In the past years important changes have occurred in police work in the Netherlands and Belgium. These developments, and new questions that arose because of these developments, are the reason we dedicate a special issue to ‘the police and citizen in a changing context’. In this introduction of this issue, we describe a number of developments and new questions. We address the changing distance between police officers and citizens, authority and trust, the role of citizens, technology and digitization and growing complexity and diversity. In addition, the articles in this special issue are introduced.

While not a new phenomenon, research on criminal intrusion in (small) businesses is often focussed on the perspective of the criminal, reconstructed after a crime has taken place. In this article we add the perspective of the entrepreneur from the moment he/she is confronted with early signs of possible criminal intrusion. Firstly, we introduce a definition of criminal intrusion, based on 18 cases of (attempted) criminal intrusion in small business: The process by which an actor of a criminal organization turns to and associates with a bona fide corporation, making that corporation a facilitator of criminal business process without its deliberate intent. Secondly, we distinguish three (not necessarily limitative) main practices on how this facilitation of crime takes place within the scope of criminal intrusion in bona fide businesses: 1) a transactional model, which focusses on an exchange of products or services between criminal organizations and businesses; 2) a parasitic relationship where operational processes are abused for criminal gains, and 3) infiltration, in which targeted infiltration, corruption of employees or ‘criminal investment’ takes place to gain a foothold within the business. By introducing a theoretical framework for the categorisation of cases, we hope to further develop the possibilities of (criminological) analysis of criminal intrusion, while simultaneously provide small business owners insights to strengthen their resilience against organised crime.

Dutch mayors play an increasingly prominent role in tackling (organized) crime. However, empirical research into how mayors fulfil this role remains scarce. Based on 23 interviews with nineteen mayors and sixteen municipal officials, this study reveals the different ways in which mayors have given meaning to the administrative approach of outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs) in the period 2012-2017. While the national approach to OMCGs fits within the wider focus in society on prevention and the exclusion of ‘risky groups’, this empirical study shows how mayors give their own effect to this focus at the local level.

Though less well-known than for instance the narcotics or weapons trade, illegal organ trade is a lucrative business with yearly revenues estimated between 840 million and 1.7 billion USD. The most commonly reported form of organ trade is the trade in living donor kidneys. The current study maps the criminal network behind the illegal organ trade that took place in the Medicus clinic in Kosovo based on police files, indictments, transcripts of suspect and victim statements, court rulings and interviews. The Medicus case involved at least 27 living kidney donations. Operations were performed by eleven actors in teams of varying composition. The total criminal network consisted of 107 individuals and is characterized by a low density and features a number of central actors.

In the reduction of undermining crime in the Netherlands, the role of local government has become more important over the past decade. One of the means used for this is Article 13b of the Opium Act (the Damocles Act). That has evolved from a way of closing down local dealer properties to a means of disrupting the criminal drug world. In this article we analyse the developments that the application of the article has gone through. We make an inventory of the actual use of the article in a region known as one of the hotbeds of subversive crime in the Netherlands, the region of West and Central Brabant. Finally, we will discuss the consequences that application of the article has for the position of the mayor. Does this lead to a mayorship in which this officer becomes more of a ‘sheriff’ and less of a mayor? We show that this is not the case.

Art crime, related to the existence of hidden art, appears in the legal and illegal art market. In the criminal ‘artopolis’ especially iconoclasm, forgeries and looting are longstanding phenomena. Today they are subject to the debate on art restitution.

The Russian avant-garde world serves as an empirical example of the embeddedness of criminal actors (fraudsters, smugglers, thieves) in the legal art market of curators, collectors and museum directors. The article discusses various dilemmas regarding the interpretation of criminal activities in the art world. Is the smuggling of ‘forbidden art’ from the Soviet Union a patriotic act or a crime? Why do world-famous museums exhibit forgeries? What are the financial and judicial consequences of a lack of consensus between art experts?

The ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp are among the main European ports of entry for the import and further distribution of cocaine. Earlier research underlines the interchangeability of these ports regarding the criminal networks trafficking cocaine into Europe. In this contribution, the interchange­ability of these European sea ports regarding cocaine trafficking is questioned. Based on empirical research, and applying the routine activity approach, the Port of Rotterdam and the Port of Antwerp are compared with respect to their physical characteristics, the potential, motivated offenders, as well as the existing public and private security measures.

In recent years, the authorities have dismantled several encrypted phone providers. These providers stored millions of messages about covert activities that were overtly exchanged between criminals. This type of communication offers a unique insight into serious organized crime and the people involved. Based on one such intercepted encrypted phone network, called PGP-Safe, we carried out a social network analysis on the Dutch-speaking synthetic drug market. Three findings stand out. Firstly, three-quarters of all accounts (N=4,158) are interconnected in a giant component, resulting in a criminal small-world effect. Secondly, the network appears to be robust. As a consequence, the removal of central accounts will hardly have any impact on the network as a whole. Thirdly, the majority of the accounts within the synthetic drug market is involved in poly-drug trafficking. The Dutch synthetic drug market is much more closely intertwined with other drug markets than is commonly known.

As drug producing countries and logistical hubs, the Netherlands and Belgium are topping the worldwide charts in the field of international drug trafficking. For this reason, the Netherlands – and to a lesser extent Belgium – is depicted as a ‘narco state’ in the media and the political arena. Another term that is frequently used when it comes to crime problems related to drugs is ‘subversive crime’. In this introduction of the special issue on drug crime, the authors elaborate on two themes that are central to the terms ‘narco state’ and ‘subversive crime’: the size and estimates of the drug economy and the embeddedness of the drug industry in the legal world in the Netherlands and Belgium.

This paper concerns the question whether in the period 2011-2017 displacement effects occurred from the Netherlands to Belgium in the context of synthetic drugs production, cannabis cultivation, and retail of illicit drugs, and if so, how these may be explained. We conclude that displacement took place in modi operandi of retail drug dealers. This is explained foremost by the policy of banning non-residents from Dutch coffeeshops in border region municipalities. Dealers and traffickers responded by switching to local distribution in Belgium as well as deliveries by drug couriers. The synthetic drugs and cannabis cultivation markets show minor changes in modi operandi, but no changes occurred in choosing production locations. Displacement effects in the context of organized drug crime must be explained from a range of factors. Reality is therefore more complex than assuming that government interventions are the main cause of a balloon effect.

In order to advance our understanding of digital drug markets on social media, this article examines the trustworthiness of cocaine dealers on Telegram Messenger. Based on an exploratory netnography, we illustrate that digital dealers on Telegram Messenger use a number of sales tactics to attract potential customers, emphasizing the quality of the goods and service and (competitive) pricing strategies. These sales tactics include various signals that seem intended to appear as trustworthy as possible to potential customers. Seen from the perspective of signaling theory, our study highlights the ambiguity of these signals that, depending on the online observer, could both signal trustworthiness and untrustworthiness.

This article describes traits of the hitherto underexposed transit trade of cocaine via the Netherlands, based on a qualitative social network analysis of a diversity of data. Research findings show that the transit trade via the Netherlands is dominated by poly-drug trafficking. It is noteworthy that streams of predominantly mono-drugs are entering the Netherlands, while mainly streams of poly-drugs are leaving the country. Our research furthermore shows that cocaine intended for European markets may be transited via the Netherlands to European countries to which the cocaine was initially imported. This is what we refer to as ping-pong trade. Another characteristic of the transit trade of cocaine via the Netherlands is that the actors involved, mainly coordinate parts of the cocaine supply chain. Although different groups within the cocaine distribution chain collaborate, this does not necessarily mean they actually know each other. Taken together, the organization of the distributive trade of cocaine is in this article positioned as an interdependent transnational network of networks (NoN). We suggest that future research into the transit trade of cocaine should apply such a transnational NoN perspective to fully grasp the interdependence of the micro and meso levels of the trade and, in so doing, ultimately comprehend the effect this may have on the macro level.

This qualitative study examines how criminal careers in cybercrime start and can be explained. Based on offender and expert interviews, the authors conclude that traditional factors linked with the initiation, such as a maturity gap (for juvenile offenders) and opportunism (for adult offenders), in combination with different types of (online) disinhibition – social, technical, situational and psychological – can explain the start of a criminal career. Features of the digital context appear to play a major role in the development of a criminal career and this requires more online supervision and education about – among other things – legal alternatives and the risks and boundaries of the online environment.

This article contains the results of a crime script analysis regarding the processes of human trafficking and human smuggling in Curaçao. The crime script analysis was conducted using data from five criminal investigations of human trafficking and seven criminal investigations of human smuggling. The results show that human trafficking in Curaçao consists of labor exploitation and sexual exploitation in bars, cafes and clubs. Young women are recruited from Colombia, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic to work as waitresses, trago girls and/or prostitutes. Once they arrive on the island, the women are dependent on the perpetrators and are subjected to exploitation In this research, two types of human smuggling have been witnessed. The first type consists of Venezuelan smugglers who transport fellow Venezuelan nationals to Curaçao by boat in exchange for payment. The second type of smugglers are Curaçao locals who rent out rooms to Venezuelans that reside on the island illegally.

This article provides a case description of the development of an integrated safety monitor for the governance on policy goals. The governance on these safety goals took place in cooperation between eight municipalities and Police, Justice, Fireworks, Health Care providers for addiction or domestic violence and partners in incident and crisis management. Two problems were adressed. The first problem is that the evidence on process and results of monitoring from data to interpretation and policy choices in cooperation with different safety partners, is scarce. The second problem is that monitoring of a wide range of indicators on integrated safety is also scarce. In our case, the gathering of data and the interpretation of these data together with all the partners formed a cyclical process. This corresponds with the theory of governance developed by Ansell and Gash in a meta-analysis in 2008. The starting conditions were made clear. The design of the monitoring process was translated into themes of working sessions with a group of policy advisors, giving them a structure for the governance on the policy goals. This group developed a layered set of indicators. These set of indicators was broken down in the four policy goals as well as in different steps in the safety chain. Indicators from different registrations of the safety partners were combined with indicators about the perception of safety measured by a representative sample of the residents. The layered set of indicators was supportive in the discussion about a well balanced monitoring on prevention, signals, interventions and effect. The data were interpreted together with the safety partners. This was helpful in creating a joint perspective on safety problems and in the discussion about meaningful policy actions. The challenge now is to persevere in the cyclical process from data to interpretation and shared understanding about policy goals.

Policy coherence in the area of safety and justice – A longitudinal analysis of service delivery per euro spent in the S&J sector during the period 1980-2016

In the safety and justice policy area, there is a strong intertwining between performances of the various sectors, such as police, judiciary and prison system. The question is whether policy takes these interdependencies into account sufficiently. Are the resources used – from a broader wealth perspective – optimally allocated amongst the various safety and justice provisions? The authors answer this question on the basis of an integrated time series analysis of the productivity development of the Dutch safety and justice system in the period 1980-2016. The analysis shows that productivity of safety and justice services has hardly changed since 1980. At best, in 2016, citizens will receive as much value per euro of taxpayers’ money as in 1980, but probably slightly less. It is striking, however, that the S&J system as a whole operates more efficient than the sum of its parts (the individual sectors). There have been substantial changes in the allocation of resources over time. Obviously money from the police was transferred to the judiciary and municipalities.