Faculty-led, world-focused

Penn State faculty-led programs offer students the guidance of trusted faculty, with the freedom to explore the world. Our faculty will create the ideal itinerary for you.

The Dutch society has a long-standing tradition of tolerance, diversity, and consensus-based politics. This translates into a specific approach toward crime and justice issues that is known around the world. Examples of this approach can be seen in various fields, such as the legalization of prostitution, the legalization of soft drugs, the medical instead of criminal justice approach toward hard drugs, and the way in which issues like juvenile crime, euthanasia, and gay marriage are dealt with.

This four-week program will deal with issues of criminal justice from a Dutch perspective and will explore such issues as the history of this approach, its rationale, and the way it works out in daily practice. We will also take a look at recent changes in this approach, since events like the collapse of the Soviet Union, the globalization of the economy, and the threat of international terrorism have changed the "crime landscape" in The Netherlands.

More specifically, the program will deal with Dutch criminal law and the functioning of the Dutch criminal justice system (police, courts, prisons, etc.). Many of these issues will be covered from a comparative perspective. Comparisons will refer to the United States but also to other European countries.

The lecturers in this program will come from different backgrounds and will include academics, policy makers, and professionals in the field. The program will be hosted by Avans University, where most of the classes will be held. Another part of the program will be field trips. Trips in recent years have included visits to a World War II concentration camp, a police station, a prison, a rehab program for addicts, an international court, and the Red Light District in Amsterdam.