Dutch Ministry of Justice

About: Dutch Ministry of Justice is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: Poison control & Prison. The organization has 111 authors who have published 153 publications receiving 2764 citations.

Quality of life, delinquency and psychosocial functioning of adolescents in secure residential care: testing two assumptions of the Good Lives Model.

Abstract: In this study, two assumptions derived from the Good Lives Model were examined: whether subjective Quality of Life is related to delinquent behaviour and psychosocial problems, and whether adolescents with adequate coping skills are less likely to commit delinquent behaviour or show psychosocial problems. To this end, data of 95 adolescents with severe psychiatric problems who participated in a four-wave longitudinal study were examined. Subjective Quality of Life was assessed with the ten domains of the Lancashire Quality of Life Profile and coping skills with the Utrecht Coping List for Adolescents. Results showed that adolescents who reported a lower Quality of Life on the health domain had more psychosocial problems at follow-up. No relationship was found between Quality of Life and delinquent behaviour. In addition, active and passive coping were associated with delinquent behaviour and psychosocial functioning at follow-up. Based on the results of this longitudinal study, the strongest support was found for the second assumption derived from the Good Lives Model. Adolescents with adequate coping skills are less likely to commit delinquent behaviour and have fewer psychosocial problems at follow-up. The current study provides support for the use of strength-based elements in the treatment programmes for adolescents in secure residential care.

A New Instrument to Measure Prison Climate: The Psychometric Quality of the Prison Climate Questionnaire

Abstract: Various survey measures have been developed to assess prison climate. Because these instruments have shortcomings, the Prison Climate Questionnaire (PCQ) was developed to measure prison climate and...

Development, implementation and use of a judicial data space system

Abstract: For the purpose of good and trustworthy management information for the government, our research institute has built a data space system that makes it possible to periodically monitor data flows within as well as between organizations of the justice domain. The aim of this system is to get insight into the success and possible bottlenecks in the criminal justice domain. Data from heterogeneous sources are extracted and related by means of domain knowledge. The system consists of three layers: a data space, a space manager and an interface layer. The data space layer consists of a set of heterogeneous databases. The space manager layer -- implemented as a variable database and a relationship module -- consists of domain knowledge. The relationship module decides which databases in the data space layer are required to answer a query. The interface layer consists of a user friendly web interface, which facilitates policy makers to interpret data flows within the justice domain.

Human Smuggling, Human Trafficking, and Exploitation in the Sex Industry

Abstract: Human trafficking is often confused with human smuggling. Both phenomena may be regarded as undesirable consequences of globalization. Smugglers as well as traffickers make use of other people’s desire to improve their lives by building up a better future elsewhere. Yet there are fundamental differences as well. Human smuggling primarily relates to illegal immigration and the violation of immigration laws. Human smugglers move people and provide a bridge between poor or dangerous countries and richer, safer ones. Some may have humanitarian motives to save political refugees or to help relatives or friends to build up a new life. Others unscrupulously abuse dependent illegal immigrants by demanding high prices and providing bad or even perilous travel arrangements. Usually the relationship between smugglers and smuggled persons ends after the transport to the country of destination. In human trafficking, the situation is different. Human trafficking often, but not necessarily, involves border crossing. After arrival, trafficked persons must produce profit for the traffickers. Their relationships with the traffickers, or with organizations or individuals who have paid for their delivery, are longer term, victim-exploiter relationships, in which the human rights of the victim are being abused (Kelly and Regan 2000). According to the trafficking definition in the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, using means like threat or force, deception, coercion, abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability, with the purpose of exploitation (UN 2000, Article 3a). Many countries follow the aforementioned distinction between human smuggling and human trafficking in their national penal codes. However, in practice, these two phenomena can be difficult to distinguish and may be intertwined. Assisted illegal immigration may precede exploitation, as some smuggled illegal immigrants, who travel voluntarily to other countries, end up as trafficking victims in debt bondage and bad labor conditions only later on. Even the issue of mutual consent, common in human smuggling, is not always decisive in distinguishing between smuggling and trafficking (Herman 2006; Van Liempt and Doomernik 2006); trafficking also usually starts with a consensual agreement between the trafficker and the future victim (Andrees 2008). When individuals have agreed to come to another country to work in the sex industry or in other sectors, their fate may not become clear until after arrival, when they are gradually forced to do other work than they had agreed upon, or under very different circumstances than