Publication

Explosive Violence: Research into the Nature and Extent of Incidents with Hand Grenades in The Netherlands

The illegal use of hand grenades has generated a lot of public interest over the last few years but very little is known about the nature and extent of these incidents. This research project is trying to fill that gap.

Author: Marieke Liem, Katharina Krüsselmann
Date: 16 September 2019
Links: Explosief geweld: Een onderzoek naar aard en omvang van incidenten met handgranaten in Nederland

During the past few years, the illegal use of hand grenades has garnered ample of public attention. The news media reported on ten incidents, including an explosion at the Hotel Zaandijk in Zaandijk, a village near Amsterdam, and a grenade that was found at the supporters' home of the ADO The Hague soccer club in April 2019 alone (Muller & Van Wely, 2019); Van Dijk 2019). In most cases, the perpetrators have not been found (Vugts, 2019). Although such occasional media coverage on the subject is valuable, a void exists when it comes to scientific knowledge on the subject.

With this research project, we would like to fill this void in knowledge on explosive violence in the Netherlands. Besides a lack in registration, there has not been much scientific research done into this phenomenon from a criminological point of view (with the exception of Sturup et al., 2019) until now. By using a structured analysis of Dutch newspaper articles, the study hopes to be able to shine a light on the rudimentary patterns of the illegal use of hand grenades in the Netherlands, create an overview of a spatiotemporal connections and study to what extent these incidents are related to previous criminal offences. An extensive methodological account can be found on europeanhomicidemonitor.com.