Arjan Blokland

Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR)

Possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is a serious criminal offence facilitated by online technologies. To prevent, investigate, and treat online CSAM offending, comprehensive knowledge of potential risk factors for these crimes is required. Given the large body of relevant research, a systematic overview of the risk fac...

Darknet forums dedicated to child sexual abuse material (CSAM) attract thousands of users interacting with each other through online communications. Given finite resources, law enforcement agencies seek ways to effectively prioritise their investigative efforts by identifying key-players that are central to the forum community. For the identificati...

In this work we focus on identifying key players in dark net cryptomarkets that facilitate online trade of illegal goods. Law enforcement aims to disrupt criminal activity conducted through these markets by targeting key players vital to the market’s existence and success. We particularly focus on detecting successful vendors responsible for the ma...

The aims of the current systematic review are to provide an overview of the available evidence concerning the risk and protective factors for entering organized crime groups (OCGs), to explore which entry mechanisms for entering OCGs are distinguished in the literature, and to assess whether different sets of risk and protective factors could be id...

Vanwege de zorgen omtrent de betrokkenheid van jongeren bij de georganiseerde criminaliteit, is er steeds meer aandacht voor interventies die die betrokkenheid proberen tegen te gaan of te verminderen. Het doel van de huidige studie is om via een systematische literatuurstudie de kennis over interventies gericht op het voorkomen of verminderen van...

Background: The darknet hosts an increasing number of hidden services dedicated to the distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Given that by contributing CSAM to the forum members subject themselves to criminal prosecution, questions regarding the motivation for members contributing to darknet CSAM forums arise. Objective: Building on i...

Previous research indicates that parental monitoring protects adolescents from delinquency. While, emerging adults spend increasing amounts of time outside the family setting, they often remain in or return to reside in the parental home, possibly prolonging the period of parental monitoring. We examine whether parental monitoring, differentiating...

The anti-vaccination movement has successfully spread its views on social media. This study examined how community building emerges in the messages of Dutch anti-vaccination Telegram groups. Particularly, we investigated the extent to which these groups provide a platform for sharing information, perpetuating a shared identity, and promoting action...

Objectives The objective of this study is to estimate the price of retribution. Methods Based on administrative data on all sentences in the Netherlands in 2012 and recidivism from 2012 to 2018, we first investigate whether community service orders are more effective in reducing recidivism than short-term imprisonment using an instrumental variabl...

By routing traffic through a random combination of servers worldwide, the darknet obfuscates the identity of its users, making it an attractive medium for journalists, dissidents, and individuals committing crimes. Since 2008, access to the darknet has been facilitated by the The Onion Router (TOR) browser, bringing the darknet within reach of an i...

In this work we focus on identifying key players in dark net cryptomarkets. Law enforcement aims to disrupt criminal activity conducted through these markets by targeting key players vital to the market's existence and success. We particularly focus on detecting successful vendors responsible for the majority of illegal trade. Our methodology aims...

Objectives This study investigates the effects of the length of imprisonment on reoffending after release. Methods To account for endogeneity from omitted variables that influence both sentencing decisions and the likelihood to reoffend, this study uses variation in the proclivity to impose lengthier sentences across judges to which criminal cases...

Noncustodial sanctions may present an attractive way to reduce the prison population rate, but only when noncustodial sanctions meet custodial ones in terms of deterring recidivism. Using administrative criminal records data of all individuals convicted in the Netherlands in 2012, this study examines the effects of short-term imprisonment versus no...

By comparing criminal careers of individuals who have sexually offended to those who have not sexually offended, the current study examines whether their criminal career parameters and trajectories differ. National conviction records (entire criminal history and about 18 years of follow-up after index offence) from Belgium and the Netherlands are u...

In order to launder large amounts of money, (drug) criminals can seek help from financial facilitators. According to the FATF, these facilitators are operating increasingly business-like and even participate in professional money laundering networks. This study examines the extent to which financial facilitators in the Netherlands exhibit business-...

Purpose Insecurities and social isolation resulting from the COVID-19 restrictions, may have elevated tensions at home, consequently increasing the risk of domestic violence. The present study aims to examine changes in the prevalence, nature, and type of reporter of domestic violence following the various restrictions implemented to control the sp...

Online communities play an important role in spreading public discontent and could contribute to polarization. This study focuses on anti-vaccination views in the Netherlands, which have intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. We examined the structure and development of five Dutch anti-vaccination Telegram groups and studied their interactivity...

The Netherlands is known as one of the pioneering countries adopting a whole-of-government approach to fighting organised crime. In 2012, the Dutch government launched a similar multi-agency approach to tackle outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs). This paper provides a brief overview of the problem of OMCGs in the Netherlands and describes the different...

The Dutch criminal law system is based on individual liability, yet part of the crime and violence Outlaw Motorcycle Gang (OMCG) members commit is collective in nature. This study examines the criminal law approach towards collective criminal behavior of OMCG members. The study analyzes police files and court judgements of criminal law cases that w...

Since the early 1990s, increasing attention is being paid to the impact of life course transitions on criminal behavior. However, individuals’ life courses do not evolve in a vacuum but rather in the broad context of societal characteristics and developments. In this paper, we analyze whether there is an effect of macroeconomic circumstances on ind...

This chapter deals with the ways in which men convicted of sexual offences narrate their desistance, how this narrative is linked to temporal perceptions of the self and the role these self-perceptions play in agentic action. We highlight the difficulties faced by these men, in terms of limited structural opportunities and available cultural script...

Een dataonderzoek naar relaties tussen incidenten, naleving en toezicht Nederland is de laatste jaren opgeschrikt door een aantal ernstige incidenten in de chemische industrie. Bedrijven die werken met grote hoeveelheden gevaarlijke stoffen worden over het algemeen jaarlijks geïnspecteerd op basis van het Besluit risico’s zware ongevallen (Brzo)....

Confronted with growing public concern about violence and other serious crime committed by outlaw motorcycle clubs, in 2012 the Dutch government launched a whole-of-government approach to discourage club membership and organized criminal behaviour. The whole-of-government approach included a zero tolerance policy towards crimes committed by outlaw...

Using long-term personal background and registered criminal career data on 2,714 police-identified members of Dutch Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMCGs), the current study examines Dutch OMCG membership and its association with members' criminal careers. Results show that Dutch OMCG members differ from the average adult male population (N = 6,845,110) i...

Doelstelling: Inzicht bieden in de relatie tussen criminaliteit en huiselijk geweld en welke factoren de sterkte van dit verband beïnvloeden. Onderzoeksvragen: 1. In hoeverre is er een verband tussen criminaliteit en huiselijk geweld? 2. Is het verband tussen criminaliteit en huiselijk geweld afhankelijk van de frequentie en aard van de criminalit...

This study examines the relationship between general offending and intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration in young adulthood, using a Dutch longitudinal study. Young adults were followed over four waves, and self-reported data on general offending, IPV perpetration, and a number of individual characteristics were collected. Results of random...

Developmental and life-course criminology has evolved into a key perspective from which to understand individual offending. In this chapter we explore the benefits and pitfalls of applying a life-course perspective to corporate crime. We do so by systematically reviewing the cornerstones of current developmental and life-course criminology, consecu...

Because of the growing incidence and increasing technical sophistication of Darkweb child sexual exploitation (CSE), some have begun to label it as organized crime. By itself however, this label adds little to our understanding of the phenomenon. To gain a more detailed insight into the workings of Darkweb CSE, we apply the conceptual framework sug...

This study examines the relationship between post-release source of income and convictions for different types of crime. Longitudinal data from a sample of formerly incarcerated adults (n = 10,879) released from Dutch prisons were used. Fixed effects models show that, compared with receiving social benefits, post-release employment is associated wi...

Darkweb fora dedicated to the illegal exchange of child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) continue to thrive. Profiling forum members based on their communication patterns will increase our insights in the dynamics of online CSEM and may aid law enforcement to identify those members who are most influential and pose the highest risk. The current...

This study's aim is to contribute to the knowledge on the steps involved in child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) crimes committed in Darkweb CSEM communities. Due to the anonymous and illegal nature of these communities, academic research is scarce. This study provides a crime script analysis of member communication data from four CSEM Darkweb...

In recent years, many European countries have taken far-reaching measures to combat the criminal activities of outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs). Meanwhile, empirical research into the ways OMCGs are involved in and influence the crimes of their members is largely lacking. This study presents the main findings of research based on police files of cas...

The Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy (LSRP) scale is a self-report measure that can be used to assess psychopathic traits in community samples, and recent research suggested that its three-factor model (Egocentricity, Callousness, and Antisocial) has promising psychometric properties. However, no study to date has validated the LSRP in a longitudin...

De Financial Action Task Force (FATF) stelt dat witwassers groepsgewijs kunnen opereren in professionele witwasnetwerken. Professioneel verwijst daarbij naar het tegen vergoeding leveren van diensten op het gebied van witwassen, en netwerken naar het onderling uitbesteden of gebruik maken van de benodigde expertise. Of zulke witwasnetwerken ook in...

Voor risicogerichte handhaving van regelnaleving door bedrijven is het niet alleen van belang inzicht te verkrijgen in hoe vaak een bedrijf de regels overtreedt, maar ook welke regels worden overtreden. Patronen in de aard van regelovertreding kunnen indicatief zijn voor de achterliggende oorzaak van regelovertreding en daarmee nuttige kennis oplev...

Several European countries have recently been confronted with mutually arranged confrontations between hooligan groups in a predesignated setting. This article explores the significance of this form of collective violence for those involved and how this relates to existing collective violence theory. In addition to international and national questi...

Outlaw motorcycle clubs have spread across the globe. Their members have been associated with serious crime, and law enforcement often perceives them to be a form of organized crime. Outlaw bikers are disproportionately engaged in crime, but the role of the club itself in these crimes remains unclear. Three scenarios describe possible relations bet...

Sexual offenses are often part of a larger criminal career also encompassing nonsexual crimes. However, most sexual offending typologies focus on an individual’s most recent sexual offense. We compare data from Belgian and Dutch national conviction cohorts and use latent class analysis to distinguish groups of individuals based on their history of...

Objectives Focusing on intermittency as a specific criminal career dimension, the present study explores the distribution of intermittency as it occurs across individuals and in the course of the criminal career.Methods Using conviction data on repeat offenders (N = 3716) from the Criminal Career and Life-Course Study (CCLS), overall patterns of in...

Nederland is de laatste jaren opgeschrikt door een aantal ernstige incidenten in de chemische industrie. Bedrijven met grote hoeveelheden gevaarlijke stoffen worden over het algemeen jaarlijks geïnspecteerd op basis van het Besluit risico’s zware ongevallen (Brzo). Marieke Kluin en collega’s hebben de inspectierapporten van 494 van deze bedrijven o...

Daders van zedendelicten worden vaak getypeerd op basis van een specifiek delict, bijvoorbeeld het laatst door hen gepleegde zedendelict. Het is onduidelijk of typologieën van deze daders op basis van hun criminele voorgeschiedenis hierbij aansluiten of tot nieuwe inzichten leiden. Deze studie identificeert verschillende typen criminele carrièrepat...

Zowel in het oog springende rampen, als kleinere incidenten bij chemische bedrijven trekken een wissel op de leefomgeving. Brzo-regelgeving heeft als doel de gevolgen van chemische bedrijvigheid voor mens en milieu te beperken. Hieruit ontstaat de verwachting dat overtreding van deze regels voorspellend is voor het zich voordoen van incidenten. In...

Early-onset offending is generally recognized as a risk factor for persistent criminal behavior. However, variation in long-term delinquent development among early-onset offenders remains rather underexplored and poorly understood. We, therefore, used multitrajectory modeling to identify distinct subgroups of early-onset offenders ( n = 708) based...

Relationship engagement is an important life-course transition that may affect criminal development. Yet, little is known about how criminal behavior may in turn affect life-course transitions. Using six waves of data on adolescents, their parents and a sibling from the RADAR-Y (Research on Adolescent Development and Relationships, younger cohort)...

This study explores individual characteristics linked to an increased risk of persistence in collective violence. A sample of collective violence offenders (n = 438) was identified based on individuals’ involvement in a collective violence incident in 2011/2012 or due to them being recorded in a police database of ‘known’ football hooligans. For th...

http://www.belspo.be/belspo/brain-be/themes_4_Strategic_en.stm#SOC *** Context *** Sex offences have attracted a lot of public and policy attention in the last decades. In Belgium, the Dutroux case led to unseen public protests and important policy changes. Elsewhere, similar horrifying events have taken place, also affecting in important ways po...

Decisive action against criminal outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs) ranks high on the criminal justice agenda. Nevertheless, in many Western European countries the number of OMCG chapters has increased rapidly. Official OMCG support clubs also have mushroomed. The present study extends prior research from the Netherlands and elsewhere by employing a g...

Based on criminal career data of a sample of 601 police-identified outlaw motorcycle gang members and an age-matched comparison group of 300 non-gang affiliated motorcycle owners, the current analysis examines various dimensions of the criminal careers of outlaw bikers, including participation, onset, frequency, and crime mix. Results show that Dut...

Prosociality is a central topic in positive psychology. An important but under-studied distinction can be made between active and reactive expressions. We suggest that the novel construct of social mindfulness represents active rather than reactive prosociality. Across four studies (N = 2,594), including a multi-wave representative sample spanning...

Understanding how bicultural and monocultural individuals are oriented toward the cultures they come into frequent contact with can increase insights into their adaptation and well-being. Previous research has shown a relation between culture and mental state reading in the form of the cultural in-group effect, which is defined as the advantage in...

This study examines the relationship between criminal behaviour over the life-course and intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration and general violence in later life. The study uses data on a subsample (N = 585) from the Dutch Criminal Career and Life-Course Study, and combines officially registered longitudinal data on convictions with self-rep...

The goal of this study is to examine risk factors for delinquency in emerging adulthood, highlighting any differences between those generally found for adolescent delinquent behaviour. The importance of examining risk factors for this age group is discussed, given recent changes in the nature of the early adult years, and the fact that, although th...

Anders dan onderzoek naar de criminele carrières van natuurlijke personen is longitudinaal onderzoek naar regelovertredingen door bedrijven nog steeds schaars. De weinige beschikbare studies beperken zich doorgaans tot Amerikaanse bedrijven en hebben of een kleine steekproef, of een korte observatieperiode, hetgeen de representativiteit van de gevo...

Since long, the delinquency of sex offenders has been the focus of many assumptions. These include the ideas that sex offenders are prone to commit new offences, that they are repeating (identical) sex offences and that they do not seize to offend. Such ideas suggest sex offenders are a distinct group. Based on the study of criminal careers of sex...

Cambridge Core - Social Psychology - Applied Social Psychology - edited by Linda Steg

Criminologists are increasingly interested in the effects of life-course dynamics on criminological development. However, detailed longitudinal data are difficult to