Criminogene en beschermende factoren bij jongeren die een basisonderzoek ondergaan

This study provides an overview of the problems encountered by juveniles at the beginning of the judicial chain. The insights gained into these problems are a major step for the range of interventions on which the Ministry of Justice will focus its attention during the next few years

Wegwijs in het jeugdsanctierecht

This research aims to clarify to what extent practioners are familiar with the legislator's objectives regarding the various juvenile sanctions and to what extent the juvenile sanctions are applied accordingly. In addition, this study analyses how the legal requirements provided in the law are applied in practice. This research focuses on individual sanctions, not on combinations of sanctions

Long-term stability of the cortisol awakening response over adolescence

SummaryThe cortisol awakening response (CAR) has been widely assessed as a measure of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity. Short-term stability is high; however, little is known about the long-term stability of the CAR. Because there are indications that development in adolescence influences HPA axis activity, this study investigated the stability of the CAR over adolescence.Participants were 229 boys and 181 girls from an adolescent general population sample who were assessed in three consecutive years, at mean ages of 15.0 (SD=0.4), 16.0 (SD=0.4) and 17.0 (SD=0.4) years. Cortisol was analyzed in saliva sampled at awakening, and 30 and 60min later. Stability was investigated both as rank-order and as mean-level stability. Effects of physical development during adolescence on stability were investigated as well.Rank-order stability was moderate to low, with tracking coefficients (interpretable as stability coefficients over time) of .15 (p<.001) for cortisol at awakening and .24 (p<.001) for cortisol 30 and 60min after awakening. Mean-levels of cortisol at awakening did not change, while the response to awakening increased over the years (linear slopes for cortisol 30 and 60min after awakening all p<.01). The increase may reflect the physical development of the adolescents.This is the first study, in a large population based sample, indicating that the rank-order of the CAR is stable over the course of several years. Interestingly, mean-levels of the cortisol response to awakening increased over the years, suggesting a maturation of HPA axis reactivity in relation to physical development over adolescence. Physical development should therefore be taken into account when investigating the CAR as a measure of HPA axis activity in adolescence

Zelfcontrole en externaliserend gedrag bij kleuters

Zelfcontrole is de belangrijkste oorzaak van criminaliteit (Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1990). Zelfcontrole ontwikkelt zich al op jonge leeftijd en is vervolgens relatief stabiel (Hirschi & Gottfredson, 2000). Meerdere auteurs gaan ervan uit dat de opvoeding een belangrijke rol speelt in het leren van zelfcontrole (Demetriou, 2000; Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1990; Hirschi & Gottfredson, 2000; Kopp, 1982). Studies onder jonge kinderen hebben vaak zelfcontrole bestudeerd maar hebben dit begrip zelden gerelateerd aan criminaliteit (Tremblay, 2000), of de voorlopers van criminaliteit, zoals externaliserend gedrag (Eisenberg et al., 2001; Kochanska & Murray, 2000). Tussen de verschillende disciplines, die zich met het onderwerp zelfcontrole bezighouden, lijkt er weinig eenduidigheid te bestaan met betrekking tot de omschrijving van het begrip zelfcontrole. Ook verschillen de procedures voor het meten van zelfcontrole of aanverwante begrippen, afhankelijk van de theoretische achtergrond (Olson, 1989; Olson et al., 1999; White et al., 1994; Nigg, 2000). In het huidige onderzoek willen wij ons richten op drie benaderingen die zich bezig houden met de studie van zelfcontrole bij jonge kinderen: de temperamentbenadering, de gedragscontrole benadering en de cognitieve benadering. Het algemene doel van deze studie was bij 4-jarige jongens te onderzoeken of de ontwikkeling van zelfcontrole belangrijk is voor verschillende aspecten van externaliserend gedrag. Daarnaast is onderzocht in hoeverre de mate van zelfcontrole samenhangt met opvoedingskenmerken en het functioneren van het parasympathisch zenuwstelsel

Biologie en criminologie

More than six years after the themed issue 'Biologic factors of aggressive behaviour' (in 2000), another special issue on the relationship between biology and criminology has been published, inspired mainly by the many studies that have since been carried out into biological factors of psychopathy, aggression, antisocial behaviour and addiction. New techniques have enabled general knowledge on brain structure and function to develop quickly. Knowledge in the field of genetics and gene environment interactions (epigenetica) is also exhibiting continued growth. Index SummariesInternetsite