Jerome Lam

• Researcher at Politieacademie

In missing person cases, police often face spontaneous searches by citizens. This study examined the involvement of police and citizens in a well-known Dutch case. It shows that the relationship between police and volunteers is not static, but changes over time. Initially, citizens are more quickly organized and take charge. As the investigation pr...

Not all missing persons are treated equally. Research shows that certain types of victims are overrepresented in the media, but it is not clear whether these patterns also reflect differences in people’s propensity to help certain types of victims. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine whether the characteristics of a missing person’s...

This study explored the effects of technological support on citizen searches during missing persons cases. A qualitative experimental design was used to investigate the effects of the prototype of an app, Sarea, developed by the Dutch police to help citizens initiate and coordinate a search. Two conditions were used: intervention groups, who were g...

Citizen participation in missing persons cases: an application of the Theory of Planned Behavior in the District Criminal Investigations Teams This article examines the use of citizen participation in urgent missing person cases. The Theory of Planned Behavior was used to examine which specific considerations investigators have in this regard and w...

The value of technological support for citizens in their search for missing persons In former times, citizens themselves were responsible for ensuring and protecting their own safety. Over the years, this responsibility largely shifted to the government, partly due to the establishment of an institutionalized police force. In recent years, citizens...

De samenleving verandert voortdurend, ook door nieuwe technologieën. Dat geldt ook voor criminaliteit. Dat vraagt van de politie dat zij mee verandert. Alleen zo kan zij deze veranderingen het hoofd bieden. De politie verkent continu de betekenis en de mogelijkheden van technologie voor haar werk. Allerlei projecten en programma’s werken aan innova...

In the current research, the authors investigate the influence of intergroup status and social categorizations on retributive justice judgments, that is, the extent to which observers perceive punishment as fair. Building on social identity theory and the model of subjective group dynamics, it is predicted that when the ingroup has higher status th...