In-depth Studies

December 2023

Joris Beijers, Nikolaj Tollenaar, and André van der Laan

The Juvenile Crime Monitor 2023 indicates that registered juvenile crime has decreased over the long term. In recent years, there has been a stabilization or increase in some offenses, including some types of serious violent crime. This in-depth study investigates the developments from 2010 to 2021 in (serious) violent crime involving juveniles.

The study reveals a decrease in the number of juveniles convicted of a violent offense from 2010 to 2021. A decrease is also visible in the number of serious violent offenses, such as aggravated (attempted) assault, manslaughter, and murder. However, this decrease is less pronounced than decreases in general violent offenses, and in recent years, there has been a stabilization among adolescents versus an increase among minors. Especially noteworthy was an increase in the number of boys found guilty of a serious, violent offense between 2018 and 2021, particularly in the four largest cities. However, most of these offenses concerned ‘attempts’.

It has yet to be determined whether this trend will continue, especially considering a reported decrease in the number of juvenile suspects investigated by the Public Prosecution Service for serious violent offending in 2022. Another question concerns underlying factors behind this trend. This is being investigated in a follow-up study on manslaughter offenses, wherein the characteristics of the offense and the offenders in juvenile manslaughter cases from 2016 and 2021 will be compared based on verdict analyses.

View the English summary of the report on Trends in Serious Violent Offending among Juveniles from 2010 to 2021

March 2023

Rik Beerthuizen, Charlie Stoeldraaijer, Kirti Zeijlmans, Anne-Marie Slotboom, and André van der Laan

This is an exploratory study, of which the results are indicative and not directly generalizable to all delinquent girls and young women (aged 12-27). Findings indicate that both boys and girls are more likely to self-report involvement in offending behavior than that they appear in police suspect data. However, this difference is greater among girls than boys. Furthermore, girls and boys differ in the type of offending behavior. For example, girls are less often involved in violent crimes. According to professionals, they may also play a different role in committing offenses than boys. Additionally, there seem to be differences in treatment. Girls who are suspected of involvement in offending behavior may be treated differently than boys. In part, this is because girls behave differently in their contact with professionals (more vulnerable, communicative, and open regarding the offending behavior and its context). To some extent, this is also due to the behavior of professionals, who sometimes indicate that they establish more effort to create a safe atmosphere for female, than male suspects.

View the English summary of the report on Female Juvenile Offending

November 2022

Nikolaj Tollenaar, Joris Broere, and André van der Laan

This study examines -changes in- whether and where police-registered juvenile crime concentrates in different neighborhoods over time, and which neighborhood characteristics are associated with certain concentrations. This includes both offending neighborhoods, where juveniles commit their offenses, and the residential neighborhoods of juvenile suspects. Findings indicate that juvenile crime registered by the police hardly occurs in most Dutch neighborhoods: a quarter of registered juvenile crime takes place in 1% of the neighborhoods. When examining the residential neighborhoods of juvenile suspects, it is found that most of them live in large cities. However, the top 1% of offending neighborhoods also includes rural residential areas. Therefore, policies solely focusing on reducing crime in large cities may neglect the needs of other, rural areas.

View the English summary of the report on Geography of Registered Juvenile Crime (Residential Neighborhoods versus Offending Neighborhoods)

May 2021

René Hesseling, Albert Harteveld, and Brigitte Bloem (National Police)

Research shows that juveniles are involved in various forms of cyber and digitized crime. In the Self-Report Juvenile Crime Monitor (MZJ) 2020, 19.5% of minors and 15% of adolescents report perpetrating such crimes. However, based on police and judicial statistics, little or nothing was known about the number of juvenile suspects known to the police for these offenses. This is because of police offense registration practices.

Based on a National Cybercrime Query (LCQ) developed by the police, it was possible to gain more insight into the types of cybercrime and the types of (juvenile) suspects. Results indicate that in the period from January 2019 to July 2020, 1,589 unique suspects were registered for some form of cybercrime. Just over half (n=805) were juveniles (50.7%). Of all cyber suspects, nearly 14% are minors (aged 12-18) and 37% are adolescents (aged 18-23). In the first half of 2020, about as many juvenile suspects were registered as over the entire year of 2019. This increase is likely a consequence of the increase in online activities due to COVID-19 and a related rise in cybercrime. In relation to population size, based on the number of suspects in 2019, this amounts to 0.20 juvenile suspects per 1,000 peers. For minors, this is 0.10 suspects per 1,000 peers, and for adolescents, this is 0.31 suspects per 1,000 peers. In comparison to suspects aged 23 or older, juveniles are much more often suspected of involvement in fraud/deception and extortion. They are also more often suspects in person-oriented cybercrimes (libel, slander, threats) directed at friends or acquaintances.

May 2021

Kirti Zeijlmans and André van der Laan

The number of juvenile cybercrime cases is increasing, both at the Public Prosecution Service and court level of criminal justice system intervention. Nonetheless, it only concerns a limited number of cases per year and remains a small, non-representative part of cyber offenses in general.

In 2019, the Public Prosecution Service relatively often disposed juvenile cyber cases as technical dismissals. This decision is made when prosecution is not continued because the case is unlikely to result in a conviction. On the other hand, youth judges are less likely to resort to acquittal in cybercrime cases in comparison to previous years. This indicates improved coordination between the Public Prosecution Service and the courts regarding the required burden of proof.

Furthermore, cybercrime cases seem to have become more complex: they are increasingly more often handled by a multi-judge chamber and are more frequently intertwined with both traditional and digital, non-cybercrime offenses. These non-cybercrime offenses may involve preparatory work necessary for committing the relevant cybercrime, or an offense that can be committed following execution of the cybercrime. The juvenile cybercrime cases that appear in court mainly seem to concern the more serious types of offenses, predominantly those with a financial motive, for which juvenile cybercrime offenders do not necessarily need to possess strong IT skills.

The sanctions and measures administered in response to cyber offenses vary widely, which may be explained by the same aspects as sentencing variety in traditional offenses: for example, variation in offense types, frequency, duration of the offense, and the degree of professionalism.