Search

This article on intergenerational transmission of crime in families is based on a study of seven families of which at least one member held a key position in an organized crime group. The authors retrieved information on at least three generations (preceding and succeeding this key member’s generation) to investigate whether transmissions occurred, and if so, how these might be explained. Throughout the generations, the majority of family members indeed have criminal records. However, it seems to be less easy to transfer criminal leadership in organized crime from one generation to the next. Leading a criminal group seems to demand qualities that are not transferred easily. Successful successors appear to be able to establish their own networks within the deviant subcultures from which they stem. This also explains the persistence of criminal behaviour: both men and women select their friends and partners from these closed communities and seem to prefer for their social and love relationships those who have already developed substantial criminal track records. Organized crime families in North Brabant took advantage of criminal opportunities that were presented to them over the years. Particularly XTC production, starting in the 1990s, allowed them to step up their criminal activities from the local to the global level. In addition, they may have capitalized on a moral economy with sentiments of subordination present in the province of North Brabant, dating back to the seventeenth century, which resulted in a more reserved attitude towards authorities than in other parts of the Netherlands. Finally, law enforcement agencies have been generally slow to respond to developments in criminal opportunities that benefited these seven families.

Recent neuropsychologisch onderzoek suggereert dat detentie leidt tot achteruitgang van belangrijke hersenfuncties bij gedetineerden. Een mogelijke verklaring voor die achteruitgang is de verarmde (versoberde) detentieomgeving, waarmee een omgeving met weinig lichamelijke, geestelijke en sociale activiteit wordt bedoeld. Verschillende hersenfuncties zijn cruciaal voor een succesvolle resocialisatie. Een andere onderzoekslijn binnen de psychologie onderzoekt de relatie tussen voeding en agressie bij gedetineerden, waarbij ook de mogelijkheid van voedingsinterventies wordt onderzocht. In deze bijdrage worden de mogelijke implicaties van dergelijk (neuro)psychologisch onderzoek voor de Nederlandse detentieomgeving geanalyseerd in het licht van het resocialisatiebeginsel.

Recently the controversy about the police use of force has increased within The Netherlands. Simultaneously it has become clear that courts have provided divergent judgments in these cases; some have sentenced and others have acquitted police officers. Whereas victims of the police use of force increasingly ask for the prosecution of these officials, others demand to change the reporting procedure in favor of the officer’s legal position. This research explains how the reporting procedure for these cases is construed under Dutch law – particularly regarding the serious use of force – seeing that such a contribution currently lacks in (inter)national legal literature. Besides, it examines to what extent the abovementioned procedure violates the officer’s right against forced self-incrimination under the ECHR. This research concludes, in absence of a court ruling, that the procedure is incompatible with the ECHR when the evidence that follows from the officers’ duty to notify is admissible in criminal procedures.

Facilitadores Judiciales is a programme run by the Organization of the American States and the Nicaraguan judiciary. In 2010, facilitators were recruited and trained in many but not all urban municipalities. This presented an opportunity for a natural experiment to assess the impact of the programme. In our theoretical framework the impact is related to improved access to justice which is one of the prerequisites for peace and development. Before and after quantitative and qualitative studies were conducted in intervention and control areas. The quantitative results show confirmation of some of the hypothesized effects of the programme. Other effects are indicated by the numerous in-depth interviews but are not substantiated by hard data. In the communities where facilitators were intro- duced the people report fewer legal problems. The facilitators are decreasing the costs of justice. Achieving amicable solutions and promotion of peace and social cohesion is another example of the programme’s impact.

Het gerechtshof Den Haag heeft op 16 maart 2017 uitspraak gedaan in de zaak Bart van U. Anders dan de rechtbank acht het hof Van U. niet ontoerekeningsvatbaar. In het arrest formuleert het hof een criterium voor ontoerekeningsvatbaarheid dat het Nederlands strafrecht voorheen niet kende. In deze bijdrage wordt het door het hof ontwikkelde criterium besproken waarbij wordt ingegaan op een drietal punten. Ten eerste wordt betoogd dat het criterium in feite een opeenstapeling is van twee criteria die in de Amerikaanse rechtspraak worden gehanteerd bij de beoordeling van de vraag of sprake is van legal insanity. Ten tweede wordt ingegaan op het causaal verband dat het hof vereist tussen de psychische stoornis en het delict als voorwaarde voor ontoerekeningsvatbaarheid. Ten derde worden de implicaties van de door het hof gekozen term ‘wederrechtelijkheid’ besproken. We besluiten met een aanbeveling.

Background: A stable assessment of cognition is of paramount importance for forensic psychiatric patients (FPP). The purpose of this study was to compare repeated measures of IQ scores in FPPs with and without intellectual disability. Methods: Repeated measurements of IQ scores in FPPs (n = 176) were collected. Differences between tests were computed, and each IQ score was categorized. Additionally, t-tests and regression analyses were performed. Results: Differences of 10 points or more were found in 66% of the cases comparing WAIS-III with RAVEN scores. Fisher’s exact test revealed differences between two WAIS-III scores and the WAIS categories. The WAIS-III did not predict other IQs (WAIS or RAVEN) in participants with intellectual disability. Discussion: This study showed that stability or interchangeability of scores is lacking, especially in individuals with intellectual disability. Caution in interpreting IQ scores is therefore recommended, and the use of the unitary concept of IQ should be discouraged.

Legal insanity is a peculiar element of criminal law, because it brings together two very different disciplines: psychiatry and psychology on the one hand and the law on the other. One of the basic questions regarding evaluations of defendants concerns the question of who should establish “true mental disorder,” the judge or the behavioral expert? This question is complicated, and in this contribution it will be explored based on a Dutch case that was eventually decided by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). We will argue that the ECtHR provides a valuable legal framework. Based on its merits, the framework could also be of interest to countries outside the Court’s jurisdiction.

This study aims to construct a consolidated crime script of cross-border illicit waste trafficking by analysing similarities in modus operandi. In addition, factors enabling illicit waste trafficking were studied. Research questions were analysed from a situational crime prevention point of view by applying crime script analysis to 13 judiciary case studies of illicit cross-border waste trafficking obtained from the Netherlands, Italy and Finland. The findings suggest that the potential offender usually has advanced knowledge of the waste market and of the legislation and regulation. The case studies also suggest that the lack and misuse of appropriate licenses and falsified documentation, as well as taking advantage of illicit and licit networks in facilitating activities, are prevailing characteristics in the illicit cross-border trafficking of waste. Despite the small number of cases, the findings imply the need to focus crime prevention efforts on the early stages of the crime commission process, such as planning the crime.

On 13 September 2005, the Court of Justice of the European Communities (hereafter: Court of Justice EC) passed a judgment giving rise to much controversy.1 In that judgment, the Court found that in some situations, the EC Treaty leaves room to take measures in a directive “which relate to the criminal law of the Member States” (para. 48). The authority to take criminal law measures in the First Pillar exists – concisely stated – if these measures relate to one of the essential objectives of the Community (cf. Articles 2 and 3 EC Treaty), and the use of effective, proportionate and dissuasive criminal penalties by the national authorities is an essential measure to achieve that objective.2 In view of the starting point that provisions of the EU Treaty may not prejudice those of the EC Treaty (Article 47 EU Treaty), actions of the Council within the Third Pillar – which concerns police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters as referred to in Article 29 ff. EU Treaty – may not encroach upon the competences of the Community in the First Pillar.3 This means that in cases

Research concerning forensic medium security units in Flanders is scarce. This study reports on incidents during treatment. The population consisted of 203 forensic patients conditionally released by the Commission of Social Defense (CPS) of Ghent. During a ten-year follow-up period 236 incident reports were registered, caused by half of the population (53.20%). Less than half of these reports (41.53%) concerned incidents coded as criminal offences (like drug use, theft or violence). Violent incidents occurred in one out of five reports (20.34%) and were associated with poor treatment compliance and failure. Victims of violence were mainly hospital staff or patients. Incidents were reported to the prosecutor, but rarely led to a new conviction or internment. Instead, one third of the population was (re)incarcerated in prison. Protection, rather than treatment, thus seems to be the primary focus of the CPS.

In de rechtspraak van de Hoge Raad is de reikwijdte van het witwasdelict door middel van de zogeheten kwalificatie-uitsluitingsgrond ingeperkt. Het doel daarvan is (onder andere) het voorkomen van een automatische verdubbeling van strafbaarheid. In de rechtspraktijk is de indruk ontstaan dat deze rechtspraak in sommige situaties een be-lemmering oplevert voor een effectieve bestrijding van misdaadgeld. Het gaat dan met name om de situatie waarin de rechter aanneemt dat een voorwerp afkomstig is uit een door de verdachte zelf begaan misdrijf, terwijl vervolging ter zake van dat grondmis-drijf niet haalbaar is. In een recent verschenen conceptwetsvoorstel wordt daarom voorgesteld de strafbaarstelling van witwassen uit te breiden door expliciet strafbaar te stellen het verwerven of voorhanden hebben van een voorwerp dat onmiddellijk afkom-stig is uit enig misdrijf dat de schuldige heeft gepleegd. De vraag rijst echter of en, zo ja, in welke vorm, een probleem is ontstaan ten gevolge van de rechtspraak van de Hoge Raad en, zo dat het geval mocht zijn, of het conceptwetsvoorstel wel voorziet in de juiste oplossing voor dat specifieke probleem. In deze bijdrage wordt betoogd dat de rechtspraak van de Hoge Raad weliswaar tot enige verwarring kan leiden, maar dat daaruit geen wezenlijke belemmeringen lijken voort te vloeien. Invoering van het conceptwetsvoorstel zal bovendien nieuwe problemen oproepen.

Als er een ramp plaatsvindt, wil iedereen die zich er bij betrokken voelt, antwoord op de vraag hoe dat heeft kunnen gebeuren. Maar niet iedereen die dat wil weten heeft dezelfde motieven. Wil men een schuldige kunnen aanwijzen, of wil men voorkomen dat een dergelijke ramp zich zal herhalen? Wat de Onderzoeksraad voor veiligheid betreft is de opdracht duidelijk: de blik van de Onderzoeksraad is op de toekomst gericht. In een gerechtelijke procedure mogen (onder meer) ‘verklaringen van personen, afgelegd in het kader van het onderzoek van de raad’ dan ook niet als bewijs worden gebruikt. Het zou namelijk onwenselijk zijn als betrokkenen bevreesd zouden zijn openheid van zaken te geven uit vrees voor aansprakelijkstelling of vervolging. De betekenis van dit in artikel 69 Rijkswet Onderzoeksraad voor veiligheid neergelegde verbod blijkt, niettegenstaande de heldere ratio ervan, tamelijk gecompliceerd te zijn.