Intimate partner homicide (IPH) constitutes one of the most prevalent types of homicide. This study aims to assess the nature and prevalence of intimate partner homicide in the Netherlands in the period 2009-2014. In doing so, we make use of police data, court data, and media articles. Findings show that IPH occurs 29 times per year, resulting in a victimization rate of 0.20 per 100,000, similar to other Western-European countries. Our results further show a decline in IPH in the last years. IPH in the Netherlands mostly occurs in heterosexual relationships, and involves male perpetrators and female victims. Finally, we reflect on possible causes for the decline of this type of homicide.

National thematic projects and local authorities aim to improve shelter and transport facilities for mentally disordered non-offenders. A pilot project in the south-western part of the Netherlands investigated the efficiency of psychiatric expertise in the triage process of the police emergency control room.
To evaluate incoming emergency telephone calls in terms of the type of mentally disordered behavior, the sort and degree of dangerousness, and the urgency and type of response required.
Between November 2016 and January 2017 social psychiatric nurses did weekend shifts on the emergency control room. Incoming telephone calls concerning public nuisance or disordered behavior were administered using the triage tool developed by the Dutch Association of Mental Health and Addiction Care. Nurses had access to regional information systems and were explicitly allowed to follow up on cases where continuity of care was an issue.
A total of 155 calls were evaluated producing a representative image of calls concerning mentally disordered behaviour. Results show that this type of emergency calls is not overly frequent, in many cases not extremely urgent (response time target >1 hour: 67%), and about 65% could be followed up by the general practice centre or specialised (psychiatric) healthcare services. More than half (55%) of the emergency calls involved people previously in contact with psychiatric services. Most common types of danger were public disorder (28%) and suicide risk (21%). However, in 29% of cases type of danger was unclear and 14-20% of the triage tool was inconclusive.
Triage by mental health specialists at the police emergency control room is not efficient because many cases are not very urgent and information quality is often too low to preclude street-triage. Yet screening and follow up of mentally disturbed persons can be improved by close collaboration between control room and psychiatric services.

The operational leader, the ‘gold commander’, fulfils a crucial function in crisis- and disaster management in the Netherlands. He is held responsible for the total coordination of all collaborating emergency services and supports/advises the Mayor, the Commander in Chief. Unfortunately, this function has never been very effective in practise, as shown by many evaluations. From a scientific point of view, it is easy to understand why the operational leader cannot be effective in the Dutch crisis management organisation. The operational leader has no authorities and has been seated in an emergency operation centre far from the Mayor. This article examines why this issue has not been solved, despite 30 years of studying and adjusting the Dutch crisis management organisation.

The Dutch Regional Fire Services collectively aim at preventing fire, casualties and damage. The main activity is informing citizens about fire risks and the appropriate measures they can take. From both a political and social perspective, it is valuable to know what the return of the Community Fire Safety program is. One way to chart the return of the program is a comparison of the cost of, and society’s willingness-to-pay for, the program. To estimate this willingness-to-pay, this article applies the contingent valuation method to a national representative sample of 806 Dutch citizens. The results show that willingness-to-pay of an average Dutch household is estimated to be between € 25.00 and € 35.67 per year provided the Community Fire Safety program improves the fire safety by 10%. At the national level, this amounts to 200 – 270 million euro annually. This value is seven to ten times more than the approximate costs of the current Community Fire Safety program.

Since the 1970s social integration of the police has been considered as a key element of the Dutch police. This article focusses on the question of the relevance of social integration of the contemporary police. The article is based on interviews with present and former strategic leaders of the Dutch police. This study shows that social integration is still often considered to be a highly important value for the Dutch police, particularly with regard to the growing polarisation in society. However, some of the police chiefs also express their disapproval of the concept of social integration; in their view the concept reminds us of the past. Also, police chiefs are critical of the value of the concept because of its supposed geographical focus. The paper shows that this criticism can be understood as an interpretation of social integration in terms of ‘neighbourhood policing’ and as an operational police strategy.

Following a crisis, questions are often raised about how this crisis could have happened and whether someone is to be blamed for the crisis or its bad management. The blame game can become fierce as actors try to avoid, shift or mitigate blame in order to stay in office. In 2014, a festival took place in Haaksbergen where a monster truck drove into the audience, killing three people and injuring many others. Not enough safety measures had been taken to prevent the tragedy. Many actors were to blame for that, including the local authority which had granted the permit. Other actors blamed for the events were the mayor, the monster truck driver, and the organization organizing the festival. In the end, the mayor of Haaksbergen resigned. Instead of becoming more accommodative in his response as his blame levels increased, the mayor continued to be quite defensive, stating that the permit would be granted again – even with today’s knowledge. As one council member stated it, one cannot defend something which cannot be defended.

This contribution reports on a delimited part of a larger, exploratory study, the main question of which was: How do aldermen perceive threats, what are their behavioral intentions and what is the influence of threats on the process and the outcome of decision-making? This question was answered with the help of Q-methodology, semi-structured interviews and case studies. This article discusses the results of the Q-methodology and the semi-structured interviews. The case studies will be reported separately later on. Through the Q-methodology three patterns in perception were found in dealing with threats: ‘combative and decisive’, ‘vulnerable and thoughtful’ and ‘down-to-earth and accepting’. The interviews show that it usually concerns instrumental threats that are deliberately used to influence decision making, which usually take place in the private sphere and vary from verbal aggression to physical violence. Most threats come from individuals, but some come from groups, in some cases there is a relationship with criminals. In the cases reviewed, the consequences in the private sphere are far-reaching, there are indications for the influence on public functioning (from hardening to great caution). There is almost always a report, a fuss in the media can affect the authority of the official.

In the United States, the term disproportionate minority contact (DMC) is used to refer to the disproportionate number of minority youth who come into contact with the juvenile justice system. Statistics on DMC in the United States put the issue on the political agenda and measures have been taken to reduce the inequality. In the Netherlands, there are some studies on the representation of ethnic minority groups in suspect statistics, but data regarding all ethnic groups at various stages of the juvenile justice chain are lacking. Due to this lack of information, DMC is not mentioned in Dutch research literature and is not a political issue. Therefore, the purpose of this article was to explore whether DMC existed in the Netherlands and whether elements of the US policy could be applied to the Dutch situation. To investigate this, the likelihood (odds ratio (OR)) was calculated for young people with a migration background to be registered and held as a suspect, to participate in an alternative punishment program (Halt) and their likelihood of incarceration. It turned out that the OR for young people with a non-Western migration background to be registered as a suspect was more than three times as high, with an OR of 5 or higher for some ethnic groups. The chances of a Halt-settlement were much lower for young people with a non-Western background. The odds of ending up in a youth prison was over six times higher for youngsters with a non-Western background compared to their Dutch native peers. For young people of Caribbean and Moroccan origin the likelihood was more than ten times higher. These results showed that DMC is present at all examined stages in the Dutch juvenile justice chain. The large overrepresentation of young people with a migration background (especially of Moroccan and Caribbean origin) shows that further research is needed in order to develop programs to reduce DMC. To establish this, it is important to register the ethnic origin of the individuals at all stages of the juvenile justice chain.

Early literature on female perpetrators of World War II focused on labelling the accused as deranged psychopaths, thereby distinguishing the group of perpetrators from the vast subdued and ‘normal’ population. While this perception has changed over the past decades, the perception of female perpetrators has remained limited either way, women are denied having a lot of agency when perpetrating crimes in conflict. Similar to the ‘mad Nazi’-theory these narratives imply that female perpetrators are different from ‘ordinary’ women, as their actions collide with notions of ideal femininity. This empirical research has shown that in the case of female perpetrators of World War II in the Netherlands it seems that they can be seen as ordinary women operating in extraordinary circumstances. In this study, a special group of female war criminals is described. Against the background of early post-war imaging of such women and more recent research on female perpetration during wartime, an analysis of Dutch perpetrators who received severe punishments after the War, is made. Based on unique historical data, the criminal career of these women as World War II perpetrators is analysed. The outcomes show that a notable part already had a criminal record before the war and that the perception of who they were and why they acted the way they did needs reconsideration, since they were not psychologically weak and incompetent. They were generally young, unemployed and low educated and they planned and committed their crimes of treasons in order to create better living conditions for themselves. In fact, one can claim that these women are likely to be ordinary people influenced by dispositional and situational factors.

In the current criminological literature surprisingly little is known about the development of partnerships of detainees during and after detention. In particular, it is unknown to what extent existing differences in the relationship quality at the start of the detention period continue. Therefore, this study examined how the partnerships of detainees developed by using data from the Prison Project. This is a longitudinal study in which 747 detainees with a partner were interviewed at various moments during detention and six months after detention. The results show that bad partnerships at the beginning of detention remain in general bad or end during and/or after detention, while the average to good relationships remain the same.

This study explores the influence of police detention centres environments on police suspects’ psychological wellbeing and sleep problems. Results showed that suspects detained in a police cell experience a decreased psychological wellbeing, that they sleep poorly, and that their psychological wellbeing is related to sleep problems. Implications for police detention in relation to suspects’ psychological wellbeing and sleep problems, as well as directions for future research on police detention centre environments, are discussed.

This article examines whether samples obtained through offline and online modes, within the context of juvenile delinquency research, differ from one another, when in principle the same population of youths could be reached. Youths participating through a computer-assisted web interviewing mode (CAWI) report less delinquent behaviour, fewer risk factors for delinquency, and exhibit a lower prevalence in police registration, compared to youths participating through a mixed computer-assisted personal interviewing and computer-assisted self-interviewing mode (CAPI/CASI).

Nuclear energy is a controversial topic in Belgium and the government strives for a nuclear exit by 2025. However, there are few notable policy efforts which prepare the country for such a future. The framing of nuclear energy is crucial in the ongoing debate about its usage. In this article, the author analyses the discourse of the nuclear lobby and government through a green criminological lens. She compares the discourse with academic literature about nuclear energy and identifies ideological strategies via the analytical framework of Larrain (1983).

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.

The Netherlands are considered as an important hub for the illicit trade in species of endangered birds protected by the CITES convention. In this article the authors analyze five substantial criminal cases from three different perspectives. First, from a criminal business perspective, the cases illustrate that logistics vary from relatively simple to highly complex, but always require in-depth knowledge of the animals as well as regulations, to be able to keep the birds alive to make a profit, and to smuggle them to the Netherlands, respectively. Second, from a network perspective, it is clear that those who are involved in the illicit trade – suppliers, traders and customers – are part of a closed and often long-lasting group of people who know the trade. Finally, from a green criminological perspective, the authors conclude that harms of the illicit trade in protected birds are mentioned only to a limited extent in court rulings, contrary to what one might expect based on social construction theories of criminalization and sentencing.

The article provides a description of the issues and considerrations facing Flemish victim-offender mediators on the job. Instead of focusing on professinal risks and caveats present within victim-offender mediation, the authors concentrate on the positive concept of ‘enabling high quality mediations’. A description is given of the frames that are felt to be helpful towards mediators, stressing the need to act with due creativity if needed. Moreover, in order to enable high quality victim-offender mediations, conditions need to be met, more specifically a common acknowledgment of the need for teamwork. The latter implies conditions such a sound legal basis, a deontological code, formal procedures and constant interaction with practice.

Drones en drone-gerelateerde cybertechnologieën nemen een vlucht in het veiligheidsdomein in de vorm van toepassingen door het leger, de politie, brandweer, private beveiligingsbedrijven, en ook deurwaarders, agrariërs en burgerinitiatieven. Drones werden in eerste instantie ontwikkeld voor militaire doeleinden. Hun aanpassingsvermogen als universele platforms voor beeldregistratie en goederenvervoer leidt tot hoge verwachtingen rond toepassing in het civiele domein. Dit artikel onderzoekt de ethische aspecten van “dual use” van drones en gerelateerde technologieën. Verschillende dimensies van dual use worden verkend: de technologisch ontwikkeling, maar ook de ontwikkeling van wet- en regelgeving in Amerika en Europa. Voor het Nederlandse veiligheidsdomein is relevant dat dit artikel bijdraagt aan het signaleren van de noodzaak om de ontwikkeling en toepassing van drones in breder perspectief te bezien. Drones en hun toepassingen maken deel uit van de internationale markt van militaire organisaties en van veiligheidsorganisaties in het publieke en private domein. Bovendien maken ze veelal deel uit van geïntegreerde systemen en van wereldwijde platforms voor consumentenelektronica. Dit artikel is een van de resultaten uit het door NWO gefinancierde project 'Responsible Design of Drones and Drone Services: Towards an Ethical and Juridical Tool For Drone Design and Risk Assessment' (Project no. 313-99-318). Het project was gericht op het ontwikkelen van een instrument voor ontwikkeling en gebruik van dronetoepassingen uitgaande van methoden als Responsible Research & Innovation (RRI) en Value Sensitive Design (VSD).

Social engineering is the usage of social manipulation and psychological tricks to make the targets assist offenders in their attack. This paper aimed to discuss the success of social engineering attacks and interventions in an organisational setting. Three kinds of social engineering experiments were discussed, each using a different modality (i.e. face-to-face (f2f), email and telephone). In each experiment, the targets (i.e. participants) were persuaded to perform actions that contribute to their victimisation.
A portion of the participants in both the f2f and telephone experiment received an intervention to reduce victimisation. The conclusion is that awareness raising about dangers, characteristics and countermeasures related to social engineering proved to have a significant positive effect on protecting the target. The results of these experiments allow practitioners to focus awareness campaigns to maximise their effectiveness.

With the digitization of society, perpetrators gained new tools to commit crimes. Online fraud, also referred to as e-fraud, is one of the most common types of cybercrime. The present study focusses on two types of e-fraud: phishing and online consumer fraud. Although e-fraud always contains a digital component, the human is the weakest link in such crimes. Perpetrators deceive their victims to acquire sensitive data or to conclude a fraudulent sale, which makes victims unwillingly participate in the offence. However, not every person adheres to such fraudulent schemes. This raises the question what makes some people comply with these schemes and thus become a victim of cybercrime, while others do not. In this study, the differences between personality traits of e-fraud victims and the Dutch population were investigated. Personality traits influence the way people process information and react to situations, which also applies when people are confronted with e-fraud. Data were collected through an online survey, in which 224 e-fraud victims participated. The outcomes of the survey were compared with norm groups representative for the Dutch population. E-fraud victims, compared to the Dutch population, scored higher on extraversion, altruism and conscientiousness, and lower on neuroticism. Based on the findings, recommendations have been made for the development of targeted preventive measures against e-fraud.

This study focusses on determinants of willingness to report cybercrime to the police or to other organizations and motivations for (not) reporting victimization. In this study, a questionnaire containing vignettes is used. Vignettes are semi-experimental designs in which hypothetical situations are presented and certain factors can be manipulated between and within respondents. Factors that are measured within the vignettes are the type and seriousness of the offence, the relationship between offender and victim and which possibilities for reporting the offence are available.
It is shown that the type of offence is an important determinant for willingness to report the offence, which is highest for fraud, followed by hacking and malware. Likewise, willingness to report is higher for more serious offences than for less serious offences. These results are comparable to results on willingness to report traditional crimes.
With regard to psychological determinants, results are not in line with previous results on willingness to report traditional crimes. For the relationship between offender and victim, mixed results are found. If the offender is an acquaintance of the victim, willingness to report to the police increases, but willingness to report to another organization decreases, compared to the offender being unfamiliar to the victim. Another surprising result is that no correlation is found between attitudes towards the police and willingness to report offences. Also unexpectedly, it is found that respondents who have previously reported crime and were unsatisfied about this experience, were more willing to report offences than respondents who never reported crimes before.
Regarding motivations for willingness to report, it is found that, in general, motivations for reporting cybercrime are strongly comparable to motivations for reporting traditional crime, however, differences in motivations are found between the different types of cybercrime.