Illegal (IUU) fishing is a relatively understudied area within criminology. In this article the authors briefly describe what IUU fishing entails, what is known about the consequences of such fishing, and will list law enforcement issues. They illustrate how illegal fishing can be organized in different ways, and will give some examples of fish fraud. The authors also discuss the (massive) measurement issues. The ecological impact of IUU fishing constitutes an important reason for more research into this phenomenon.

In a vignette study, we investigated the extent to which factors may mitigate the relative ‘unattractiveness’ of one-time offenders as cohabitation partners. These factors include having a job, not having a criminal record and the amount of time that has passed since the offence was committed. This was done by asking students to advise a hypothetical person whether he or she should start cohabiting with his or her partner who had offended once. The factors of interest were systematically varied. Our findings showed a more positive cohabitation advice when the offender had committed the offence relatively long ago. Our findings also showed a more positive cohabitation advice when the offender was employed. This is an important finding, as this may indicate that being employed also helps ex-offenders getting their lives back on track with respect to cohabitation.

Previous research showed that job applicants with a criminal record have lower chances of obtaining employment compared to job applicants with no criminal record. At the same time empirical studies showed that having a job is especially beneficial for ex-delinquents, as employment was found to lower recidivism. The current study uses an experimental design to look into the influence of a criminal record on employment chances. For this purpose, 520 resumes and motivation letters were sent in response to vacancies published on the internet. All were identical except for the stated offence type (no offence, violent offence, property offence, or sexual offence), duration between conviction and application, business sector and ethnicity of the applicant. Results show no effect for type of offence or no offence on employment chances. However, a strong effect is found for ethnicity. Ethnic minorities with no conviction were even found to have lower chances of receiving a positive reaction compared to applicants with a Dutch name and a conviction for a violent offence.

Throughout history people have committed theft, fraud and murder. However, the frequency and severity of crimes are not static, but varies across time and space. The ways in which people respond to crime also change over time: penalties such as banishment, corporal punishment and capital punishment were frequently imposed in early modern Europe, but do not exist here anymore. Our thinking about crime and crime control changed over time as well. In addition to so-called hard crimes such as theft and homicide, various kinds of conduct were – in some times and periods – labeled as criminal (adultery, fornication and blasphemy). In crime control, state formation resulted in the emergence and expansion and professionalization of police forces and judicial systems, which development was accompanied by increasing interactions and interplays between supranational governments, private crime fighters, and informal forms of social control. Criminologists study fluid phenomena which vary across time and space. This makes exchange of knowledge and research cooperation between historians and criminologists particularly fruitful, or as Paul Knepper put it: ‘From what has been done so far, one thing is clear enough: the most interesting criminology arises at the point that history and criminology meet’ (Knepper, 2013, 2081).

International studies show that children of teenage mothers are at elevated risk for offending. This study investigates the effect of early and late parenthood of mothers and fathers on offspring delinquency. The results confirm results from earlier studies and show that early fatherhood does not add to offending risk over and above early motherhood. Factors like family instability, family size and parental delinquency do not account for the association between early motherhood and delinquency. The elevated risk of offending applies to all children of young mothers, not just to the first-born children. Late parenthood is not associated with offspring delinquency.

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.

In this paper delinquent development from age 12 to 32 of 498 juvenile sex offenders is analyzed. Trajectory analysis distinguished five groups: adolescence-limited, adolescence-limited late bloomers, low chronic, high chronic and high declining. These groups are shown to differ on personality, family and background characteristics and type of sampling offenses.Our first conclusion is that juvenile sex offenders generally do not persist in sexual offending. Although the adolescence-limited and low chronic group correspond to Moffitt’s taxonomy, the offenses and characteristics of the groups do not. Therefore, our second conclusion is that juvenile sex offenders criminal careers only partly fit this general theory for delinquent behavior. A special theory for juvenile sex offending is required.

The transmission of violent delinquency between men from three consecutive generations is examined. Men with violent fathers are shown to have an increased risk to become violent offenders. This transmission of violent delinquency is larger than the transmission of non-violent delinquency. Moreover, it is shown that the timing of the paternal violent crime plays an important role in the intergenerational transmission of violent delinquency. The results are more in line with dynamic theories than with static theories. Though, more research is necessary to examine the precise mechanisms behind the intergenerational transmission of violent delinquency.

The backgrounds of the female vagabonds and beggars at the end of the 19th century show that contrary to their male counterparts, these females originated almost exclusively from the lower echelons of society. Their professions and those of their parents and husbands were low and ill-paid. Disease was prevalent, mortality was high and many of them had physical or psychological problems. Most of them were single and 25 percent had children out of wedlock. 20 Percent was convicted for mostly minor crimes. Because of their behaviour it is likely that they were not accepted by their family and received no support from the church or other institutions for relief of the poor. To beg and get convicted to RWI-placement may have been their only remaining survival strategy once they were old and ill.

Over 700 students judged fictitious descriptions of court cases, in which the gender of the offender was systematically varied, as well as a number of aspects pertinent to theories that explain disparities in sentencing between females and males. The results show that females indeed received shorter sentences than males, and that this difference could be attributed to the fact that male student-judges gave women shorter sentences and differential sentencing for violent crimes. We found mixed support for the chivalry as well as for the perceptual shorthand theory. More research is needed, in more realistic settings, to explain gender differences in sentencing.

Developmental trajectories are estimated of 147 high-risk girls from 12 to 32, based on conviction data. Four trajectories are identified: adolescence-limited, low frequency desisting, high frequency desisting, late onset. Despite their high delinquency risk, only few girls developed a long-term criminal career. Girls in the trajectories differ with regard to intelligence, self-concept, social skills, aggression, personality disorders, and divorced parents. For each trajectory a profile is given, based on type of offences, personality and background characteristics.

Based on an analysis of twenty five years of articles in Tijdschrift voor Criminologie, we describe developments in the use of research methods and tools. One of the questions is how and to what extent new techniques are adopted over the years and whether certain sources of data become more or less popular. Almost half of the articles were non-empirical, and of the remainder the majority primarily made use of quantitative research methods. In the second half of the period under study, the use of secondary data, collected and often processed by people other than the researcher in question, became much more prominent. Amongst other elements, international comparative research was scarce, as was the use of experimental designs. About one-third of all empirical articles were based on qualitative research. We give some suggestions to increase variation among the kind of articles published in the journal.

Incarcerated women have specific characteristics, needs, health problems, and have different experiences and adjustment problems to prison than men. Based on a survey of 251 female inmates, this paper analyses the association between imported factors, deprivation factors and psychological complaints. Depressive complaints, irritability, and risk of self-harm were all predicted through examination of both imported and deprivation factors. Psychological problems before detention was the most significant imported factor predicting psychological complaints. The most important deprivation factors were treatment by staff and other inmates and environmental stress. Posttraumatic stress complaints were predicted only by imported factors (traumatic events and psychological problems before detention). Next to the importation and deprivation factors, this paper suggests inclusion of a third group of factors: relations with children and family, which may be an independent group of factors in addition to the factors related to the prison environment.