Dangerous children: Juvenile delinquency and judicial intervention in the Netherlands, 1960–1995

Abstract

In the continuing controversy in academic circles over the rise in reportedjuvenile violent delinquency, some scholars attribute it largely to theincrease in the actual number of offences while others emphasize changesin registration and intervention practices. This article reviews changes in theway justice workers try to control the behaviour of delinquent juveniles inthe Netherlands in the period 1960–1995. The study is based on ananalysis of files on adolescents and children placed in the Dutch juvenilejustice system by judges during the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.Comparing the older and recent files reveals that the interventions ofjuvenile justice workers became less harshly. This process has coincided witha rise in the severity of violence and crimes committed by the youngsters.As a result juvenile justice workers intervene indeed more frequently fromthe beginning of the 1980s, but still in a less punitive way. The externalconstraints in the Dutch judicial system are rather gentle and prudent, whilethe youngsters exercise more severe violence and crimes, suggesting furtherinquiry to the degree of autonomy of, and interaction between, adultsocialization among professionals and youth socialization.