NCJ Number
198398
Journal
Justitele vergkenningen Volume: 28 Issue: 5 Dated: 2002 Pages: 38-49
Date Published
2002
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This paper examines patterns of offending in the Netherlands by nonwestern immigrants, explanations for criminal behavior by such groups, and the challenge for Dutch criminal justice policies in attempting to counter immigrants' criminal behavior.
Abstract
The size of the nonwestern immigrant population in the Netherlands increased from 1 percent in 1970 to 9 percent in 2002. Immigrants bring with them the norms, values, and behaviors of the society from which they came. Some elements of foreign cultures may conflict with the criminal law of Dutch society, which inevitably reflects basic majority cultural values. Given this circumstance, a relatively high level of lawbreaking by nonwestern immigrants is to be expected. Incidents reported in the media suggest an overrepresentation of ethnic minorities in offending. General information about the relationship between offending and ethnic origin is difficult to obtain, because official registration is confidential due to concern about stigmatization and discrimination. From the sparse available official data, juvenile delinquency and general crime are apparently strongly related to ethnic origin. Even stronger differences were found for serious offending, such as hardcore delinquency and the murder rate. These data are consistent with Tonry's conclusions based on international data of crime and its relation to ethnicity. This paper concludes that ethnic crime and delinquency will be a long-term challenge for Dutch criminal policies. It will be insufficient to rely on easy solutions, such as depending on the evolutionary decline of criminal behavior among second-generation immigrants, blaming selective criminal justice policies, or reducing the problem to the condition of typically low socioeconomic status for immigrants. 4 figures and 7 references