Since reintegration officer Bart Reedijk started work in Dordrecht three years ago, ex-convicts in that municipality have reoffended a lot less often. There is much interest in Reedijk's method throughout the Netherlands, but experts have reservations.

The practice of the application of pre-trial detention in the Netherlands raises questions in light of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and must be adjusted.

The article deals with the physiological recognition of knowledge by suspects and whether this can be used to distinguish between true and false confessions.

Conference

Ten years ago, a new reward system was introduced in Dutch prisons: the only way prisoners could earn extra ‘freedoms’ was through good behaviour. Jan Maarten Elbers concludes that this system does little to encourage behavioural change and can even be counterproductive.

Why do innocent people sometimes spend years in prison? EUREX is a registry of miscarriages of justice in Europe that ultimately led to exonerations. The aim is to prevent such mistakes being made in future. One of the initiators is Leiden legal psychologist Linda Geven.

Care conferences for long-term residents (15+ years) in forensic mental health care are widely appreciated by all parties involved. Research by Leiden University shows that the demand for these meetings is so great that the supply cannot be met within the desired time frame.

Over the past 20 years, levels of common crime throughout the world dropped, except in countries that are plagued by poverty, have large families and have been afflicted by civil wars. This was established in a study that compared safety in 166 countries.

From April 2022, Professor Paul Nieuwbeerta will be working one day a week as affiliated professor for Statistics Netherlands (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (CBS)). He is Professor of Criminology at the Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, Leiden University.

How to strengthen mutual trust between agencies in the criminal justice system and youth with a migration background or weaker socio-economic position. The Netherlands Science Agenda has awarded 1.5 million euros to a consortium to find out.

For years, employees at AAF International in Emmen were exposed to high concentrations of carcinogenic substances. The company has now been taken to court.

Sixteen master’s students from a variety of disciplines are helping The Hague Police to find new clues in a cold case.

The Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology is located in the Kamerlingh Onnes Building (KOG).

Lecture

A punishment that fits the crime is the cornerstone of the rechtsstaat or constitutional state. But opinions differ greatly on what constitutes a just and effective punishment. Research by Leiden University provides politicians, legislators, law enforcers and the public with new information and insights…

Marieke Liem en Edwin Bakker have published an article in the Dutch Magazine Criminology. The article tells us the following:

Both departments provide teaching in the bachelor and master programmes.

Leids onderzoek naar bestraffing komt tot stand uit verschillende disciplines. Het onderzoeksproject kent een juridische, criminologische, sociaalwetenschappelijke en filosofische invalshoek.

A quantitative study on the use of pre-trial detention of juveniles in The Netherlands.

On 3 November 2021, Lucas Noyon defended the thesis 'Strafrecht en publieke opinie'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. J.H. Crijns and Prof. J.W. de Keijser.

On 21 Januari 2020, Patrick van Berlo defended his thesis 'Human Rights Elephants in an Era of Globalisation: Commodification, Crimmigration, and Human Rights in Confinement'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. J.P. van der Leun and Prof. M.A.H. van der Woude.

The coronavirus crisis had a major impact on the judicial system in the Netherlands: courts closed at the start of the pandemic and instead held virtual hearings. Research now shows that things did not always go smoothly.

Leiden Law Practices (LLP)

Inaugural lecture

There are frequent calls from society for heavier prison sentences, but the question is whether longer sentences result in a safer society. Judges are seeing more and more offenders with social and psychological problems and they therefore often prescribe a programme of treatment and monitoring for…

Receiving welfare benefits has a major impact on criminal behaviour. This has been demonstrated by Marco Stam, who defended his thesis on 20 January 2022.

Joni Reef was among those present at the opening of Expertise Centre KIND in 's-Hertogenbosch on Thursday 22 November 2018. She spoke to Dutch newspaper Brabants Dagblad afterwards.

Why do certain incidents of serious violence end lethally whereas others do not? What role do personal characteristics of offenders and victims play and how do immediate situational factors influence outcomes?

For the first time, research has been conducted on how the health of detained persons prior to their detention differs from that of non-detainees and to what extent health problems change over the period: from before and after their detention.

Per 1 september 2021 is de stad Leiden een heuse stadscriminoloog rijker. Marianne Franken gaat in een vier jaar durend promotieproject onderzoek doen naar de veiligheidsbeleving van Leidse burgers.

Cuts in the prison system threaten to be at the expense of security, including that of society, writes university lecturer Esther van Ginneken in an opinion piece in Dutch newspaper NRC.

Our society can no longer not imagine the threat of cybercrime. Banks, companies, and schools are hacked, or 'DDoSed', with increasing regularity and data is being stolen or taken hostage. To respond adequately to this threat, we need more knowledge of the perpetrators.

Despite various initiatives it appears that it is no simple task to get ex-prisoners back on the job market.