Recently, too, this theme has been the fuel for many a newspaper article and news broadcast. When a juvenile comes into contact with the criminal justice system, a judge may decide to deploy specific forms of specialized youth aid. The judge is advised by the Child Protection Council (18-) or the 3RO (18+). The purpose of using this youth assistance is to prevent the youth from falling further into criminality by treating the underlying problems.

Besides the fact that the availability of these special forms of youth care is under pressure, there are also other issues that make it complicated for the judge and involved agencies to arrive at the right choices. After all, the (further) prevention of juvenile delinquency requires the expertise of many different parties: from the district or neighborhood team member to the judge and from the youth worker to the neighborhood police officer.

This development program is an initiative to address core problems and is financially supported by the Ministry of Justice and Security. Colleagues Nadine de Kort and Teun Soederhuizen of EHdK are supervising the program.

“Last month the first working session took place. An engaged club of people was highly motivated to improve mutual cooperation in practice. We are very much looking forward to working with them!” – Nadine de Kort