Many articles have dealt with the question why restorative justice in cases of intimate partner violence (IPV) may or may not be appropriate. Seeing however as a punitive approach towards IPV is rapidly losing popularity as an effective way of dealing with this complex type of violence, as well as the outcomes of a recent study by the European Agency for Fundamental Rights (2014) – where 25% of the Dutch women that were surveyed indicated they had experienced violence by an intimate partner – restorative justice may be a promising alternative after all.
Instead of adding to the debate, the current article focuses on how restorative justice can be constructed to be appropriate for IPV cases, and is explorative in nature. In order to do so, the theory behind transformative learning is combined with restorative justice practices, shifting the focus from ‘restoration’ to ‘restorative transformation’. Such a restorative transformative learning approach focuses on transforming violent meaning perspectives that dictate the use or toleration of violence. Instead of trying to restore the individual back to the state they were in before the violence took place – as ‘restoration’ traditionally implies – the goal of restorative transformative learning is to restore the individual back to a state before a violent meaning perspective was acquired. The transformation of violent meaning perspectives is therefore the prerequisite for restoration.
The method that is introduced in this article offers a practical framework and guidelines to achieve such a transformation. It answers to the complexity of IPV cases by focusing on the entire family system, while leaving room for individual restoration. In doing so, restorative transformative learning may possibly open the way to the acceptance of restorative justice in the field of IPV.

Eleven Teams against Child Abuse Images and Transnational Child Sex Offences (TBKKs) are operating within the Dutch National Police Force. This study provides an in-depth analysis of the resilience of criminal investigators working in these teams and how they perceive and cope with daily work stressors. Observational studies within five TBKKs and 35 semi-structured interviews with child pornography investigators revealed that managing their heavy caseloads, classifying abusive images, dealing with suspects and conducting home searches can sometimes be (very) challenging. Despite these demanding work aspects, investigators experience low levels of stress. By employing emotional detachment, self-reflection, workload regulation, social support and meaningfulness, they overcome the stress of investigating internet child exploitation. However, successful implementation of these resilience-enhancing strategies depends on the availability of several individual and organizational resources. To reduce the risk of health problems and to stimulate positive functioning, these resources require permanent investment from police management and investigators themselves.

Social network analysis (SNA) has taken its place in the field of criminology, although among Dutch criminologists the emphasis remains on conceptual contributions. Meanwhile, the world of criminal investigation and intelligence has witnessed the development of a blossoming SNA-practice. The emergence of big data makes SNA an indispensable tool to exploit the oceans of data in a meaningful way. Unfortunately, when it comes to employing SNA, academia and the investigations and intelligence domains remain separated. While Dutch analysts adopt scientific ideas and concepts, they rarely contribute to the body of literature; confidential SNA reports remain inaccessible. Shedding light on over forty SNA related internal police studies, this article bridges the gap between Dutch academic criminologists and ‘pracademics’ in law enforcement.

The quality of the relationship between boys and group workers in a correctional youth facility determines a part of the success of their incarceration. In a Q-study is examined what incarcerated boys consider as important in (the interaction with) group workers. There are four preferences discerned: anxious & willingly; rebellious & defensive; autonomous & indifferent; dependent & approachable. The needs in dealing with group workers of these four differ. Understanding and awareness of these preferences can provide tools for the treatment of boys in a correctional facility. It can enlarge the opportunity for a good relationship and the boys’ readiness to change.

Since Islam stands for a total way of life, it also includes a vision on crime and punishment. According to several (Muslim)scholars the Sharia contains not so much a message of revenge and retribution but rather one of compassion, forgiveness and mercy. Much depends on which sections of the holy sources of Islam are read and subsequently how these sections are interpreted. However, fact is that – in the context of quite a number of criminal offences – Islamic criminal law gives room for restorative practices. These practices prove to be more beneficial with regard to the realization of remorse, forgiveness and reconciliation than the regular criminal process. Since restorative practices form an intrinsic part of (pre-modern) Islamic criminal law and since more and more initiatives are being developed nowadays to incorporate such practices in (modern) Western criminal law, it is of fundamental importance to take note of Islamic criminal law. Before focusing in this contribution on the role of restorative practices, remorse and forgiveness in Islamic criminal law, first the position of victims in criminal law under influence of Islam and Christianity will be discussed on the basis of the ideas of the Dutch victimologist Jan van Dijk. Furthermore, attention will be paid to the decline of mysticism in Islam and to the possible consequences and risks thereof – also for the role of restorative practices, remorse and forgiveness in Islamic criminal law.

Despite the international scientific inconclusiveness about the nature of the fear of crime, the strategic layer of the Dutch government aims to reduce the fear of crime in general by 2017. But their policy-goals were not accompanied with a plan how to realize them. Meanwhile, local practitioners claim to be in search of practical tools and substantive support how to fight back the public’s fear of crime. This study was aimed to feed the discussion with a constructive and realistic input from both the practitioners and the scientific view. The research question was: ‘What do local practitioners do against the public’s fear of crime and how can these activities be improved?’ 36 local practitioners from Dutch local municipalities, the police force and the public prosecutor were interviewed. Schön’s idea of the ‘reflective practitioner’ (1983) was the underlying argument to make practical knowledge about reducing the fear of crime explicit. The respondents from both institutional layers of local ‘policy advise’ and ‘policy implementation’ were quite reluctant about fighting back the public’s fear of crime. They aim to reduce the fear of crime in a doubtful and indirect way. Because many sources of the public’s fear of crime were unknown to them or were not in the reach of their professional activities. In this way, the interviewed local practitioners approach strongly aligned with the advice of international scientists to be reluctant and realistic about fighting back the public’s fear of crime. We advised an approach of ‘local fear of and worry about crime’ in dialog between international science and the interviewed local Dutch practitioners. The results of it will probably not contribute to quantitative policy goals at the national level, but rather to custom fit, qualitative improvements on the local level. This will probably be the most effective way to fight back the few tractable elements that make up the fear of crime.

Prison policy in Belgium and the Netherlands is changing rapidly. While Belgium struggles with a persisting prison overcrowding, the Netherlands strongly cuts back on the prison system and is closing an increasing number of prisons. This introductory article to a special issue on detention starts with a short outline of recent changes in Dutch and Belgian prison policy, focusing on developments in detention capacity and prison population. Subsequently we present an overview of empirical criminological research in the Netherlands and Belgium, situated within the international literature, with a specific focus on studies regarding life in detention and effects of detention on prisoners' lives and on their social environment. Finally, we reflect upon existing detention research in both countries, e.g. in terms of gaps in research topics and methodology, and discuss some future developments.

Not only detainees, but also their spouses can experience negative consequences of imprisonment. Even though these negative consequences can be far-reaching, research in this area is scarce. This paper researches if detention causes female partners of male detainees in the Netherlands to experience negative reactions from family, friends and neighbours and if this causes changes in their social contacts. This study used longitudinal data from the Prison Project on 119 partners of detainees. Results show that many partners of detainees receive negative reactions from their network members. When partners of detainees experience negative reactions from their family in law, friends or neighbours, their contacts with those groups decrease. When partners of detainees experience negative reactions from their friends, their contact with their family increases.

Hip-hop and restorative justice may seem odd bedfellows, but according to Antony Pemberton they have more in common than many would assume. In the first place hip-hop shares a common history, at least with restorative justice's modern incarnations, spanning four decades, to become a similarly global phenomenon. Much of the social ecology shaping RJ is similar to hiphop. In addition hiphop's criticism of criminal justice almost goes without saying. Almost no source offers similar scathing critique of criminal justice and penal institutions as rap lyrics. Pemberton concludes that rituals in hip-hop are connected with the need to deal with conflict. The way respect and disrespect can coincide in rap-battles might offer insights in the way similar dialectics can be navigated within restorative justice processes. The extent to which this is possible is necessarily limited. Pemberton finds that hip-hop – with the exception of graffiti- does not seem currently to criticize the key neo-liberal values of the American Zeitgeist. The much maligned chasm between the old-school and the new school can be situated in this observation. Where hip-hop, as a social movement, used to deploy the depiction of injustice as a means to underline the necessity of social change, the current motto appears to be rich or die tryin”. The life of the thug and the gangsta is depicted as the epitome of the American Dream. Here Pemberton sees grounds for a cautionary warning for restorative justice, which is nurtured by a similar neo-liberal undercurrent in a number of jurisdictions.

The recent exhibition The Crime Was Almost Perfect in the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam, curated by Cristina Ricupero, focused on the dynamic relation between art (aesthetics) and crime (ethics). The review discusses the representations of crime in (some of) the exhibited art works and analyzes the ways in which the artists play with their (conflicting) meanings, ambivalences and ambiguities.

Life of a Hunter (c.1647) is an extraordinary painting by the young Dutch artist Paulus Potter. Its fourteen panels tell the tale of a well-heeled gentleman who likes to hunt and to kill “game” and “exotic” animals. The hunting world is turned upside down when the animals capture the hunter and put him on trial. He is condemned to death, roasted alive and doubtless consumed by the very creatures who had earlier been his quarry. In this essay we try to interpret Potter’s painting. Is it an allegory of the chaotic politics of the mid-17th century Dutch Republic? Does it represent an early modern animal trial? Our tentative conclusion is that Life of a Hunter expresses a Montaignian-inspired moment of transition in cultural attitudes towards human-animal relationships: its restricted vision of animal cruelty is not against animal cruelty tout court and its inversion of two links in the great chain of being is very far from being altogether pro-animal.

COSA (Circles of Support and Accountability) have been fully implemented and accepted in the Dutch probation organization. In COSA projects, volunteers support a former sex offender during his rehabilitation, supervised by professionals. Projects offer national coverage and until now, 42 sex offenders have been supported. International effect studies and Dutch research into effective processes offer a scientific framework, offering the theoretical and empirical underpinnings for a COSA intervention model. The normative basis of COSA is found in its specific place in restorative justice. Primarily, COSA strives for restoration of relationships within a moral and responsible community and restoration of the offender. Restoration of family bonds is an option, but needs to be well coordinated with professionals.

Subcultural theory and cultural criminology have traditionally viewed ‘underground’ youth movements as providing images of deviance/resistance which the cultural industries harvest to turn a profit. The logic follows that street and sub cultures imbue products with a ‘transgressive edge’ that increases their appeal within youth markets. This paper uses the example of UK ‘grime’ music to demonstrate how this dynamic cannot be viewed as applying universally in contemporary times. Where their street orientated content is censured, many grime artistes express a desire for commercial success which would ultimately emerge through muting their rhetorical links to crime and violence and explicitly championing ‘mainstream’ values. This case is used as an empirical cue to explore the use and critique of the concept of ‘resistance’ within cultural criminology and subcultural theory. The paper problematizes commodification of resistance discourses as they apply to the rugged culture of the streets and indeed its supposed ‘oppositional’ character where disadvantaged urban youth clearly embody and practice the logic of neoliberalism. It furthermore suggests that certain critiques of cultural criminology go too far in denying any meaning to criminality and subcultural practice beyond consumer desire. Ultimately, the concept of ‘defiance’ is suggested as a useful tool to understand the norms of and behaviours of the excluded.

La Haine (Kassovitz, 1995) shows practices of resistance of youngsters in public space. Next to the traditional milieus of socialisation – at home, at school or in institutionalised leisure facilities – youngsters demand their ‘place’ in public space. In doing so, they partly privatise public space (‘parochial space’). In this article we argue that transgressive behaviour of youngsters should be conceptualised as both a side-effect of growing up and socialisation, and as resistance against adult domination, especially in public space. As such, hanging around is cause and effect of control and criminalisation.