Emile Kolthoff

• PhD
• Professor at Open University of the Netherlands

On the obscured effects of sanctions when dealing with environmental crime Environmental crime has serious consequences for nature, the safety and health of individuals, and the economy. Environmental crime includes the illegal discharge of waste into soil or water, drug waste dumping (toxic waste from the production of synthetic drugs that is dump...

MDMA: Voorbij de extase van de Staatscommissie MDMA. Het is een titel met meerdere interpretaties. Allereerst refereert het aan het effect van MDMA op de gebruiker; aan een roes die eindig is. Een roes die 550.000 Nederlanders in 2022 minstens één maal ondergingen, een recordaantal. Dat gaat meestal goed, maar niet altijd, getuige de ernstige gezon...

In this chapter, the triangular relationship between human rights, corruption and law enforcement is described. Police forces are strictly regulated by national laws. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why police work is not usually defined explicitly in terms of human rights, since ideas and concepts related to human rights are already positively...

Criminal law the Aruban way Shortly after Aruba’s ‘status aparte’ within the Kingdom became a reality, the University of Aruba (UA) opened its gates in September 1988. At that time, the brand new university consisted of only one faculty: the Faculty of Law. In September 2006, the three-year bachelor’s degree in Aruban law was introduced; in the 200...

Motives to report serious crime to the police: what role does money play? A research into tip and reward money When investigating serious crime, the police and the Public Prosecution Service (Openbaar Ministerie) may use information supplied to them by civilians.. These citizens can be run as informants by a police intelligence service or they prov...

In totaal heeft 4,1% van de Zeeuwse scholieren te maken gehad met criminele uitbuiting en is 10,9% van de scholieren wel eens gevraagd om strafbare feiten te plegen. Het meest genoemde delict waartoe scholieren worden gedwongen is het stelen en/of plegen van overvallen (13,6%). Daarnaast komt het verhandelen van softdrugs (12,4%) veel voor.

Het platteland - of buitengebied' - staat vaak in de belangstelling als het gaat om georganiseerde misdaad met betrekking tot drugs en mensenhandel. Het gaat dan om recreatie- en vakantieparken, leegstaande gebouwen en andere kwetsbare locaties in het buitengebied, zoals natuurgebieden. Deze locaties bieden een gelegenheidsstructuur door het verhul...

In this article we hypothesize that psychopathic leaders may be attracted to positions of power because in such environments they can fulfill their need for domination and control over other people. Although social dominance is a well-established trait in psychopathy, social dominance as a motivational factor in those high in psychopathy has receiv...

About humans, animals and beasts. The use of metaphors in the debate on racism Racism is related to the process of ‘othering’. Individual people or groups can be described as ‘other’ by depicting them as ‘beasts’. In another form of othering accusations of maltreatment of other than human animals play an important role: awful people abuse innocent...

Using data science to predict indicators of organized crime and its consequences Increasing digitization and datafication lead to an increasingly important role of data in our society and to changes in the way institutions work and decisions are made. Although it can lead to changes in the type of crime (e.g. cybercrime), datafication also facilita...

The influence of threats on the process and the outcome of local decision-making This contribution reports on a delimited part of a larger, exploratory study, the main question of which was: How do aldermen perceive threats, what are their behavioral intentions and what is the influence of threats on the process and the outcome of decision-making?...

Data-driven outlook of organized crime in neighborhoods. An exploration of the possibilities to develop indicators to gain vision in residential areas This contribution reports about a research in a medium-sized municipality on the possibilities of giving municipalities an instrument to determine at the earliest possible stage which neighborhoods a...

Research into the harassment of politicians and other public officials in Northern America and Western Europe demonstrates that 30–93% of politicians report having experienced harassing or stalking behaviour which can comprise serious risks for the integrity of democracy and government. This leads to intriguing questions such as: what types of thre...

In the last few years scholars have postulated that non-institutionalized psychopathic individuals may be overrepresented in leadership positions. In this paper we juxtapose theory and research on the profile of those high in psychopathy in leadership positions with the traditional profile of those high in psychopathy in prisons and institutions. W...

Wie de media volgt krijgt al snel de indruk dat we bij ondermijning te maken hebben met een nieuw en plotseling opgekomen fenomeen. Of dat beeld klopt is de vraag, maar wel zien we dat het probleem de overheid steeds meer boven het hoofd dreigt te groeien en dat de vermenging van onderwereld en bovenwereld op veel terreinen een feit is. Om hier wee...

When domestic violence and organized crime come together… The resilient professional in the borderland of law enforcement and social work There is casuistry, where on the one hand it is the turn of the professionals from the investigation, enforcement and prosecution and on the other hand the turn of the social workers from the social domain. This...

Why criminals involved in organized crime love animals and like showing it off in the media Criminological literature shows that criminals involved in organized crime benefit from positive images in the media. By opening a hospital or donating funds for the development of a football field they try to present themselves in a cordial way and as good...

Political and administrative corruption in the Netherlands; state of affairs 2018 The most recent extensive study on political and administrative corruption in The Netherlands dates back to 2005 (Huberts & Nelen, 2005). Afterwards various studies have been conducted on related subthemes and areas. In this contribution, the state of affairs regardin...

Aldermen in the frontline: a study to their perception and behavior in case of personal threats This contribution reports on a delimited part of a larger, exploratory study, the main question of which was: How do aldermen perceive threats, what are their behavioral intentions and what is the influence of threats on the process and the outcome of de...

Psychopathy is a severe personality disorder that can be defined by a lack of conscience, an egocentric and manipulative character, and charming social skills. Among the general community, images of serial killer Ted Bundy or movie character Hannibal Lector immediately come to mind. Interestingly, however, the recent TV show House of Cards appears...

In dit boek wordt verslag gedaan van de bevindingen van een onderzoek naar ernstige integriteitsschendingen binnen vier rechtshandhavingsorganisaties – de politie, Douane, Koninklijke Marechaussee (KMar) en Fiscale Inlichtingen- en Opsporingsdienst (FIOD) – die in verband kunnen worden gebracht met georganiseerde criminaliteit. Het onderzoek was ge...

The introduction of new media as a means of communication by the police triggers interesting questions about the impact of such new developments, such as the effect on people's safety perceptions. Since communication is mostly overlooked as a possible determinant of safety perception, this led to a research project into the relationship between Twi...

More resilience through reflection Experiences in a Dutch prison This article discusses the importance of reflection for prison staff. Their work is both physical and emotionally incriminating. That increases risk on turnover, burn-out, psychosomatic diseases and negative experiences with prisoners. To render all challenges in their work it’s impor...

Street-level bureaucrats in a juvenile correctional facility Although group workers in juvenile correctional facilities (JCFs) are restricted in their actions by many rules and regulations, they still have the opportunity for tailor-made actions. Based on Lipsky’s (2010) theory of ‘street-level bureaucracy’ this article explains what this discretio...

Street-level bureaucracy and the actors in the public safety domain The editorial introduction to this special issue on street-level bureaucracy (36 years after the publication of Michael Lipsky’s book) draws attention to the important role of frontline workers in the implementation of policy in practice. The two narratives as distinguished by Mayn...

Twitter use by community policing officers and citizens’ safety perceptions This article reports on a conceptual model that provides insight into the relationship between Twitter use by community policing officers and citizens’ safety perceptions. The model has been tested using data from a relatively large-scale survey study and these results are...

Police officers sometimes violate laws and internal procedures to the benefit of society or the police organization. In the literature, this type of behavior is commonly termed noble cause corruption and framed as resulting from a police officer’s moral deliberations. Although the phenomenon has received scholarly attention for over three decades,...

This article reviews the findings of three research projects—all performed by the author and companions—supporting the hypothesis that integrity violations comprise white-collar crime or human rights violations or can be an indicator of more serious crime in an organization. Two of these studies have not previously been published in journals. Two o...

Science and the professional: partners in safety assurance This article discusses the relationship between science and professional practice from the presumption that the two need and reinforce each other. The distinction between theoretical and applied research is rather small and maybe even fictional. This is also true for research in the area of...

Organized crime in the 21st century In the past decades, organised crime internationalised rapidly as a result of increasing mobility and ‘open’ borders. At the same time developments in information and communication technology have led to modernisation of existing types of crime and the introduction of novel ones. Finally, criminals have benefited...

Undermining crime and the role of government and institutions The concept of undermining or subversive crime seems to be linked undistinguishably to organized crime and both terms are sometimes used synonymously. Definitions of the phenomenon are sometimes based on its effects, while others have their focus on its manifestations. Discussion on the...

This research seeks to understand influences on local government integrity development as a control of corruption. Using survey data from public managers in local governments in The Netherlands, Serbia, Montenegro, and the United States, we examined three main areas: integrity policy, leadership, and organizational ethical climate. An important fin...

Kolthoff, E. (2012). Integriteit en bedrijfsmatig werken bij de politie. Cahiers Politiestudies 24. Antwerpen: Maklu. In deze bijdrage wordt verslag gedaan van een onderzoek naar het verband tussen bedrijfsmatig werken en integriteit in een groot Nederlands politiekorps. Bedrijfsmatig werken kwam in zwang in de jaren tachtig van de vorige eeuw, toe...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of ethical leadership and ethical culture as a safeguard against corruption. Design/methodology/approach Using survey data from public managers in local authorities in The Netherlands, Serbia, Montenegro and the USA in a comparative study. Findings The USA and The Netherlands, generally,...

Since the late 1980s, public administration has moved to a more businesslike approach, commonly referred to as New Public Management or NPM. Output budgeting, privatization, competition and commercialization receive more attention. The question has been raised if too much identification with the style of the private sector might not generate undesi...

This study aims to explore how the use of businesslike methods in government – more commonly referred to as ‘new public management’ or NPM – affects integrity. Based on available publications, this study empirically tests the suggested influences of NPM on integrity. The theoretical assumption that the introduction of New Public Management in gove...

Over the last decades scholars have been devoting more and more attention to differences and similarities between public and private sector organizations. Relatively underrepresented, when compared to studies on organizational status and management, are comparative empirical studies on the differences and similarities between the central values of...