ABSTRACT
Contrary to the United States (Jacobs and Larrauri 2012) and many other common law countries (Padfield 2011, Naylor 2011), criminal records in the Netherlands and most of continental Europe are predominantly seen as a private matter and are not made public to individuals and agencies outside the criminal justice system. Keeping criminal records private is seen as an important precondition for rehabilitating offenders (Jacobs and Larrauri 2012). Exceptions from this point of departure have always been possible, in particular in the interests of public safety. As has been extensively described and explained elsewhere, it is specifically this concept of public safety that has changed and gained much more importance in the past two decades. Reducing risk has become an important principle for structuring society (Beck 1992, Hudson 2003), while restricting the rights and freedoms of those expected to constitute a danger is seen as an effective means of achieving this aim (Garland 2001, Hudson 2003). These developments have certainly also been seen in the Netherlands (Van Swaaningen 2004, Pakes 2004, Boone and Moerings 2007). An interesting question is how these changes have affected the private nature of criminal convictions. To what extent can criminal records be disclosed to individuals and agencies outside the criminal justice system with the aim of protecting society against future crime, and what changes have been seen in recent years? In other words: to what extent can criminal records be used as an instrument of incapacitation?
