Criminaliteitsbeleid: wat werkt?

In dit stuk beantwoorden we de vraag wat verstandig beleid met betrekking tot criminaliteitspreventie is, d.w.z. beleid dat wordt ondersteund door de meest recente wetenschappelijke inzichten. Ook voor lokale initiatieven is het essentieel om beleid met een adequaat onderzoek te begeleiden om de effecten en indien mogelijk de kosten/baten van de onderzochte maatregelen te evalueren. In dit verhaal gaan we in op enkele voorbeelden van beleid op het terrein van criminaliteit, en geven daarbij aan wat werkt en wat niet. We concluderen dat criminaliteitsbeleid niet alleen gericht moet zijn op potentiële daders, maar dat het belangrijker is om de context waarin criminaliteit wordt gepleegd in het beleid te betrekken. Allereerst wordt een aantal belangrijke feiten met betrekking tot criminaliteit uiteengezet. Daarna volgen de principes van criminaliteitsbestrijding. Vervolgens wordt uiteengezet waarom experimenteel onderzoek van groot belang is. We eindigen met een overzicht van waar de beste informatie te vinden is

Zich bekeren en wisselen van kerkgenootschap in Nederland

Conversion and switching between religious denominations in the Netherlands In this article, we examine why people in the Netherlands switch between religious denominations or become a convert. To do so, we use 21 representative surveys held between 1966 and 2003. We derive hypotheses from the integration theory, modernization theory (secularisation theory) and the supply side theory (version of rational choice theory). Becoming a convert or religious switching are rare phenomena in the Netherlands: 4.5 percent of the population switches between denominations and 2.6 percent becomes a convert. In line with secularisation theory, people who are raised nonreligious almost always stay non-religious while people who were raised in a certain denomination are more likely to leave the church or to switch denominations. Also in line with this theory is the finding that over time, less people convert to religion and more and more people leave the church of their parents. In line with the social capital hypotheses, we find that Protestants more often switch between denominations than Catholics. More specifically, orthodox Protestants switch more often than liberal Protestants. Of all factors that influence religious mobility, the denomination of the spouse is most important: people in a religiously mixed marriage switch significantly more often than people in a religiously homogeneous marriage. Switching and converting are almost all towards the denomination of the spouse.

Family policy as an institutional context of economic inequality

It is demonstrated that family policies are an important aspect of the institutional context of earnings inequality among coupled households. Although seldom integrated into prominent analyses of economic inequality, women’s earnings are consistently found to reduce relative inequality among households. This means that family policies, as well-known determinants of women’s employment and earnings, are important contextual determinants of economic inequality. Using Luxembourg Income Study data from 18 OECD countries in the period 1981–2008, this study demonstrates that women have higher earnings, and that their earnings reduce inequality among coupled households more in institutional contexts with generous paid leave and public childcare. We found no sizeable association between financial support policies, such as family allowances and tax benefits to families with children, and the degree to which women’s earnings contribute to inequality among coupled households. Family policy arrangements that facilitate women’s employment and earnings are associated with less economic inequality among coupled households

Determine the User Country of a Tweet

In the widely used message platform Twitter, about 2% of the tweets contains the geographical location through exact GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude). Knowing the location of a tweet is useful for many data analytics questions. This research is looking at the determination of a location for tweets that do not contain GPS coordinates. An accuracy of 82% was achieved using a Naive Bayes model trained on features such as the users' timezone, the user's language, and the parsed user location. The classifier performs well on active Twitter countries such as the Netherlands and United Kingdom. An analysis of errors made by the classifier shows that mistakes were made due to limited information and shared properties between countries such as shared timezone. A feature analysis was performed in order to see the effect of different features. The features timezone and parsed user location were the most informative features.Comment: CTIT Technical Report, University of Twent

Youth Policy Innovation in the Netherlands:The Realization of Centers for Youth and Families by Municipalities

In many countries “one-stop shops” have been considered an innovative mode of integrated service delivery in case of cross-cutting problems in fields such as sustainability, social exclusion, and youth policy. In this article, we explore how the Dutch national government implemented the innovative “one-stop shop” concept in municipal youth policies (Center for Youth and Family; CYF). In particular, we examine the conditions affecting the timing of the realization of these centers in Dutch municipalities between 2008 and 2012. We found considerable differences among municipalities in the timing of the realization of CYFs. In explaining these differences, we assumed motivations to be more important than obstacles and resources, because municipalities received financial compensation, and because CYFs can be considered a social policy innovation. Our findings indicate that the degree of political alignment between the municipal council and national government is an important motivation, and that increasing numbers of adopting municipalities in the same policy network and organizational capacity were important resources. Thus, opposite to what theory suggested, we found that resources were more important than motivations for the realization of CYFs. These findings challenge the decentralization thesis