Criminal Justice Systems in Europe: The Netherlands

The Dutch criminal justice system has, for some time, been famous for its mildness. This mildness, which has been reflected for example in a strikingly low prison rate has both impressed and shocked foreign criminal law scholars and criminal justice officials. This traditional mildness is now at stake. Crime has increased considerably and so has the prison rate. Major changes have taken place in Dutch society, and these require a new criminal justice policy. In 1985 the Minister of Justice submitted to the Parliament a new policy plan called Society and Crime, and a policy plan called Law in Motion was published in 1990. These new criminal policy plans propose a step-by-step approach in order to raise the level of criminal law enforcement and to intensify crime prevention. The statutory powers of the police to investigate organized crime will be expanded, the efficiency of the prosecution service will be improved, the capacity of prisons will be increased, and crime prevention programmes will be intensified. Whether the relative mildness of the Dutch criminal justice system will be maintained in the future or not, is a difficult question to answer. However, since the mildness is built into the system itself (as is demonstrated in this criminal justice profile) it is most probable that this mildness will be at least partly preserved in the future as well.