Dutch Criminal Record Screening in Light of International Children’s Rights Standards

Zand-Kurtovic, E.G. van 't; Meijer, S.; Annison, Harry; O’Loughlin, Ailbhe

doi:10.5040/9781509921003.ch-014

Cited by 8 publications

(18 citation statements)

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“…Despite the strong focus on privacy guarantees with regard to access and disclosure of criminal history information, criminal record screening policy and practice in the Netherlands have been shaped by several concerns about public protection, both from and by the government (Van 't Zand- Kurtovic, 2017). Both concerns about preserving the integrity of public offices and protecting vulnerable people have seemingly played a role in the development of the criminal record screening system currently in place.…”

Section: Public Protection From and By The Governmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As empirical research revealed that a fair share of employers perceive requesting CoCs as an administrative burden, they seem to use it in practice as a simple (checklist) due diligence tool to avoid negative repercussions, including reputational harm in case an accident occurs (Van 't Zand- Kurtovic, 2017). A striking example of this is found in cases where the employer personally supports the job applicant during their appeal against the refusal of the CoC (see Ministry of Finance, 2021).…”

Section: The Responsibilisation Of Employersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If a certificate is issued, the applicant is therefore considered ‘fit’ or ‘cleared’ for the job. If an apparent public danger is established, based on an assessment of the offence–employment nexus together with the recency and severity of the offences committed, the CoC will be refused (Van ’t Zand-Kurtovic, 2017). 4 In case of refusal, the certificate will not be issued to prevent the disclosure of criminal background information to employers.…”

Section: Balancing Risk Prevention With Privacy Protectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Privacy, promotionalism and the proliferation of state-performed criminal record screening in the Netherlands: How a restrictive legal framework can still result in a steep increase of criminal background checks

Zand-Kurtovic

Boone

2023

Criminology & Criminal Justice

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The Netherlands has endorsed a unique system regarding the management, disclosure and screening of criminal records. Disclosure to third parties is strongly restricted, yet all (potential) employees can request a government agency to provide a risk assessment − known as a Certificate of Conduct (‘VOG’ in Dutch) − for every kind of employment application to determine whether they are fit for a given job. This article explains how and why this Dutch policy approach, deemed respectful of individual privacy rights, can nonetheless go hand in hand with the promotion, proliferation and pervasiveness of criminal record screening. It challenges the often dichotomic approach of the comparative literature on criminal record policies and helps understand that privacy protection alone cannot be fully equated with the rehabilitation and re-entry in society of people with a criminal history. Although the Dutch criminal record system avoids any unnecessary publicity of criminal record data, it nonetheless triggers adverse impairments on reintegration processes through stigmatisation and exclusion resulting from the ubiquitous use of Certificates of Conduct in the labour market. This questions the promotion of the Dutch screening instrument as an exemplary model for criminal record information sharing within Europe.

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Section: Public Protection From and By The Governmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Responsibilisation Of Employersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Balancing Risk Prevention With Privacy Protectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Privacy, promotionalism and the proliferation of state-performed criminal record screening in the Netherlands: How a restrictive legal framework can still result in a steep increase of criminal background checks

Zand-Kurtovic

Boone

2023

Criminology & Criminal Justice

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“…Less well known is that requests for information on criminal convictions have also increased in other Anglosphere countries, such as the UK (Henley, 2019; Thomas and Hebenton, 2013) and Australia (Heydon and Naylor, 2018). In addition, a more recent trend towards increased employment-related requests for CBCs has been documented in West European countries such as the Netherlands (Boone, 2011; Van’t Zand-Kurtovic, 2017), Sweden (Backman, 2012) and Spain (Larrauri and Rovira, 2019).…”

Section: The Unintended Effects Of New Legislation and The Growth In ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The next Pandora’s Box of criminal background checks

Rovira

2020

European Journal of Criminology

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The use of criminal background checks (CBCs) – requests for information on previous convictions during the employment recruitment process – is growing worldwide. This article seeks to explain the proliferation in CBCs by examining whether novel legislation introducing mandatory requests for some jobs also leads to an increase in requests for CBCs for jobs outside the scope of the law. The present research makes use of survey data collected from individuals requesting criminal records certificates before and after the introduction of new CBC regulation in Spain – EU Directive 93/2011/EU – which established the obligation to request a criminal record certificate covering sexual crimes for jobs involving frequent contact with children. The analysis detects only a small and unsustained growth in non-mandatory checks following introduction of the new law. However, the results suggest that the danger of the new legislation lies in employers requesting certificates with a higher level of disclosure than is required for the positions on which checks were made mandatory by the new law. In addition, the growth in non-mandatory CBCs observed during this period seems to be related not to the new legislation but to the emergence of tech companies, raising alarm regarding the role of novel forms of policy mobility and the new collaborative economy in limiting the re-entry of individuals with criminal records to the labour market.

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“… 5. Note to this edition : There has been a couple of audit studies testing the effects of the stigma of a criminal record in Europe (Ahmed and Lång, 2017; Baert and Verhofstadt, 2015). Another interesting empirical study on this issue is van’t Zand-Kurtovic (2017). …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The stigma of a criminal record in the labour market in Spain: An experimental study

Rovira

2019

European Journal of Probation

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The aim of this research is to determine whether the stigma of a criminal record should be considered in understanding the precarious conditions of individuals with convictions in the Spanish labour market. Previous studies have been unable to separate this effect from other explanations such as low levels of education or the breakdown of networks resulting from the conviction. Following Pager (2007), this study adopts the experimental methodology of the audit tests, in which matched fictitious curricula vitae, differing only in the mention of a conviction, are sent to real job offers, to verify whether there is a difference in the number of responses to each CV. The results show that skilled former offenders are discriminated in the Spanish labour market as a result of the stigma of a criminal record.

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Dutch Criminal Record Screening in Light of International Children’s Rights Standards

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

Privacy, promotionalism and the proliferation of state-performed criminal record screening in the Netherlands: How a restrictive legal framework can still result in a steep increase of criminal background checks

Privacy, promotionalism and the proliferation of state-performed criminal record screening in the Netherlands: How a restrictive legal framework can still result in a steep increase of criminal background checks

The next Pandora’s Box of criminal background checks

The stigma of a criminal record in the labour market in Spain: An experimental study

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