Een Vlaamse spiegel - Nederlandse Vereniging voor Kriminologie

Incomparable? Police statistics in Belgium and the Netherlands
Bruggeman
After a general introduction on collecting and interpreting data on criminality,
Belgian and Dutch practice on police statistics are compared. Quality
and usage of statistical data are higher in the Netherlands, although academic
criminological institutions in Belgium are usually larger and have better relations
with government. The probable cause of the discrepancy is the greater
stability in Dutch police policies in recent years, in spite of winds of change
that are frequently raging in the Netherlands as well. In both countries, the
need for reliable systems for measuring performance is growing.
Communicating or complementary barrels - policy-related research in
Belgium and the Netherlands
Devroe
In terms of examining relations between and organisation of criminological
research and judicial policy, Belgian government investments in scientific
research and institutions are limited, in spite of its many years of academic
practice. In the Netherlands there is an opposite development: considerable
government commitment to WODC and other institutions, combined with
substantial outsourcing to private research agencies, but a more limited
academic tradition. Historically, these differences may be related to debates
in the Netherlands in the 1970s about governmental and non-governmental
criminology.
Particularly Dutch – research into criminality of ethnic minorities
Brion
Whereas debates on governmental and non-governmental criminology appear
to be a matter of the past in the Netherlands, government financing and guidance
have resulted in a research focus that is particularly Dutch: criminality among
ethnic minorities. In the Netherlands itself, this is considered to be breaking a
taboo in empirical research. If criminology wishes to be the critical conscience
of society however, it must stay clear of de facto manipulation by powerful
interest groups.
The critical urge to get things done
Lippens
Comparing critical pragmatism and principled criticism in both Dutch and
Belgian criminology, critical criminology in the Netherlands turns out to have
been marked, to a significant extent and up to this very day, by an undercurrent
of pragmatism. Whether on abolitionism or restorative justice, Belgian critical
criminology (‘thinkers’) tends to be based on principled positions. This might
explain why Dutch critical criminology (‘doers’) has managed to renew itself
more than its Belgian counterpart.
Summaries
83