The Netherlands fire safety regulations require certain types of buildings to have a direct connection between the building fire alarm system and the dispatch centre of the fire brigade. These automatic fire alarm systems are mandatory for example in premises where inhabitants such as small children or elderly people have limited self-evacuation capabilites in case of fire. These automatic fire alarms aim at saving lives by a faster response of the fire brigade. However, the fast majority of these automatic alarms are false. As a result these calls constitute a considerable and undesirable drain on the fire brigade resources. These calls cause unwanted direct costs (salaries) and indirect costs (road accidents due to fire brigade mobilisation) apart from the regular maintenance costs. Up to now no data is available for the costs and benefits of the system of automatic fire alarms. This article describes the results of a study of the automatic fire alarm system in the region Twente. The yearly social costs are calculated at about € 3 million. In order to calculate the benefits all incident reports from automatic fire alarms during a period of 29 months have been investigated. In this period no call form an automatic fire alarm system has occured in which the fire brigade had to deploy its resources for a live saving or evacuation action.

Unlike the physical abusers of children, little is known about downloaders of child pornography. The key questions in this article are: who are the downloaders, what are their backgrounds, why and how they download child pornography, how they behave offline and online and what types of downloaders can be distinguished? A simple answer to these questions is currently impossible to give. There is more, preferably longitudinal, research needed on risk factors for downloading child pornography and the various types of downloaders. Combating the downloaders requires a lot of the police in terms of international cooperation and up to date knowledge and expertise. This also served the treatment practices, which is partly dependent on a properly conducted police investigation.

Consumer fraud seems to be widespread, yet little research is devoted to understanding why certain social groups are more vulnerable to this type of victimization than others. The present paper deals with internet consumer fraud victimization, and uses an explanatory model that combines insights from self control theory and routine activity theory. The results from large-scale victimization survey data among the Dutch general population (N=6,201) reveal that people with low self-control run substantially higher victimization risk, as well as people performing ‘risky’ routine activities, such as online shopping and participation in online forums. Though a minority share of the self-control-victimization link is indirect – because people with low self-control are more involved in risk-enhancing routine activities – a large direct effect on internet fraud victimization remains. This suggests that, within similar situations, people with poor impulse control respond differently to deceptive online commercial offers.

In the Netherlands, police can request a physical examination of victims of domestic violence. These examinations can be either carried out by the physician who has treated the victim, or, alternatively, by a forensic physician. From a medico-legal point of view, an examination by a forensic physician has several advantages, as forensic physicians are independent and trained in examining victims of violence and reporting to the police. The aim of the current study was to (1) describe the structure of forensic services for victims of domestic violence in the Netherlands, (2) establish with whom the police request physical examinations of victims (forensic physician vs. physicians who have treated the victim), (3) explore the underlying reasons for the choice made and (4) elaborate how the current cooperation of police and forensic physicians can be improved in favour of victims of domestic violence. For this purpose, interviews were carried out with police professionals and forensic physicians throughout the country. The results demonstrated that victims can access forensic services almost exclusively on referral by the police. Furthermore, the police in most cases request physical examinations from physicians who have treated the victim and not from forensic physicians. Reasons for referring victims to treating physicians instead of forensic physicians are costs and lack of information on forensic services. Reports provided by treating physicians are criticized by the police for being illegible, incomprehensible, and lacking information on aspects which are of importance for the legal procedure. In short, the legal position of victims could be strengthened by requesting physical examinations from forensic physicians instead from treating physicians. A major obstacle to change is a lack of funding. Furthermore, forensic services for victims of domestic violence in the Netherlands could be improved if victims could access forensic services without referral of the police.

The coordination in public safety has been assigned to the municipality. The central question in this article is whether the municipality is equipped to fulfil this task successfully. In this study we investigated a metropolitan security network against drug and alcohol nuisance. Questionnaires were administered among 36 organisations dealing with these nuisance problems. The social network analysis shows that the municipality is predominant in the security network. On the other hand there are several other organisations, such as the Police, health organisations and Housing Associations, that also take up a central position in the network. We also found that the municipality’s informal network is less well developed than its formal network. In contrast, the Police and several local health organisations often liaise informally with other organisations that ‘fight’ drug and alcohol nuisance within the network. Quite a number of organisations are in the position to obtain important information and to exert influence when organisations are unwilling to cooperate. Consequently, several organisations other than the municipality are suited to successfully complete the coordination in a security network.

Municipalities play an increasingly important role in the fight against organized crime. Following Italian and New York examples, the Netherlands have developed several instruments for an administrative approach to organized crime. This article describes these instruments on a local and a national level and discusses its theoretical foundations. A critical assessment is made on the reach of this administrative approach considering the perception and nature of organized crime in the Netherlands. Further, methods for assessing the effectiveness of such an approach are discussed. Has organized crime successfully been targeted and how could this be established?

Lately, mayors’ powers for maintaining public order and safety have been considerably extended, and even more powers are in preparation. These powers must enable the mayor to act quickly against public order disturbances and security threats. The novelty is that the mayor may conditionally use and exercise these new powers preventively against groups of rioters. Their freedom of action and their privacy can also be considerably curtailed. This means these powers have to be used carefully and reluctantly. If the mayor overdoes the crimefighter role, he/she may lose the public’s confidence.

In the local governance of public safety many different organizations are involved. These organizations cooperate in local networks or partnerships to manage problems related to crime and disorder. In the Netherlands the local government should coordinate the cooperation between these organizations and their activities. Research shows that in practice this coordination has many serious shortcomings.
Therefore the Dutch government proposed a new Act to promote the local government’s capacities to coordinate these networks and local policies of public safety (Wet op de gemeentelijke regierol lokale integrale veiligheid). At this moment this proposal has not yet been submitted to the Dutch Parliament.
This Act will create new obligations and powers for the local government. According to this Act every four years local councils will have to establish a public safety policy plan based on an analysis of local problems of crime and disorder. Local governments should make formal agreements with the local partner agencies about their activities. Additionally the Act will provide local governments with the power to enforce these cooperation and contributions and to sanction it.
Research shows that many of the problems that arise in the coordination of these networks and partnerships result from the local governments themselves. Often the governmental support and commitment to local safety issues are insufficient, the local administration is highly fragmented, the coordination is often poorly implemented and local administration often have a bureaucratic culture that is hard to reconcile with the need to react quickly to urgent local problems.
Considering these problems the authors argue that this proposed Act is not an adequate solution for the problems that arise in the coordination of local safety policies and partnerships.

Public safety has always been a core task for local, municipal authorities. However, until rather recently only the police has been actively involved in addressing local problems of public safety and maintaining order instead. Local public safety policy – as a responsibility for local authorities together with many other partners – is a relatively new phenomenon.This article compares the main developments and trends in local public safety policy in the Netherlands and Belgium. Special attention is paid to the role and position of the local, municipal authorities. What strikes most, are the strong similarities between the two countries. National governments played an important and catalyzing role in the development of public safety policy in the Netherlands as well as in Belgium. After many years and not without a lot of trouble, the monopoly of the police on designing and implementing policy for addressing public safety and order came to an end in both countries. Which, amongst other effects, presented the local authorities with new challenges.

This article explores the links between the concepts of security and community, questioning the conventional use and meaning of both. To begin with, it addresses the taken-for-grantedness of the thought that communities foster feelings of security, and that contemporary processes of migration, intensified worldwide communication, and ‘heterogeneization’ of habitats stimulate feelings of insecurity and nostalgia for ‘old-fashioned’ tight kinship. Subsequently, it criticizes the too lop-sided focus on insecurity in current debates, and asks attention for – community-based – positive feelings of security. In the next paragraphs, however, the problematic aspects of the idea of ‘community’ are discussed: its inadequacy in capturing current individualized ways-of-life, its exclusionary tendencies, its potentially exaggerated focus on social control, and its rejection of, and fear for, the outside world. Therefore, we assess the possibility to construe (‘strong’) community qualities in a situation of multiple, overlapping and porous populations of varied identity-relevance within overarching institutional arrangements of rule of law and of shared codes of conduct (as ‘weak’ ties). Finally, the argument is translated in suggestions for empirical research to be able to determine the fecundity of the ideas presented.

A part in Dutch penal law defines money laundering as ‘any person who acquires an object, possesses it, hands it over or sells it or makes use of an object, knowing that the object originates – directly or indirectly – from an offense’. Under object is meant any goods and any property rights. With this in mind, the author argues that whoever knows that money (the object) is derived from crime, but spends the money anyway, is committing a money laundering offense. Taking the argument one step further, it is therefore a reasonable hypothesis that a large number of wives or girlfriends of criminals, have been prosecuted for money laundering. That is, if the women knew that the money they spent was obtained through crime. To test the hypothesis, 62 cases dealing with organized crime were selected and analyzed. These cases largely focus on male perpetrators of drug crimes, money laundering, human smuggling and human trafficking. It turns out that the women often knew their male friends or husbands were involved in crime. The women also profited of these crimes because they used their friends’ expensive cars, lived in large mansions and often went shopping for luxury items. Still, hardly anyone was prosecuted for money laundering offenses. Several explanations were found, ranging from pity of officers, an overload of work, absence of direct proof or simply male chauvinist bias. Only if the women were actively involved in other crimes, would they find themselves prosecuted with (among others) money laundering offenses.

Public safety governance has been characterised in many ways. Literature mentions traditional sanctions for purposes of repression, policy programs aiming for prevention, as well as cooperation of public, private and hybrid organizations in addressing public safety problems. Very recently, a so called culture of precaution, in which problems of public safety are to be addressed at a very early – premature – stage, would have entered the scene. This potential culture of precaution is topic of this article. The article aims to indicate the empirical manifestations of a culture of precaution, as mentioned in literature, in contemporary public safety governance. The central question is as follows: to what extent and in what way is contemporary public safety governance on municipality level characterised by the precautionary principle? Five municipalities within the police region of Utrecht, varying in size from 40.000 to 300.000 citizens, have been studied; Amersfoort, Bunschoten, Utrecht, Woerden and Zeist. In total 153 measures addressing problems of public safety have been analyzed for characteristics of precaution. In order to do so, a model has been developed which locates precaution next to traditional strategies for addressing public safety. It will be demonstrated that a culture of precaution is not empirically present in public safety governance on municipality level. However, contemporary public safety governance does appear to posses some minor characteristics of the precaution paradigm.

How can the use of policy theories help to improve the development and evaluation of public policy. This question is central to this contribution. In order to answer this question, an overview is made of the development of the concept policy theory and its application in The Netherlands. More specifically, the relation between the rational approach of using policy theories and the quest for evidence-based policy is made. In addition, the possibilities and risks of theory-based evaluation ex post are explored. An important issue in both policy development and policy evaluation is the quality of policy information: which evidence counts? What quality criteria should be in place? On the basis of recent research by the Netherlands Court of Audit, an assessment is made of the actual quality of the ex ante evidence-based nature and the ex post effectiveness of safety policy in The Netherlands. The article presents conclusions and perspectives on how a more theoretical underpinning of policy programmes and a good use of theory-based evaluations may contribute to public policies that are not only effective, but that are also more open to policy-oriented learning.