Governments as Providers of Criminal Justice Information: State-of-the-Art in the Netherlands

• NCJ Number: 168803
• Author(s): J de Waard
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 22 pages
• Sale Source: Netherlands Ministerie Van Justice
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: Netherlands
• Note: Report presented at the Fourth Meeting of the World Criminal Justice Library Network, October 19-21, 1997, Washington, D.C.

Annotation

This paper provides an overview of the various kinds of criminal justice information that is disseminated by Dutch criminal justice agencies and how this information is used.

Abstract

Four issues are discussed. First, general remarks about the demographics and government structure of the Netherlands are presented, followed by a summary of the Netherlands' crime trends. There is also a brief review of the main characteristics and policies of the Dutch criminal justice system (DCJS), including the constituent agencies of the DCJS. Second, the Dutch government's role in providing criminal justice information is described. The criminal justice information discussed encompasses national and international criminal justice research (empirical evaluation) results, statistics, political information, media information, and information from practice (street-level information). The author presents examples of the Dutch Government's effective dissemination of this kind of combined information. Third, the paper discusses the underuse of criminal justice information, especially regarding the practical application of the results of evaluation research. Suggestions are offered for remedying this situation. These include selection of the best channels to reach a target audience, the production of readable and understandable products, the use of modern information technologies, closer cooperation between researchers and practitioners, and the development of well-organized information structures. Fourth, an annex describes the most important suppliers of information in the DCJS.