NCJ Number
181143
Date Published
1999
Length
67 pages
Annotation
This report offers an impression of violent property crime in the Netherlands, the second largest category of crime in the country after assault.
Abstract
Data were obtained on cases handled by Dutch courts in 1993. The first round yielded 79 cases of violent property crime. These cases were sorted into six categories--shoplifting followed by violence, purse snatching, personal/non-commercial robbery, violent property crime in a private home, violent property crime in a place of business, and robbery of personnel. The second round involved an analysis of the place and function of violence for each category. In addition, other aspects of violence were addressed, such as actual use of violence versus threat, seriousness of violence and victim injuries, and use of weapons and role of interaction between offender and victim in the use of violence. In the final round, cases were categorized again according to two dimensions, initiation of violence, degree to which violence was related to theft. In two-thirds of cases, violence was proactive and directly related to the actual theft. In a number of other cases, violence occurred after the offender was apprehended and appeared to be a product of the interaction between offender and victim. This violence was labeled reactive as opposed to proactive. In a small group of cases characterized as violent crime with a property component, the core of the incident was assault and the actual theft was secondary. 57 references, 2 tables, and 1 figure