This article contains a plea for a further operationalization of the subsidiarity principle (penal law and punishment as ultimum remedium) through a maximalist restorative justice, i.e. a restorative justice that not only offers space for ‘voluntary processes’ and agreed restoration, but also for ‘compulsory procedures’ and imposed restoration. An attempt is made to make the maximalist arsenal of restorative sanctions as concrete as possible. Two examples of sanctions that are ‘constructed’ in a restorative way in this article, are restorative community service and restorative electronic home detention. This article is based on work by John Blad and Lode Walgrave that has previously appeared in Tijdschrift voor Herstelrecht.

This article presents findings from a longitudinal study of 81 young recidivists examined over fifteen years. By the age of 25, 50 percent had desisted for at least three years. 60 percent had had no new police contacts during the last two years. Four stages could be distinguished in the desistance process. Apart from a small number of explicit persisters, all of the young adults did consciously consider whether the benefits of their criminal activities outweighed the disadvantages. With just a few exceptions, the decision to quit was not motivated by an altruistic goal, nor by extreme fear, but mainly motivated by the feeling of being too old for criminal life and by striving for a pleasant self-esteem. It is concluded that when young adult recidivists give up crime, this must be seen as an extreme and extremely late form of maturation.

In this article, we report on our initial findings (from the field) regarding conflict resolution among the Maroons in Suriname. After first providing some background information about the Maroons (section 2), we describe their manner of conflict resolution after a crime has taken place and we explain what justice within this context entails for them (section 3). Subsequently, we try to distil ‘the useful elements’ from the Maroons’ approach to crime, that is to say elements with which modern restorative justice, i.e. restorative justice that meets, inter alia, human rights and constitutional requirements, can be nourished and strengthened. We also discuss some of the challenges we have encountered, where the traditional legal system and the modern criminal justice system come together (section 4). Then we try to build some possible bridges between the two legal systems (section 5). The contribution concludes with providing a window on the future of the development of restorative justice in Suriname and the Netherlands.

For co-victims of severe traffic offenses in the Netherlands, peer support is offered. However, no research into the meaning of peer support for this specific group of victims has been conducted. In this study, nineteen narrative interviews with co-victims of traffic offenses were collected. These interviews show that through dialogue and the sharing of experiences, as well as the care and support for each other, peer support offers the possibility to work on the meaning-making of the traffic offense and its aftermath. The article ends with policy implications and steps for follow-up research.

This contribution seeks to bring together three themes in a descriptive and exploratory manner: (a) community service orders, (b) traffic offences and (c) restorative justice; the Dutch situation is central. To this end, the Dutch legal regulation regarding community service orders is first explained. Attention is also paid to existing empirical research on the effectiveness of community service orders in terms of reduction of recidivism (section 2). Furthermore, the sanctioning of traffic offences is discussed as well as the consequences for this of the current bill that seeks to sharpen criminal liability for serious traffic offences (section 3). Subsequently, it is examined which restorative justice provisions or modalities are available and how restorative community service orders are and can be designed (section 4). Finally, I describe my ideal when it comes to the sanctioning of traffic offences in the form of a continuum in which a special role is reserved for restorative community service orders (section 5). The contribution ends with a conclusion (section 6).

The last years victim awareness has received special attention in the Dutch probation service. Three goals are central: respecting the rights and interests of the victim, mapping and increasing victim awareness of the probation client, and working towards the possibilities for recovery. Based on discussions with probation officers, this contribution sketches a picture of how this takes shape in practice. Experience shows that good results are achieved, but that more training and attention to the subject is needed to give it a full place in the probation work.

In this introductory article we will discuss some of the recent developments in corporate crime research in the Netherlands and Belgium since 2008. In doing so, we will answer the following three questions: (1) What are the most important developments in the way research on corporate crime has been carried out? (2) What are key themes in corporate crime research? (3) What are the most important blind spots in research into corporate crime? We will conclude with some avenues for future research on corporate crime and its enforcement.

Since 1994, public prosecutors in Belgium can propose ‘penal mediation’ to criminal suspects. The supervision and follow-up of this procedure are provided by ‘justice assistants’ (comparable to probation officers), who systematically record crucial information and register it in the national database SIPAR. An exploration of this database reveals interesting insights regarding the actual practice of penal mediation. On the basis of the available data we also examined whether or not we could find relevant correlations between characteristics of (offenders in) cases and the extent to which cases have resulted in an agreement and proper compliance with that agreement. Finally, for a better comprehension of the actual practice of penal mediation in Belgium twelve interviews with justice assistants have been conducted.

This study addresses next to the question to what extent offenders become victims themselves also and for the first time in the Netherlands the degree in which victims become suspects of criminal investigations themselves. Furthermore, this study also examines whether this reciprocal relationship is in fact spurious, caused by socio-demographic characteristics of individuals. Annual victimization survey data combined with longitudinal police data show a positive reciprocal relationship, even after controlling for socio-demographic characteristics of individuals. Subgroups that score relatively low on offending and victimization show a stronger reciprocal relationship, while for subgroups with relatively high scores, the relationship is less strong or even negative.

Using longitudinal data on the criminal careers of a group of high-risk men and women (N=540) who were institutionalized in a Dutch juvenile justice institution, this article addresses the effects of employment on crime. Results show that a large part of the sample is convicted for a serious offence at least once during the follow-up period. Participation and frequency of offending are higher among men compared to women. Employment participation of both men and women is below average. Fixed effects as well as random effects models show employment to reduce the odds of offending. Only for men, employment stability has an additional negative effect on offending.

Marriage is considered to be an important life-course event that can lead to desistance from a criminal career. However, desistance is far less obvious when offenders marry criminal partners. The aim of this study is to investigate what impact a spouse’s criminal career at the time of marriage has on persistence in crime. To analyze the relationship between marriage, spousal criminality, and criminal offending, we use a unique longitudinal dataset: the Criminal Career and Life-course Study. This is the first study that contains longitudinal data on the criminal careers of both offenders and their partners. Results show that the frequency of criminal conviction is lower if men marry non-criminal spouses. However, if men marry criminal spouses, their conviction rate does not differ from those who remain single. For women, on the other hand, marriage is related to lower conviction frequencies no matter the spouse’s criminal history.

This article describes the officially recorded criminal careers from age twelve to 22 for all boys and girls who were born in the Netherlands in 1984. Using data on police contacts (HKS) we ask: (1) What proportion of the 1984 birth cohort has a police contact between ages twelve and 22?, (2) What are the criminal career characteristics of those registered?, (3) What is the nature of the crimes these youths are registered for?, and (4) How do chronic offenders and recidivists differ from one-time offenders? We answer these questions separately for boys and girls and for youths of different ethnic origin. Ethnicity was based on the country of birth of (one of) the parents. Our results show that 23 percent of men and 5 percent of women born in 1984 had at least one police contact prior to age 23. Youths of non-Dutch origin were overrepresented in police registrations. Overrepresentation was strongest for boys of Moroccan origin: 54 percent was registered at least once, and of those registered one third were registered five times or more. Moroccan girls were also overrepresented.

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.