Studies showing that suspects with a migration background are punished more severely than offenders with a Dutch background receive a lot of attention from the media and politicians. Yet it remains... Show moreStudies showing that suspects with a migration background are punished more severely than offenders with a Dutch background receive a lot of attention from the media and politicians. Yet it remains unclear whether ethnicity causes sentencing disparity. This requires experimental research. In this study, we conduct an experiment in which one half of the participants judged a criminal casefile with a photo of a light-skinned suspect, and the other half a dark-skinned suspect. Data was collected in 2017 and 2021. The data from 2017 show no sentencing disparity, but the 2021-data do show that the dark-skinned offender is punished more severely. Recommendations for future research are made. Show less
During the COVID-19 lockdown courts tried urgent criminal cases by using videoconferencing technology. Communicating via a screen affects what one can see, hear or feel. This article presents the... Show moreDuring the COVID-19 lockdown courts tried urgent criminal cases by using videoconferencing technology. Communicating via a screen affects what one can see, hear or feel. This article presents the findings of three different studies on the experiences with videoconferencing during the lockdown. A survey among lawyers, a survey among detainees and a Twitter search all indicate that the defendant’s right to effective participation was undermined: connectivity problems harmed the right to attend court and confidential communication between the defendant and his lawyer was impossible.Tijdens de COVID-19-lockdown behandelden rechtbanken urgente strafzaken met behulp van videoverbindingen. Communiceren via een beeldscherm heeft invloed op wat men kan zien, horen of voelen. Dit artikel presenteert de bevindingen van drie verschillende onderzoeken naar de ervaringen met videorechtspraak tijdens de lockdown. Een survey onder advocaten, een survey onder gedetineerden en een zoekactie op Twitter wijzen er allemaal op dat het recht van de verdachte op effectieve participatie werd ondermijnd: verbindingsproblemen hebben het aanwezigheidsrecht onder druk gezet en vertrouwelijke communicatie tussen de verdachte en zijn advocaat was onmogelijk.Show less
Zittingen waarbij de verdachte via een videoverbinding door de rechter wordt gehoord hebben in het coronatijdperk een hoge vlucht genomen. Welke lessen kunnen er getrokken worden uit deze... Show moreZittingen waarbij de verdachte via een videoverbinding door de rechter wordt gehoord hebben in het coronatijdperk een hoge vlucht genomen. Welke lessen kunnen er getrokken worden uit deze ervaringen met telehoren en welke principiële bezwaren en praktische obstakels moeten overwonnen worden om het telehoren een structurele plek in de strafrechtspraktijk te geven? Dit zijn urgente vragen in het licht van de aangekondigde voorstellen om telehoren een vaste rol te geven in de strafrechtspleging. Auteurs doen verslag van empirisch onderzoek dat is verricht naar de inzet van digitale middelen ten behoeve van het horen van verdachten en de effecten daarvan op positie van verdachten in het strafproces. De bevindingen nopen tot nadere bezinning. Show less
According to Chiao in his contribution to this book, the desirability of the use of AI in sentencing should be evaluated by comparing computers to the status quo ante, rather than to an unrealistic... Show moreAccording to Chiao in his contribution to this book, the desirability of the use of AI in sentencing should be evaluated by comparing computers to the status quo ante, rather than to an unrealistic, and in any case unrealized, ideal. Although we agree that changes to the legal process such as adopting algorithmic sentencing methods can be beneficial when the change is an incremental improvement over the status quo, in order to assess whether the change is an improvement, we need to know what this “ideal” is toward which improvements are aimed. Therefore, the question whether AI is better at making sentencing decisions than human judges is approached differently in this chapter. We compare human with AI judges by evaluating the extent to which they are able to make a legitimate sentencing decision: Is legitimacy better achieved by machine than by human judges? Show less
Background: Brazilian drugs law and policy used to focus on prohibition of drug use. In 2006, inspired by theDutch harm reduction approach, Brazil adopted Law 11.343/06, a new drugs law focused at... Show moreBackground: Brazilian drugs law and policy used to focus on prohibition of drug use. In 2006, inspired by theDutch harm reduction approach, Brazil adopted Law 11.343/06, a new drugs law focused at harm reduction.Dutch harm reduction is characterized by a distinction between users and traffickers of drugs, and by a distinction between drug markets (soft drugs and hard drugs). Notwithstanding the new drugs law, some Brazilian scholars claim that Brazil still favors prohibitionism towards drug use. The current study investigates the extent to which the Dutch harm reduction approach is reflected in Brazilian law and practice.Methods: First, a documentary analysis of the Brazilian law and policy documents is performed to see whether they incorporate the distinctions between actors and markets. Second, a case law analysis of 102 judicial decisions delivered by the Rio de Janeiro courts of appeal was conducted to investigate to what extent judges refer to aspects of the harm reduction approach.Results: Findings of this study indicate that law and policy documents now indeed separate users from traffickers, but soft drugs are not separated from hard drugs. Moreover, where the distinction between users and traffickers in the Dutch law is solely based on the quantity of seized drugs, the Brazilian judge has large discretionary powers to decide whether the suspect is a user or a trafficker.Conclusion: The Brazilian legal system has partially incorporated the Dutch harm reduction approach. The law distinguishes users from traffickers, but does not prescribe criteria to make the distinction. The lack of objective criteria by Brazilian law and policy reflects in subjective and inconsistent decisions delivered by the courts, which impairs an approach of harm reduction towards drug users. Show less
The Violent Offences Compensation Fund’s decision-making practice: A qualitative study into the evaluation of requests for compensation Victims who suffer severe damages due to the act of a... Show moreThe Violent Offences Compensation Fund’s decision-making practice: A qualitative study into the evaluation of requests for compensation Victims who suffer severe damages due to the act of a violent crime can request state compensation from the Dutch Violent Offences Compensation Fund (VOCF). VOCF workers who decide on these requests use their discretionary powers to translate the VOCF’s rules and policy into concrete actions. This study investigated (1) to what extent these VOCF workers match Lipsky’s definition of street-level bureaucrats and (2) what routines and heuristics they use to deal with time and information constraints. On the basis of document analysis and interviews, we found that the decision makers of the VOCF can to a certain extent be seen as street-level bureaucrats. To make decisions timely, some of them use routines such as the ‘downstream orientation’. This means that they award requests for compensation if they think that the applicant would be able to successfully contest a rejecting decision. To deal with a lack of information, they sometimes include a review clause in the text of a rejection decision. The use of heuristics was not found among the lawyers who decide in first instance, but in case of appeal hearings heuristics such as the affect and representativeness heuristic seem to play a role in the decision-making process. Future research should investigate whether these routines and heuristics lead to disparities in outcomes. Show less
