Pressure on the criminal justice chain? Towards a more rational debate on workload, capacity and deployment in the criminal justice chain

• In Event: POLWG Panel 25. Workloads, Pressures and Gaps in Policing and Criminal Justice

Abstract

Budget cuts, capacity shortages and increasing demand from society are putting pressure on the criminal justice system. At least that seems to be a widely accepted point of departure when it comes to debates and deliberations in the Netherlands about the police, the Public Prosecution Service and the judiciary. In this presentation I contrast that point of departure with Dutch data relating to spending on, and the workload within, the criminal justice chain. The data, covering more than twenty years (2002-2023), show that, in contrast to widespread belief, spending is rising and the measured criminal workload is falling. The presentation includes an examination and discussion of the data, but also an exploration of possible explanations for the widening gap between spending and output.

Author

• Edwin Kruisbergen, Ministery of Justice and Security