Is serious violence among youth in the Netherlands on the increase?

• In Event: Serious youth violence in the Netherlands and judicial reactions to it

Abstract

Various news reports suggest that youth crime has become more serious in recent years, the perpetrators are becoming younger, and they are using knives and firearms more often. Is this true? In our research we address the question of how the number of juveniles convicted for serious violent crimes (attempted) serious assault, manslaughter, and murder has developed over the short and long term and how this relates to the development of general juvenile crime. We also want to find out how this development differs between groups of young people and between municipalities and what the nature is of this violence for the crime (attempted) manslaughter.

This study uses the Dutch Research and Policy Database Judicial Documentation (OBJD) on convicts. Numbers of 12 to 23-year-old convicts were examined in the years 2010 to 2022. In addition, all available verdicts of cases in which youth were convicted for (attempted) manslaughter in the years 2016 and 2021 have been examined.

The results show that in the longer term there has been a decrease in convictions for serious violence committed by young people. However, this decline is less pronounced than with other forms of crime, and in the years 2016 to 2022 an increase is even visible again, especially among minors. In addition to these results, we will answer the question of what the nature of this type of violence is for the offense of (attempted) manslaughter, and to what extent there are differences between the years 2016 and 2021 in the type of violence and its perpetrators.

Authors

• Joris Beijers, WODC

• Lise Prop, WODC

• André van der Laan, WODC (Research and Data Centre), the Netherlands