Compared to macroeconomic factors, the financial situation of the individual may provide better insight into the relationship between debt and crime. However, the relationship between debt and crime is still unclear and little is known about the causality of this relationship and the factors that influence it. To obtain more insight into this relationship, a systematic and scoping literature review was conducted. Five articles were analyzed in the systematic review, and 24 articles in the scoping review. The results of the systematic review show a strong association between debt and crime whereby debt is a risk factor for crime, especially for recidivism and regardless of the type of crime, and crime is a risk factor for debt. The scoping review provided additional and in-depth insight, and placed the results of the systematic review in a broader perspective. Moreover, it emphasized the prevalence of debt among offenders, regardless of age, and identified the factors that influence the relationship between debt and crime.
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"Probation is a fast-developing field that plays an important role in the response to crime and the prevention of reoffending. Probation covers various sanctions and community-based measures, including supervision and community service, designed to promote community safety and the social inclusion of offenders. This brochure is intended for justice ministers, other politicians and senior civil servants interested in setting up or upgrading a probation service. The ‘key message’ highlights the main topics and messages in this brochure. Readers who want to learn more about the benefits of probation and about how to bring these into practice should read the full text."
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"Probation is a fast-developing field that plays an important role in the response to crime and the prevention of reoffending. Probation covers various sanctions and community-based measures, including supervision and community service, designed to promote community safety and the social inclusion of offenders. This brochure is intended for justice ministers, other politicians and senior civil servants interested in setting up or upgrading a probation service. The ‘key message’ highlights the main topics and messages in this brochure. Readers who want to learn more about the benefits of probation and about how to bring these into practice should read the full text."
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‘The fear of crime’ is “upon everybody’s tongue” nowadays (Farrall & Gadd 2004:1). The concept is widely accepted as social problem across the globe (Gray, Jackson & Farrall 2008, Garland 2001) as it is held to impinge ‘(…) upon the well-being of a large proportion of the population’ (Farralll et al. 1997:658). But do we actually have a valid picture of a genuine ‘social problem of striking dimensions’ (Ditton 1999:83)? Critical voices say we don’t. ‘The fear of crime’ - as we generally know it - is seen by them as ‘(…) a product of the way it has been researched rather than the way it is’ (Farrall et al. 1997:658). And still, 45 years after the start of research, ‘surprisingly little can be said conclusively about the fear of crime‘ (Ditton & Farrall 2000:xxi). This research contributes to a growing body of knowledge - from especially the last fifteen years - that treats ‘the fear of crime’ as ‘(…) a complex allocation of interacting feelings, perceptions, emotions, values and judgments on the personal as well as the societal level’ (Pleysier 2010:43). One often replicated and paradoxical observation catches the eye: citizens perceive a growing threat of crime to their society, but consequently perceive a low risk that they themselves will fall victim of crime. Taking a social psychological approach (e.g. see Farrall et al. 2000; Jackson 2008), we will search for suitable explanations for this paradoxical observation in the fear of crime’s research tradition. The aim of this research is ‘to integrate social psychological concepts related to the individual’s identity and evaluation of his position in an increasingly complex society, to enhance our understanding of the fear of crime concept’ (Pleysier & Cops 2016:3).
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In our highly digitalized society, cybercrime has become a common crime. However, because research into cybercriminals is in its infancy, our knowledge about cybercriminals is still limited. One of the main considerations is whether cybercriminals have higher intellectual capabilities than traditional criminals or even the general population. Although criminological studies clearly show that traditional criminals have lower intellectual capabilities, little is known about the relationship between cybercrime and intelligence. The current study adds to the literature by exploring the relationship between CITO-test scores and cybercrime in the Netherlands. The CITO final test is a standardized test for primary school students - usually taken at the age of 11 or 12 - and highly correlated with IQ-scores. Data from Statistics Netherlands were used to compare CITO-test scores of 143 apprehended cybercriminals with those of 143 apprehended traditional criminals and 143 non-criminals, matched on age, sex, and country of birth. Ordinary Least Squares regression analyses were used to compare CITO test scores between cybercriminals, traditional criminals, and non-criminals. Additionally, a discordant sibling design was used to control for unmeasured confounding by family factors. Findings reveal that cybercriminals have significantly higher CITO test scores compared to traditional criminals and significantly lower CITO test scores compared to non-criminals.
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The present study aims at understanding how individuals engage in organized crime activities. Processes responsible for organized crime involvement are still poorly understood, particularly for those who become engaged only later in life. In-depth interviews with 16 inmates, all convicted of participation in organized crime and incarcerated in Dutch prisons, illuminate how individuals at different life stages become involved in crime in general, and in organized crime activities in particular. Most participants we interviewed turn out to have experienced an adult onset in crime. Their involvement mechanisms are analysed and compared with mechanisms applicable to offenders with an early start in crime. It was found that offenders with an early start in crime have a wealth of opportunities and criminal contacts, whereas individuals who become involved in crime later in life are exposed to crime opportunities in conventional settings.
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Although many countries have shown a distinct drop in crime over the last decades, the criminological literature suggests that fear of crime in those countries remained relatively stable. Research on this issue is sparse however, mostly confined to a single country, a few indicators and/or a relatively short timeframe. For this chapter 1,100 data series on fear of crime related items from (supra)national surveys were collected, covering 121 countries and more than 25 years (1989-2015). Using these data, a first prototype for an International Fear of Crime Trend Index was developed. Used on the five UN-regions with the highest average amount of data series per country, the index shows a pronounced fear drop in four of the five regions: all of them in Europe and the Anglo-Saxon countries. Explanations for these fear drops are hypothesized and directions for further research are formulated.
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The transition from adolescence to adulthood also has been described as a window of opportunity or vulnerability when developmental and contextual changes converge to support positive turnarounds and redirections (Masten, Long, Kuo, McCormick, & Desjardins, 2009; Masten, Obradović, & Burt, 2006). The transition years also are a criminological crossroads, as major changes in criminal careers often occur at these ages as well. For some who began their criminal careers during adolescence, offending continues and escalates; for others involvement in crime wanes; and yet others only begin serious involvement in crime at these ages. There are distinctive patterns of offending that emerge during the transition from adolescence to adulthood. One shows a rise of offending in adolescence and the persistence of high crime rates into adulthood; a second reflects the overall age-crime curve pattern of increasing offending in adolescence followed by decreases during the transition years; and the third group shows a late onset of offending relative to the age-crime curve. Developmental theories of offending ought to be able to explain these markedly different trajectories
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ENGLISH: A vast and growing body of research has shown that crime tends to run in families. However, previous studies focused only on traditional crimes and research on familial risk factors for cyber offending is very scarce. To address this gap in the literature, the present study examines the criminal behavior of the family members of a sample of cyber offenders prosecuted in the Netherlands. The sample consists of 979 cyber offenders prosecuted for computer trespassing between 2001 and 2018, and two matched groups of 979 traditional offenders and 979 non-offenders. Judicial information and kinship data from Dutch Statistics were used to measure criminal behavior among family members. Both traditional offenders and cyber offenders were found to be more likely to have criminal fathers, mothers, and siblings than non-offenders. Additional analyses, however, showed different patterns between cyber offenders who were only prosecuted for cyber offenses and those who also committed traditional crimes. While the former group of cyber offenders were similar to non-offenders in terms of family offending, the latter group of cyber offenders were more similar to traditional offenders. Overall, these results suggest that the traditional mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of crime can only partially explain cybercrime involvement. NEDERLANDS: Uit een groot en groeiend aantal onderzoeken blijkt dat criminaliteit vaak in families voorkomt. Eerdere studies richtten zich echter alleen op traditionele misdrijven en onderzoek naar familiaire risicofactoren voor cybercriminaliteit is zeer schaars. Om deze leemte in de literatuur op te vullen, onderzoekt deze studie het criminele gedrag van familieleden van een steekproef van cyberdelinquenten die in Nederland worden vervolgd. De steekproef bestaat uit 979 cyberdelinquenten die tussen 2001 en 2018 zijn vervolgd voor computervredebreuk, en twee gematchte groepen van 979 traditionele delinquenten en 979 niet-delinquenten. Justitiële informatie en verwantschapsgegevens van het Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek werden gebruikt om crimineel gedrag onder familieleden te meten. Zowel traditionele daders als cybercriminelen bleken vaker criminele vaders, moeders en broers en zussen te hebben dan niet-daders. Aanvullende analyses lieten echter verschillende patronen zien tussen cyberdelinquenten die alleen werden vervolgd voor cyberdelicten en degenen die ook traditionele delicten pleegden. Terwijl de eerste groep cyberdelinquenten vergelijkbaar was met niet-delinquenten wat betreft gezinsdelinquentie, leek de tweede groep cyberdelinquenten meer op traditionele delinquenten. In het algemeen suggereren deze resultaten dat de traditionele mechanismen van intergenerationele overdracht van criminaliteit de betrokkenheid bij cybercriminaliteit slechts gedeeltelijk kunnen verklaren.
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The relationship between socioeconomic factors and crime is a classic theme in criminological literature. However, the relationship between debt and crime is still unclear, and little is known about the causality of this relationship and the factors that influence it. In addition, effective interventions and guidelines to adequately support offenders with debt are limited. Therefore, this thesis aims to systematically gain more insight into the factors that influence the relationship between debt and crime among probation clients and to contribute to developing tools that probation officers and other forensic social professionals can use to support clients with debt adequately. The relationship between debt and crime was studied by (1) a systematic and scoping literature review (5 studies were included in the systematic review and 24 studies in the scoping review), (2) a client file study including risk assessment data of a sample of 250 Dutch probation clients, (3) a quantitative study including recidivism data of the same sample of 250 Dutch probation clients, (4) interviews with 33 Dutch probation officers and 16 clients, and (5) a multiple case study focusing on working elements in the supervision of individual offenders (5 cases). The results show that debt is prevalent among probation clients, hinders resocialization, and increases recidivism risk. Debt and crime are not only related directly but are also related by a complex interplay of problems in different life domains, such as problems regarding childhood, education and work, and mental and physical health. Notwithstanding the strong relationship between debt and crime, financial assistance for probation clients with debts is limited. As debt is strongly related to problems in other life domains, a systematic collaboration between professionals of different disciplines is necessary to support clients with debt adequately.
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