ABSTRACT
Security is viewed as increasingly important in today’s society, with every effort being made to eliminate future dangers and risks, and the existence of risks increasingly being taken into consideration in the legal system in general and sentencing in particular. There is a growing willingness in this respect in the justice system in the Netherlands, as well as in many other European countries, while more and more instruments are now at hand to address future dangers and risks. This approach has also influenced the criminal justice system (Moerings 2003), with criminal investigations, coercion measures and the threat of penalization entering the picture at an earlier stage of human action than ever before. In the legislation on terrorism, for example, devising plans and making preparations for terrorist acts now fall under penal law. The legislative branch has introduced new sanctions focusing not so much on damage that has been done and punishing whoever did it, but rather on seeking to prevent further damage in the future. The Reoffender Institutionalization Measure, the special security measure known in Dutch as the ISD, 1 allows persistent offenders, some of whom are substance addicts, to be imprisoned for up to two years. Not because they have committed crimes warranting prison sentences of up to two years, but because the frequent thefts and burglaries they commit in order to fund their addiction make them a nuisance to society. They are expected to continue disturbing the peace in the future and, to prevent this from happening, are excluded from society for a period of time. This very specific type of incapacitation makes it impossible for an individual to commit additional offenses during the term of the sentence. Repeated Offense Assessment Scales (see below) are used to assess whether a persistent offender genuinely presents a risk. These scales have been devised as part of the Reducing Persistent Offending policy program, the Dutch response to the “what works” principles formulated in Canada and the United Kingdom and that were adopted in 2004 by the Dutch Ministry of Justice. This approach mainly pertains to persistent offenders eligible for the Reoffender Institutionalization Measure, but the scales can in fact be used for any type of offender.
