Jade Vaneerdewegh

An ordered index of every guide we have written on Criminal law in the Netherlands.

Sooner or later a Dutch employer will ask you for a VOG – a Verklaring Omtrent het Gedrag, or certificate of conduct. For someone who has always lived here that is a formality. For someone whose adult life was spent elsewhere, it is not. What can the Dutch authorities actually see? Do convictions abroad count?

On 1 July 2024 the Wet seksuele misdrijven (Sexual Offences Act) replaced the whole of Title XIV of the Dutch Criminal Code. Dutch sexual offence law is now built around consent rather than coercion, and contains offences that did not exist before. Most English-language material still describes the old law. This page sets out the

After an arrest in the Netherlands, a suspect can be held by the police for up to about six days, must see an examining magistrate within three days and eighteen hours, and can then be kept in pre-trial detention for up to 104 days before the case must come before the trial court. In practice,

For a foreign national in the Netherlands, a criminal case has two outcomes, not one: the sentence imposed by the criminal court, and what the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) does with your residence permit afterwards. The second is often the more serious, and it is decided separately, by a different authority, against different criteria.

In a Dutch financial or fraud investigation, the sentence is often not the heaviest part. The heaviest part is money. The Public Prosecution Service (Openbaar Ministerie) normally seizes assets early, and later asks the court to order payment of a sum equal to the profit said to have been made. This article explains how seizure

Violence cases are among the most common criminal matters private individuals face in the Netherlands. A fight outside a bar, an argument at home that a neighbour reports, an angry message read as a threat: each can produce a police file and a criminal record. This article explains how Dutch law treats assault (mishandeling) and

If you or a family member has been arrested in the Netherlands, the cost of a defence lawyer is usually the second question, right after “what happens next?”. The answer depends on who pays. Dutch criminal procedure has a duty lawyer scheme that reaches a detainee automatically and costs the suspect nothing, and subsidised legal

If a criminal case has been brought against you in the Netherlands, the first formal sign is usually a dagvaarding — a summons. It tells you when and where to appear and what you are accused of. This article explains what that document means, how a Dutch criminal hearing is run and what is expected

Crypto and criminal law meet in the Netherlands along four main routes: money laundering under art. 420bis to 420quater of the Dutch Criminal Code (Sr), fraud and deception committed with or through cryptocurrency, the seizure of wallets and exchange accounts under the Code of Criminal Procedure, and confiscation proceedings to recover illegally obtained gains (art.

An NVWA criminal investigation can have major consequences for businesses. The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) is known to many businesses as a regulator that carries out inspections, issues warnings and sometimes imposes an administrative fine. That image is not incorrect, but it is incomplete. The NVWA also has its own special

You need a criminal defence lawyer as soon as you are a suspect: when you are arrested, invited for questioning, searched or receive a summons or a penalty order. The main exception is an administrative traffic fine that you do not dispute. A penalty order from the Public Prosecution Service is different: it can end

In Eindhoven you report a crime (aangifte doen) online, by calling the police on 0900-8844 for an appointment, or at a police station; in an emergency you always call 112. Online reporting is only possible for less serious offences without violence, such as bicycle theft or online fraud; for violence, threats, a home burglary or

Illegal weapons possession is strictly punishable in the Netherlands. The rules are set out in the Weapons and Ammunition Act (Wet wapens en munitie). This act determines which objects qualify as weapons, when possession or carrying is prohibited, and in which cases a permit, exemption or other authorisation is required. In practice, this is not

Self-driving cars are no longer a purely future phenomenon. Vehicles with far reaching automated functions are already on Dutch roads, while experiments with vehicles without a driver present in the vehicle are legally possible under conditions through article 149aa paragraph 1 of the Road Traffic Act. This inevitably raises the question of who is criminally

At an OM hearing (OM-zitting), a public prosecutor discusses the offence you are suspected of and may then impose a penalty order (strafbeschikking) without a judge. If you disagree with that penalty order, you can object to it within 14 days, after which a court will hear the case. An OM hearing looks less formal

The Dutch police may use force, but only when the aim justifies it, when there is no lighter way to reach that aim, and when the force stays reasonable and moderate. If an officer goes beyond those limits, you can complain, claim compensation from the government and, where there is injury or death, the officer

One moment of inattention. You glance at your phone, drive through a red light and hit a cyclist. Or you have had a few drinks at a birthday party and drive home, and on the way something goes wrong. You are not a criminal. You never intended to harm anyone. Yet suddenly you are sitting

Demonstrating is a fundamental right — but not a free pass. Read what you may and may not do at a demonstration, what the police may do and what the Dutch Supreme Court ruled on this in 2025–2026.