NCJ Number
138946
Journal
EuroCriminology Volume: 3 Dated: (1990) Pages: 135-145
Date Published
1990
Length
11 pages
Annotation
The Dutch government proposed a comprehensive policy plan in 1985 for the maintenance of law and order in the Netherlands.
Abstract
One component of the plan announces the construction of five new prisons each with 250 cells and more stringent prosecution of petty crimes, and suggests a step towards a more repressive criminal policy. Yet the Dutch government also categorically rejects the concept that the crime problem can be dealt with effectively by means of a more repressive criminal policy alone. It has directed financial support to over 200 local crime prevention initiatives in 90 different cities. An historical perspective suggests that the current crime prevention campaign is an effort to recover the level of informal social control that previously was exercised by pillarization. Criminal policy in the Netherlands, the industrialized nation with the lowest imprisonment rate, appears to be at a crossroads. 20 footnotes