Introduction

Departmental Board

• Chair: prof. K.K. Lindenberg
• Budget holder: prof. mr. dr. H.D. Wolswijk
• Member for Research: prof. M.J.F. van der Wolf
• Member for Education: dr. mr. A.A. Van Dijk
• Secretary: dr. M. Althoff
• dr. A.E. Goldberg
• N. Hedlund, LLM
• mr. dr. W. Geelhoed
• mr. S.R. Huisman
  

An important task of the Criminal Law department is to provide teaching. The first acquaintance that many students make with criminal law is the first-year course unit Criminal Law 1 . Later in the programme, students interested in criminal law encounter other course units, such as Criminal Law 2, Criminal Law 3 , Strafprocesrecht Rechtsmiddelen [Legal Remedies in Criminal Procedural Law ] , International and European Criminal Law and Sanctions Law. The department is committed to providing high-quality teaching in terms of both content and form. With regard to form, the aim is to maximize the opportunity for active study. Examples include computer-assisted instruction, the Student Moot Court in the propaedeutic and Bachelor’s phases, and the seminars offered at the end of the programme, such as the Seminaar Concluderen en casseren [Seminar in Concluding and cassation] and the Seminaar Strafrechtelijk procederen [Seminar in Criminal proceedings].

The Criminal Law department provides teaching and conducts research, the cornerstones of which are internationalization, Dutch criminal law in a European perspective, comparative law and the influence of social developments on criminal law. The department also carries out research for third parties. Completed examples include the Groningen-Tilburg project Strafvordering 2001 (Criminal Procedure) and the legal evaluation of the Economic Offences Act (both for the Ministry of Justice).

Criminology

There can be no doubt that crime and safety are prominent issues within our society. They feature high on the political agenda and are also the subject of numerous public debates. A major development in recent decades is that crime and combating crime seem to no longer be the sole preserve of the government.

The way in which crime fighting is organized has changed dramatically and many new actors have appeared who are involved in tackling crime and in the judicial chain in some way. In many areas, various public and private parties work together in an integrated approach to tackle the problem of crime. Public debate also has a growing impact on crime and safety policy. In other words, combating crime and guaranteeing safety no longer appear to be purely the responsibility of the government. Similarly, they are no longer the exclusive task of criminal law.

It is interesting to study these developments relating to crime and safety policy from a criminological perspective.