Combining and Analyzing Judicial Databases - Discrimination and Privacy in the Information Society - page 186

data is not without risk. The main reason for this is that the nature of these data is
essentially different from the nature of data in exact or technical sciences.
The remainder of this chapter is organized as follows. Section 10.2 is devoted
to a brief description of the major databases in the Dutch criminal justice system.
In Section 10.3, it is described how data from these databases are currently col-
lected and combined. In this section two approaches to combining judicial data are
presented: a data warehouse approach and a dataspace approach. Section 10.4 ela-
borates upon the problems that may occur in the data integration process due to
the nature of crime data. Subsequently, in Section 10.5, potential privacy-related
risks of integrating and presenting crime data are described and methods that en-
force privacy laws and regulations are listed. Section 10.6 explains how combined
crime data may be analyzed and which risks are entailed by applying data analysis
techniques to them. Finally, Section 10.7 concludes this chapter.
10.2 Databases in the Dutch Criminal Justice System
The Dutch criminal law chain consists of various organizations, each of which op-
erates relatively autonomously and independently. This means that each organiza-
tion registers data in its own way and in its own operational system. The most
important databases of these organizations are described below.
The national database of the Dutch police is called the Identification Service
System ( Herkenningsdienstsysteem , HKS). HKS contains information about crime
reports and suspects. Additional information is provided by Statistics Netherlands
( Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (CBS), a national institute that provides statis-
tical information). CBS Police Statistics also contains information about crime
reports and suspects.
Information about judicial cases is stored in the registration system of the Pub-
lic Prosecution Service ( Openbaar Ministerie (OM); the information system is
called OM-data) and in CBS Court Statistics. Note that these databases register in-
formation on a case level, while the police databases register crime reports. As
more than one crime report may be handled in a single case, numbers obtained
from these different sources should be combined and compared with care.
Sanctions are registered by the different organizations involved in the execution
of sanctions. Among these organizations are the Custodial Institutions Agency
( Dienst Justitiële Inrichtingen , DJI), the Child Care and Protection Board ( Raad
voor de Kinderbescherming , RvdK), after-care and resettlement organizations, and
the Central Fine Collection Agency ( Centraal Justitieel Incassobureau , CJIB). All
of them have their own information system. For instance, DJI uses the Execution
of Sanctions Program ( Tenuitvoerleggingprogramma , TULP) to register the dura-
tion of detentions, while the Dutch Probation and After-care Organization ( Rec-
lassering Nederland , RN) uses a Client Follow System ( Cliënt Volg Systeem ,
CVS). A schematic overview of the databases maintained in the Dutch criminal
law chain is given in Figure 10.1.