from the authorities. This will gradually enable a reconstruction of the current system and a social reacquisition of neighbourhoods. In this social ‘football ‘ team civilians would be the strikers, backed up by a strong and professional governmental midfield. This article consecutively defines the current problem, regards the governmental instruments, bottom-up initiatives. It ends up with the suggestion for the construction of a good teamplay between policy tools en bottom up initiatives.

Utrecht, the fourth largest city of The Netherlands, is addressing resolving social conflict by promoting schools to adhere to the Peaceful School Program and civilians and professionals to join the Peaceful Neighborhood Program. The Peaceful School Program is designed to address problematic behavior of youth in primary, secondary and high school education and evolved into a democratic and participatory citizenship program. The Peaceful Neighborhood Program is involving important organizations that are active within the neighborhood, members of the community and stake-holders to adapt peaceful attitudes in daily life, including a mind-set that addresses conflicts by resolving them (together).
These two programs are in the process of ‘conquering’ the whole of the city of Utrecht and every single neighborhood. The so-called Utrecht Model for Mediation is supporting these Peaceful Programs, through empowering citizens and professional to enhance their ‘peaceful skills’ and skills for conflict resolution. Citizens and professionals are being trained to develop this mindset. The Utrecht Model for Mediation is organizing a community of mediators that can be of help. A pool of volunteer mediators is being formed to help organizations, professionals, parents, students and members of the community in case of problems, tensions, problematic behavior of youth groups, etcetera. Professional mediators intervene in case of escalated conflicts and penal cases.

A regional risk profile (RRP) is a systematic ordering – by likelihood and impact seriousness – of identified hazards and threats in one of the Netherlands’ 25 safety regions. Since 2010, RRPs follow the Dutch National Risk Assessment (NRA) as a basis for prioritising regional safety capacities. In Europe, RRPs are proliferating, and the corresponding risk-assessment approach is further spreading internationally. The methodology comprises risk identification, scenario development, multi-criteria impact evaluation, expert likelihood estimation, a two-dimensional risk diagram and an analysis and prioritisation of safety capabilities. A compact overview and discussion is provided of the 25 published RRPs for the Netherlands, each covering between 9 and 40 hazards and threats, along with their most and least worrying risk scenarios. It appears that for many regions pandemic disease, electricity black-out and major flooding are most worrying, while transport accident, industry fire and disturbance of water supply are (relatively) least worrying. Also, in different regions similar risk scenarios (e.g., pandemic disease and electricity black-out) are assessed rather differently, both by likelihood and by impact seriousness. Apparent weaknesses of the RRP (and the NRA) approach so far are, among other: lack of stakeholder involvement, rigid multi-criteria impact evaluation, hybrid methods for likelihood estimation, forced comparison of disparate risk scenarios, and unclear decision rules for risk acceptance. Independent review and validation of major RRP components is recommended for strengthening overall results as a reliable basis for regional safety policies. The ‘new risk thinking’ is considered in view of the long-problematic standard-setting approach about Individual Risk and Group Risk in the framework of Dutch external-safety policies. The RRP approach may be called ambitious and much-demanding. External validation and closer cooperation between safety policy-makers and scientists seem desirable.

This article examines the safety perception of citizen participants in neighbourhood watches. Two questions are central: to what extent is it correct to assume that participation increases feelings of safety, and what is the role of measuring safety perceptions in local safety policy? In-depth interviews with 21 participants in The Hague show that participation changes perceptions of safety both positively and negatively, which is related to contacts with other residents, the information they receive about safety and crime problems, and experienced effectiveness in solving problems. Participation seems to result rather in a more nuanced perception of safety. The article ends with a discussion on the value of a detailed insight into the perception of safety for local safety policies.

In an attempt to reduce re-offending rates in the Netherlands, the Dutch government has developed the Prevention of Recidivism program, which started in 2002. The current study aims to describe the content of this program, and aims to give an overview of the state of the art concerning the execution and effectiveness of the program. Results show that the number of detainees taking part in the program is fairly limited. Moreover, in many cases, correctional interventions are not part of the imposed rehabilitation program. An extensive literature study shows that the execution of the Prevention of Recidivism program and various correctional intervention show a number of implementation problems, which probably hamper the program’s effectiveness. However, further research is necessary to assess if the Prevention of Recidivism program successfully lowers recidivism rates amongst program participants.