Een Vlaamse spiegel - Nederlandse Vereniging voor Kriminologie

SUMMARIES
Belgian criminologists and Dutch criminology
Kleemans, Van der Laan & Ponsaers
While the Tijdschrift voor Criminologie has Flemish editors and contributors,
mutual contact, exchange and debate between criminological researchers in the
entire Dutch-speaking area deserve improvement. This jubilee issue contains
nine ‘Southern’ comments on ‘Northern’ research traditions and practices. In
some cases the articles go further than that: after describing and commenting
on what they see in the Netherlands, conclusions on the Belgian home situation
are drawn as well.
Criminology in the Netherlands - a cross-border contemplation
Fijnaut
The way in which Dutch criminology is organised should be fundamentally
changed. Financing two national research institutes (WODC, NSCR) leaves
little space for academic research. The government, therefore, should revamp
WODC into a bustling documentation centre and facilitate one strong
university-linked research institute.
On content, too little attention is paid to more-than-local, (inter)national issues
and subjects such as war crimes, crimes against humanity and terrorism.
More efforts should also be put into synthesising research, larger multiannual
projects, comparison between countries and ‘theorising and theoretical
research with two feet in the real world’. This will contribute to necessary
theory formation and scientific sharpness in criminology, as well as enhance
policy relevance of empirical research.
Thinkers and practicians - research on organised crime in Belgium and the
Netherlands
Van Calster & Vander Beken
There are significant differences in research on organised crime in Belgium
and in the Netherlands. Unlike their Belgian colleagues, the Dutch government
decided to involve scientists in crime-analyses and supply them with
confidential police and judiciary information.
Paradoxically, the unwillingness of the Belgian government to participate
in scientific research turned out very positive. Belgian scientists started
‘thinking’ on methodological and theoretical topics, rather than ‘doing’
empirical research. Therefore Belgian methodological and theoretical research
can be of importance for Dutch empirical research, because of the genuine
methodological novelty it proposes.
Summaries
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