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Commissioned by the Research and Documentation Centre (WODC), Dialogic, together with its own team from the WODC, conducted research into the nature and extent of unregistered crime – the infamous 'dark number in crimes'.
Recorded crime has been decreasing in the Netherlands for years. The (open) question now is whether there is indeed a decrease, or if simply less crime is being registered – thus an increase in the 'dark number'. The issue is that this so-called 'dark number' largely takes place outside the sight of the Judiciary. The aim of this research is to gain more insight into the nature and extent of this dark number.
In the study, Dialogic focused specifically on cybercrime, horizontal fraud (bankruptcy fraud, online trade fraud, insurance fraud) and organised crime (cannabis cultivation, human trafficking, criminal networks). The expectation is that these phenomena form a significant portion of unregistered crime and that these topics are not covered or barely covered by conventional registration alternatives (such as victim surveys). In the research, we describe, among other things, a number of new alternative methods, which we have also concretely applied in several cases.
On 21st December 2018, Minister Grapperhaus informed the Dutch House of Representatives about the research.
Want to know more? Contact Jessica Steur.