Jan J. Van Dijk

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

Objectives This article explores the merits of commercially-based survey data on crime through cross-validation with established crime metrics. Methods Using unpublished data from 166 countries covering the period between 2006 and 2019, the article describes the geographical distribution across global regions and trends over time of three types of...

This article takes stock of studies conducted in eight countries to estimate the prevalence of human trafficking by employing the technique of Multiple Systems Estimation on data on victims of human trafficking recorded by state and non-state institutions. It presents an overview of MSE-based prevalence estimates of human trafficking victims per 10...

In this paper I revisit some of my older publications on ‘victim labeling’ which I consider to be the main fruits of my stay at INTERVICT, the research center on victimology at Tilburg University founded by Marc Groenhuijsen. In my view those harmed by crime are in Western culture socially labelled as ‘victims’, or as passive, helpless sufferers ra...

report in Dutch on a session at the ESC Conference in Gent devoted to my inaugural lecture of 2006 at Tilburg University about victim labelling

A call to governments to invest in better statistics on the prevalence and nature of modern slavery /human trafficking

In this article the author responds to a review by Galona (2018) of the historical-theological parts of victim labelling theory as elaborated previously in this journal and elsewhere (van Dijk, 2009). According to Galona, the term ‘victima/victim’ as a special name for Jesus Christ was not coined by Reformation theologians like Calvin, as asserted...

Results of victimisation survey in Kazakhstan (n=3000)

Psychotic disorders often have been linked with violence. However, studies have shown that people with a psychotic disorder are more often victim than perpetrator of violence. The objective of this meta-analysis was to review prevalence rates for different types of victimization and to identify risk factors associated with victimization. Based on a...

Results of crime victimisation survey in five Caribbean nations

Not on the record: A multiple systems estimation of the numbers of human trafficking victims in the Netherlands in 2010–2015 by year, age, gender, and type of exploitation.

While citizen security has become an ever-increasing concern for many Caribbean countries, the magnitude of the problem has not been matched with an equally robust response in terms of research. This volume analyses new data collected in household and business victimization surveys. These surveys allow us to understand crime from a primary source -...

Crime prevention was presented by many of its propagators as an ideologically inspired reform movement. In hindsight, its institutional success in a country such as the Netherlands seems to have been short-lived because it was predicated on a perceived law and order crisis lasting two decades. The case of evidence-based crime prevention as a cost e...

In this article we will present an overview of the results of the national and international crime victims surveys regarding the distribution of victimization according to age and gender with a focus on violent crime. The results show a consistent inversed relationship between age and criminal victimization by all types of crime. Children are by fa...

Sustainable Development Indicator 16.2.2: " Number of victims of human trafficking per 100,000 population, by sex, age group and form of exploitation " (E/CN.3/2016/2/Rev.1) " If multiple systems estimation is tested in other countries and can be verified and found to be usefull, then public and policy responses to this crime might be placed on a f...

The best sources of information on property crimes are victimization surveys. Using the results of the International Crime Victims Survey (ICVS) conducted once or more in over 80 countries from all world regions, an overview is given on rates of victimization by burglary, other personal theft, vehicle-related theft, and consumer fraud, including e-...

This article seeks to make the case for the value of police using fair and considerate processes with victims of crime to enhance perceptions of the legitimacy of police and the willingness of former victims to subsequently report victimization to the police. To support this case results of older rounds of the International Crime Victims Surveys (I...

The author argues that statistics of police-recorded crimes have limited utility for cross-country analyses of crime, owing to varying legal definitions, reporting patterns and recording practices. In his view, stand-alone national victimization surveys, with their varying methodologies and questionnaires, cannot reliably be used for cross-national...

Quantitative ratings of policies of national governments are an important tool for the monitoring of compliance with international standards in many domains. In this article we present a global index of anti-human trafficking policies developed by a research consortium using the TIP country reports of the U.S. State Department (the 3P index) and an...

INTRODUCTION In modern times there was in Western countries almost no place for the victims of crime in criminal justice. The victim had become the forgotten third party of the criminal trial. Likewise criminologists exclusively focused their studies on offenders and largely ignored the role and problems of victims. The first publications on victim...

BACKGROUND TO THE INTERNATIONAL CRIME VICTIM SURVEYS Over the past three decades an increasing number of countries have undertaken “victimization surveys” among the general population about experiences of crime. These surveys provide a source of data on crime independent of crime statistics recorded by police (Maxfield, Hough, & Mayhew, 2007). They...

In the 1985 Council of Europe (CoE) Recommendation on the Position of the Victim in the Framework of Criminal Law and Procedure, one of the earliest European legal instruments on victims' rights, mechanisms that are currently known as restorative justice (RJ) were not included in the primary recommendations but listed under a secondary, tamely fram...

The International Crime Victims Survey (ICVS) has been carried out six times over the period 1989-2010. Although national and city samples are relatively small, the ICVS is a unique survey of the experience of being victimized in that it is standardized and far-reaching: it has been conducted in more than 80 countries in different regions of the wo...

Drawing on studies from major European countries and Australia, this exciting new collection from a group of internationally-renowned scholars extends the ongoing debate on falling crime rates from the perspective of criminal opportunity or routine activity theory. Considering the trends and discourse of the international crime fall, this book anal...

On the night of December 18, 2008, burglars visited the home of Paris Hilton — born into the wealthy family that founded the Hilton Hotels — in Hollywood Hills. She was not at home and reportedly left the key under the doormat. Every move of the burglars was captured by cameras, but security arrived too late to stop them. An estimated $2 million wo...

In the first part of this book, crime trends between 1990 and 2010 in several countries of Europe, including Britain and France, and Australia were examined. For this exercise two independent measures of crime were harnessed: police-recorded crimes per 100,000 inhabitants and victimization prevalence rates based on survey research among the public....

In this opening chapter, the focus is on a descriptive analysis of trends in victimization rates of a selection of mainly Western countries with a special focus on Europe. Our main sources of data are the six rounds of the International Crime Victims Survey carried out between 1989 and 2010. For some countries, the ICVS data have been checked again...

Organized crime has over the past thirty years been expanded and transformed by increased globalization. Governments are handicapped in combating transnational crime by their reliance on frameworks and tools designed for the control of domestic crime. In 2000, the members of the United Nations assembled in large numbers in the city of Palermo to si...

This book documents the magnitude of this “unjust side of globalization.” It discusses how globalization victimizes ordinary people and how recent improvements in the protection of victims of crime are compromized by the same processes. On the positive side globalization may create a new sensitivity to victimhood in far away corners. This chapter p...

Besides generating wealth, globalization makes victims, including victims of new forms of crime. In this edited book of scholarly essays, international lawyers and criminologists reflect on the legal challenges posed by these dark sides of globalization. Examples include transnational organised crime, human trafficking and corruption, cyber crimes,...

The various chapters in this book can be read as examples of the blatantly unjust sides of globalization. They testify how processes of globalization are producing increasing numbers of victims of old and new forms of transnational or international crimes. Due to increased mobility and the use of Internet, residents of one country can more easily t...

International crime and justice is an emerging field that covers international and transnational crimes that have not been the focus of mainstream criminology or criminal justice. This book examines the field from a global perspective. It provides an introduction to the nature of international and transnational crimes and the theoretical perspectiv...

In Western languages those affected by crime are universally labelled as 'victims', meaning the sacrificed ones. According to the author this practice seems to originate from the association of the plight of victims with the suffering of Jesus Christ. In his view, the victim label, although eliciting compassion for victims, assigns to them a social...

For the past two decades the growth of public policies and strategies aimed at crime prevention and community safety has constituted one of the major innovations in crime control, with significant implications for the manner in which crime and safety are governed. But how has 'the preventive turn' in crime control policies been implemented in vario...

Awards: 2008 SELLIN-GLUECK AWARD “This book is important for students who want to put domestic crime and justice issues and criminological theories in an international perspective…. It is more than likely that this book will also interest all those who are professionally or privately interested in issues of crime, corruption, terrorism, law enforce...

This study develops a causal model of the independent effect of organized crime, rule of law, and corruption on national wealth. To measure the level of organized crime a Composite Organized Crime Index (COCI) is constructed combining data on the perceived prevalence of organized crime, unsolved homicides, grand corruption, money-laundering and the...

This report presents the key results of the crime victim surveys that were carried out as part of the fifth sweep of the International Crime Victim Surveys conducted in 2004/2005. A large portion of the these data are derived from the European Survey on Crime and Safety (EU ICS), organised by a consortium lead by Gallup Europe and co-financed by th...

Organized crime and corruption are shaped by the lack of strength of the control mechanisms of the State and civil society. The results presented in the present article attest to the links between the growth of organized crime and that of corruption in the public sector in a large number of countries. The two types of complex crime reinforce each o...

In the year 2003 the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and its protocol against Trafficking in Persons will come into force and create new obligations for State Parties. Both legal instruments contain specific provisions on the rights of victims of organised crime and corruption and of trafficking in persons respective...

In order to introduce more structure to the debate it seems worthwhile to make a rough cost-benefit analysis of the probable effects of the Dutch drug policy in various areas. A multi-disciplinary analysis of this nature makes it possible to bring together the arguments put forward by the protagonists from various perspectives and to some extent ba...

The International Crime Victimisation Survey (ICVS) is the most far-reaching programme of fully standardised sample surveys looking at householders' experience of crime in different countries. The first ICVS took place in 1989, the second in 1992, and the third in 1996. Surveys have been carried out in over 50 countries since 1989, including a larg...

The author briefly describes the historical development of Dutch crime prevention policy. He then describes the responsibilities and work of the Dutch Department of Crime Prevention. The priorities for the coming years such as improvement of security levels are discussed: scrutinizing plans for new buildings or industrial estates concerning likely...