Assessing a moral panic relating to crime and drugs policy in the Netherlands: Towards a testable theory

Using criteria from recent work by Goode and Ben Yehuda, this article tests the hypothesis that a moral panic relating to (youth) crime has been going on in the Netherlands since 1990. Most of the criteria are met. There is concern about the problem of crime and a consensus on solutions. There are also indications that public disquiet grew out of proportion compared to trends in crime and victimization, and that the panic erupted fairly suddenly. It is not possible to identify a clearer scapegoat than a diffuse image of “the” criminal. It is unclear what caused this panic. It seems unlikely that the panic started as a reaction to public problems, but nor is it possible to state that elites started it or that it was caused by bureaucratic processes at an intermediate level. Several methodological problems connected with the testing of the criteria are discussed. It is recommended that one criterion be added: that of misdirection of reactions to a social problem. It is also recommended that future research should be comparative, either comparing several minor local panics, or comparing panics or non-panics related to equivalent social problems. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Differences in Family Functioning of Sexually Abused vs. Nonabused Enuretics

The present study examined self-reported maternal depression, children's somatic complaints, and perception of family functioning in sexually abused and nonabused enuretics. Forty children with primary nocturnal enuresis served as subjects. Half had documented histories of sexual abuse while the other half did not report a history of victimization. Results indicated that those children with a history of sexual abuse perceived and rated their families as significantly more conflictual and rigid than their nonabused counterparts. Variables such as type of abuse (intrafamilial vs. extrafamilial) and perpetrator did not affect the outcome. However, there were no significant differences in child somatic complaints or maternal depression between the two groups. These results suggest that primary nocturnal enuresis may manifest itself differently in families of sexually abused children than nonabused children. Implications of these findings with respect to intervention are discussed.     

Copyright in the Information Society: Scenario's and Strategies

Copyright law trades off the costs of limiting access to information against the benefits of providing incentives to create information in the first place. The development of digital rights management (DRM) may disturb the balance between creation and distribution of information. What policy strategy should be followed by a national government given that effective systems of DRM may develop and given that legislation and policy-making increasingly take place at the level of the European Union? Because the quality of the protection that can be obtained by DRM is uncertain, two scenarios are developed. The scenarios require different policy reactions. Alternative policy strategies are discussed.     

Toward Understanding the Psychology of Reactions to Perceived Fairness: The Role of Affect Intensity

In social psychology it has been argued that the importance of justice cannot be overstated. In the present paper, we ask whether this indeed is the case and, more precisely, examine when fairness is an important determinant of human reactions and when it is less significant. To this end we explore what drives people's reactions to perceived fairness and argue that although social justice research has reported effects of fairness perceptions on people's affective feelings, a close examination of the literature shows that these reactions appear less frequently and less strong than one would expect. It is proposed here that this has to do with the neglect in the social psychology of justice of an important determinant of affective reactions: individuals' propensity to react strongly or mildly toward affect-related events. As hypothesized, findings of two empirical studies show that especially people high in affect intensity show strong affective reactions following the experience of outcome fairness (Study1) and procedural fairness (Study2). When affect intensity is low, however, weak or no fairness effects were found, suggesting that then fairness may not be an important issue. In the discussion it is thus argued that incorporating affect intensity into the justice literature may further insights into the psychology of reactions toward fairness.     

The limits of social research

His research interests concern international housing and urban planning. His published work includes a number of edited books, most recently: Housing Markets and Policies under Fiscal Austerity; Women, Housing, and Community; The International Handbook of Housing Policies and Practices;and, forthcoming, The Deregulation of Housing.     

The effects of unfair procedure on negative affect and protest

The present study extends earlier research on procedural unfairness by assessing subjects' reactions to a procedural change before they learn about the outcome of the changed procedure. Subjects performed a series of four tests. After three tests, the procedure to calculate the test scores was changed into a procedure that was very inaccurate or slightly inaccurate compared to what subjects had experienced until then. The very inaccurate procedure was judged as more unfair as the slightly inaccurate procedure. As predicted, the unfair procedure raised negative affect and motivated subjects to protest. Implications of the results for procedural justice theory are discussed.     

Fairness and Ethics in Social Decision Making

Social Justice Research -     

Harmonization of Environmental Regulations When Firms are Judgment Proof

In an environmental setting, we examine different forms of harmonization based on either strict liability or negligence assuming the firm is judgment proof. When there is competition in standard setting then negligence dominates strict liability if there is upward pressure on standards. This upward pressure on standards arises as jurisdictions attempt to raise negligence standards. The desire to raise standards is affected by the degree of judgment proofness.