Criminology in the Netherlands

This article relates the development of criminology to developments in crime and justice and to cultural and political changes in the Netherlands. Despite a long tradition, criminology's academic position has never been stable. After a period of immense popularity in the 1970s and a near demise in the 1980s, criminology became very popular again by the end of the 1990s. As far as research attention is concerned, there are 'evergreens' such as juvenile delinquency or drugs, but we also see the near disappearance of once popular themes such as (sociological analyses of) law enforcement or penality and the emergence of new themes such as organized crime and developmental criminology. The major challenge with respect to criminology's future is how to uphold scientific standards in a 'market' that demands a mere pragmatic 'jobbing criminology'. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications, Ltd., copyright 2006.]