Extended Criminal Family Networks in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands, since the past five years criminal families involved in organised crime and serious antisocial behaviour have attracted considerable attention, particularly from policy makers and practitioners. To them the concept appears to be easier to grasp than ‘organised crime’ or ‘subversive crime’ as it is currently addressed in the Netherlands. In 2017, a first study conducted by Moors and Spapens revealed the importance of intergenerational transmission within such families. A follow-up study by Boer, Ceulen, Moors & Spapens published in 2020, addressed the question of how to intervene in such families, to normalise behaviour as well as intergenerational transmission. This paper will address an ongoing study which focuses on extended family networks that manifest themselves on Dutch territory, and the question whether clan-characteristics play a role in their illegal activities. This refers to different (potential) types of groups to which clan characteristics may apply: for example Southern Italian and Albanian networks, of which relatively few members reside in the Netherlands; networks of Dutch travellers of which most members have been rooted in the country since many decades; extended Roma families often with international ramifications; and for instance Turkish and Moroccan family networks who migrated to the Netherlands more recently. We also attempt to compare with communities in which clan-type characteristics exist, but who are not associated with large-scale illegal activities, such as Assyrian and Somalian family networks.